Hunting the Elusive

Blog move

2006-10-13T03:04:00.000+10:00

This blog is moving. The same content, the same me, but no blogger. It's becoming a WordPress blog, and is going to be hosted on my own server (kinda -- I paid for it).

The new...Hunting the Elusive

Because of the WordPress themes, the blog will look a little bit different, but altogether it should be an improvement. Bear with me while I figure out how most of these things work.

Welcome to Huntington Eugenics. Engineering for a pure future. :P

New Artist: Fururi

2006-10-12T01:54:00.000+10:00

Just checked out the other items that my source for the Maki Chitose CG CDs was selling, and found another good independent artist, by the name of Fururi.

Wow, I sure am finding a lot of new artists these days.

I was pleasantly surprised by the style of this artist, which incorporates not only the super-moe style girls, but also in other graphical aspects. Taking influence from Jigoku Shoujo, Higurashi no Naku no Koro ni (with the Japanese festival elements), as well as Touhou games, it can be seen right from the redirection page that the artist has managed to incorporate the black and traditional Japanese style.

Of course, the art is not only cute, but it can be dark as well.

Yes, that's the girl-gone-crazy look there. There are (I think) two games out by this artist (who works with CHRONOLOG, the same company/circle as Sakurazawa Itsumi). But no CG sets yet.

High Dynamic Range photography and Objectivity

2006-10-10T14:47:00.000+10:00

"A picture is worth a thousand words", so the ancient cliche goes. "A picture never lies", another short-lived cliched Photoshopped into obscurity. As tempting as it might be for photographers to say that photographs embody the truth, that is never the case. At least, photographs do not embody the truth any more than journalistic words on a page. A degree of subjectivity must remain in any photograph taken by a human. Aside from aesthetics, why the angle, why the saturation, why the colours, why the positioning of the objects, the focus, why the exposure (determining washouts and underexposed shadow areas)? Each picture indeed tells a story. If "normal" (whatever that means) photographs are closer to the truth than "artistic" (think Lomo or long-exposure or camera-toss) photographs, then HDR is even closer to the truth than "normal" photographs. Paradoxically, HDR is FURTHER from the truth than normal photographs once it has been tone-mapped. It is as if our current video display units were incapable of displaying the truth without having a filter of fiction through which we can see it.

HDR takes a few photographs of the same thing (same angle, same object, preferably without shaking hands), each of a different exposure (higher, normal, low exposures), and then takes the data from each of these exposures and melds them together in one picture, which is then said to have a high dynamic range. Details from the dark exposed in the high-exposure photo, and details from the too-bright exposed in the low-exposure photo, are put in one picture. Almost like the combination of a spectrum of truths, of the different ways of seeing things.

"HDR makes photographs flat", so my colleague on IRC said. He further explained that there can be no focus on anything if details were equal in all areas. If the sun-drenched outside were not washed out but had as much detail as the painting in the dark museum hall, or if the shadowy recesses of the cathedral was as elaborately revealed as the stained-glass windows, what is the important element we pay attention to? But then that is true of our world. Our eyes are capable of instantly dispelling shadows in dark areas and reducing light input in bright areas. We see everything in detail, even though we do have very limited tunnel vision. HDR presents the whole truth of the world to us then, without the photographer's choice in what to focus on and what not to focus on. Admittedly, it is still possible for objective choices like angle and focus/blur to affect what is seen even in a HDR photograph, but these things are true of photographs, and by extension, the human condition.

The paradox of course is that (as you can see from the previous photographs in this blog) HDR is not supported by most displays at the current time.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

The above quote is very well suited to what I am talking about. Not only is the glass of our monitors that into which we see the virtual and real-world representations darkly and dimly, the glass is also the half-silvered mirror of our selves, our subjectivity through which we see the world. The processing of HDR images is a fine example of this.

To allow current displays to 'correctly' show HDR, a process known as Tone-Mapping is utilised. The Low Dynamic Range photographs are firstly combined to result in the HDR image, and the tone-mapping is a "correction process" of sorts to "step down" the image to allow normal displays to show its spectacular result. The problem of course is that the user is allowed to play with the various levels in tone mapping. We could make it look highly artificial, super flat, realistic, game-like, etc., depending on how we tweak the settings. Here then, subjectivity must enter the Garden of Objectivity. HDR, supposedly the grail of truth, that which takes the truths from a number of exposures and combines them into one, becomes a new human-interpreted artifice.

New Artist Found

2006-10-09T21:39:00.000+10:00

http://ww2.enjoy.ne.jp/~spring./

http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/namamonanase/

http://www.tomoeda.org/

Figures in a bit more depth, paper and Megami

2006-10-09T20:19:00.000+10:00

Here we are then. I opened the figure packages and this is what will have to be assembled in some form or other, probably not too soon.

The Haruhi kit was better than I thought, fairly clean, with tabs and flash lines which should be relatively easy to deal with (if you have a dremel of course -- I ain't got one).

The second photo is a bag of the small parts which I didn't bother to delve into (for fear of losing parts), but they look pretty well-made. Comes with the guitar string/wire and the netting for Haruhi's leg -- no black airbrush for this one, though I fear it would be pretty hard to get the fishnet right.

Sasara, as an original cast job, was pretty horrible. I guess it's true "doujin" garage-kit style. People making their own moulds and casting this stuff, resulting in a lot of tabs and little thin pieces in-between which is going to take a lot of hard minute work to get out properly. Big tabs of material left in little nooks and crannies... ;_;

This ain't gonna be fun.

Ignore my crazy-pills, and I swear those packets are facial creams, not condoms.

I was a bit disappointed with Black Box vol.3. For its thin-ness, they should have made it colour. But no, it's a simple monotone collection of art from the three major artists. Of course, I am only interested in YukiUsagi, and so here is the centerfold for that artist.

Scanned in two parts and stitched automatically of course (caution, Big JPEG).

And the two "paper" of Maki Chitose (caution, Big JPEGS)

She wrote a damn ESSAY on those papers. I am gonna have to laminate them A4 pages! At first I thought the second paper was pencil drawings, but they turn out to be well-printed duplicates of pencil drawings. Oh wells.

Today, I got the Megami Nov edition, and we all know Megami is just posters and posters and posters. I wager most of the following would be available in crazy scans on 4ch, so didn't bother taking them to the scanner. A clear overview of the content can be gathered from the photos.

First of all, the big double sided poster for Haruhi.

Swimsuits and tan-lines. Hmmmm...not really my style. And the first side's style is disappointing for Ito Noizi. The face is a bit wrong.

Wide-scene Kanon poster. I know for sure this scan is out already.

Feena and her maid from the Yoake anime (again, a game to anime conversion -- not really interested).

The main characters from HAPPINESS! which IMO looks quite bad in terms of animation quality, but it has a trap. This poster of course FAILS because it doesn't have the Trap.

Not sure where this is from, and ignoring the whole Al Azif (Demonbane) dress thing, it's pretty good art. (Why is she wearing a loli costume when she is clearly not one?)

The Coincidence of 2 Shipments

2006-10-09T17:10:00.000+10:00

YA.RLY.

That's my cat. Pardon the dirty glass through which we see dimly, the most intelligent expression I've seen it summon to date.

2 shipments of merchandise came in today. The flow of random items has of course been stemmed lately due to work being cut and therefore financial shortage, but all that has happened is that I only buy things which are of utmost interest, as opposed to buying a whole lot of stuff and then forgetting I bought them and then when the shipment comes with a postage price of 110AUD (yes, really), I find it stuffed full of things I didn't know I wanted. Not that I am complaining.

And that's the overview of the things. Notice that the Haruhi resin kit (a second shipment from e2046) came in a funky Made in China lunchbox of sorts. Prevents damage I guess. It just cracks me up to think that somewhere in Hong Kong is a store room filled with these lunchboxes ready for packing resin kits into.

The two dolls, which were preordered from the same yahoo auction seller. Domo, itadaki!

Wonderfest-limited chibi versions of Rei and Asuka.

Haruhi figure (e2046 shipment) resin kit. The parts seem pretty ok, but I haven't taken them out of the packaging yet, so we don't know for certain.

Sasara Kusugawa (TH2XR) resin. I suspect customs opened the package because of the smell coming from this one :P. The dogs must have gone bonkers. Unlike Haruhi this is an original cast, but seems to have some resin tabs floating around the package. Hopefully not too damaged.

Knirps umbrella (X1 Mat Cross). Saw this on my trip to Japan, a compact folding umbrella with a nice hard case by the German company Knirps. It's so small and cute, I haven't tried opening it yet. :)

In the next update I will talk about the two "paper merchandise" I got with this shipment -- namely the BlackBox vol3 art thingy, and the Maki Chitose special paper thingomajig (which seems to come with a typewritten note from the Japanese seller, which I need to scan, OCR and translate). I might also talk about Megami Nov edition, which boasts a big Haruhi poster.

Trails of Clouds

2006-10-06T21:50:00.000+10:00

From Makoto Shinkai fanweb, a recent update of Makoto Shinkai.

On the other day, my main machine (Power Mac G5 Quad) has crashed, so I had to send it factory to repair. It was a sudden occurrence without any special warning. I have lost the stored data in 1TB built-in HDD.
Fortunately, I backuped the data the day before (I backup double), so it has totally no bad effect on film making. However, much of my personal data was lost. Though I have thought I did, the backup about it was not perfect. I have been using PC for a long time, but such a big accident was first time for me. I was dazed when I thought about the lost data I had stored through years (I don't open them so commonly though), but I tried to change my mood by thinking what had been damaged was just data, not my body. On the other hand, I felt depressed thinking about "Where did I leave signs of the life somewhere except for the stored data?" (laugh). I needed almost 2 days to collect myself and think "I forget it anyway."
How do you figure that we feel depressed by losing the hundreds of GB through own carelessness still now, although we are surrounded by such a huge storages including online ones. For me, the crush was a salutary lesson.

About the accident, I need to say sorry for the viewers of my works because I lost all e-mails I had received before September 8th of this year. I received thousands of impressions by e-mail during there few years, and I was encouraged or took hints in making from each of them. I guess some of the e-mails took much time to write. It was my bad to have lost them by inadvertence. I'm very sorry for all persons who sent me e-mail.
I'll do my best in making works out so that I'll be able to get as much impressions as in past years. The making of new work Byousoku 5 Centimeters is in crucial stages now. Don't miss it.
-Makoto Shinkai

The question he posed regarding leaving signs of life elsewhere other than online was particularly striking. Not that I spend all my time and effort online, but when I think about the data I have now, all on hand for access at any time (DVD archives), I think "What would I do if the data were lost?"

Even this blog, perhaps, with my extended outpouring of creative energies into it, is hosted on just another service which could be terminated at any time, with no known way (for me) of backing all of it up. What would happen if I were to lose all these?

It might just be a existential worry that all humans have regarding the temporality of such things, their instability and prone-ness to flux and change, but such worries do consume people. Why else would they try to do things to prolong their memories after death? They want to mean something. If no one remembers you after your death, then you are well and truly dead. That's why it kinda sucks to be just an ordinary person. After the second and third generation that proceeds from you, you are truly dead. Such is the futility of life.

But all in all, such a realisation drives us to an understanding of how one should proceed with life. At high school, we might think "we are doing this in preparation for LIFE 1.0", which is somewhere along the way -- perhaps the carefree (we think, I certainly did) life of college.

Now at college/uni, I might very well fall into the trap of thinking "this is in preparation of LIFE 2.1", which is again, along the way, when you start a career. And then when you start working, you might not be too happy with it, and so again, it is preparation for LIFE 5.3b, which is when you get a super job with crazy income and have a house and have wonderful children and have big cars, go on cruises, holidays, etc.

Too bad when you reach that stage, you are again preparing for another version of LIFE. Until you reach LIFE (x), which is death.

Here I am reminded of an anecdote:

The American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, "only a little while."
The American then asked, "Why don't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"
The Mexican replied, "I have enough fish to support my family's immediate needs."
The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"
The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, and stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life."
The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA, and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."
The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"
To which the American replied, "fifteen to twenty years."
"But what then?"
The American laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions."
"Millions . . . then what?"
The American said, "Then you would retire, move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.

This then is the philosophy I picked up particularly from GTO Live Action: at no stage of life is it a "trial" for the "real thing". You are in the Real Thing already. Any other way of thinking is simply escapism. Since you are in the Real Thing already, live! For a cause, for yourself, for the hedonistic equation of pleasure, for something! And when you are finished, die FOR something, not OF something.

That is why even as I chase my dreams and ideals, I am going to be enjoying myself at every moment I can, whether it be in academic life or at work. I am living for myself. This perhaps is the key to optimism. On the darker side of the planet, it is why I am not too good at saving up, or investment. But it is also the reason I am a dreamer, and make choices for ideals rather than practicality (not that I am not a practical person -- I am not so out of touch with the world that I would walk around making dumb choices like I was a retard).

Why should I do engineering (or any other subject I don't like), knowing full well the uni course is going to be torture? When I come out, I might be guaranteed a job, or I might be paid highly after a year or so...but then what? No one is going to quit life after that has been achieved. You are going to keep toiling on at something you might not necessarily have a passion in, even if you have the skills and are raking in money. All for the sake of what? Retirement, when you can enjoy the spoils? Futility.

Photoblog Redux, and Magicu vol 30

2006-10-03T21:56:00.000+10:00

I was looking for international flags on poles today (don't ask), and after walking 3 rounds of the city, venturing as far as Star City casino and back, I found it.

But before that, I passed Oxford St, and the quaint little Japanese bar/restaurant there "Uchi Lounge". I am pretty sure I've talked about this before. Lychee sake downstairs, crazy fusion Japanese food upstairs, open only during the evenings.

Here's my HDR photo of that place. I managed to keep my arms pretty steady today, so I got pretty good results without a tripod.

Remember full resolution copies can be requested :P

After my quest, I went to Kinokuniya's (which by the way is having a 15% sale on the 5th, 6th and 7th). Perusing the Japanese section shelves in vain, I at last asked Mr Takahashi at the counter (not his real name, I don't know his real name, so I just call him Mr Takahashi) whether Magicue v30 had come in yet (remember, that's the issue with the Aoi Nanase pencil board).

I had phoned before regarding this and had gotten a quoted arrival time of 10 October or something. To my pleasant surprise, and good fortune, he remembered that indeed Magicue had come in during a shipment today, and was still in a box by the counter, unshelved! The only copy Kino ordered in due to its niche audience (me, and I suspect one other person). And because it was listed as a Japanese book, 10% discount applied and taken, thank you very much.

Back home, scanning the board in at 600dpi yielded a chunky 95MB BMP. Compression via PNG to 16MB. Size reduction and JPEG compression to give us what we have here.

I'll see if I can get the PNG on meidokon, but don't hope for too much. This is plenty big anyway.

I seriously suggest getting Magicu 30 if you are a fan of Aoi Nanase. Not only did it come with this pencil board, but some other outstanding (for me) sections included:

- Feature on "Lovely Idol", a new anime series which looks like a Shuffle clone (possibly by the same artist, actually)

- "March of Puppy", the Magi-cu illustration gallery in this volume featuring the artist of MAKURA. An outstanding collection of art from this artist (I am not really that big a fan, but it's pretty well-done), organised like a few pages of a proper artbook, taking samples of work from many different areas.

- A collection of various minor artists' rendition of scenes from the series "Inukami" (I think?) Allows a great exploration of style. In particular, this artist seems to have almost mastered the Haruhi style. (DAMN, check out his blog! I've seen the Haruhi car everyone has seen, but this one...wow. Blacknessssssssss)

- Duel Dolls. Seems to be a swimsuit edition this time o_o

- "Heart Mark", a graphic novel section by the artist of Bottle Fairy.

- "Night Wizard", an illustrated novel section, but the art is a bit weird. Some of it is outstanding but most of it is average.

- "Dejie no Bunpo", a digital artistry short-tutorial section. This section seems to have expanded from those of a couple of issues ago -- there are now a few more artists giving out tips in this section.

- "MajiMoe", a section with 7 "cases", exploring different artists' approach to the theme of "Magical Girls". All outstanding artworks displaying each of their styles very vividly.

- "Magi-cu Petit Gallery" featuring the artist of Baldr Bullet Revellion.

- "Aquarian Age Memories": THE section not to miss if you are fan of Aoi Nanase like me. Art, art and more art. Art which we didn't bother getting because they were printed on playing cards. A subsection is the Illustration Gallery. WOW. EVEN MORE ART. Stuff I have never seen before, as well as duplicates from the Aoi Nanase artbook. Illustration art for boxes and cards and posters. Great stuff. There are a few pictures in there which are definitely scanning material -- but I ain't debinding this mag. Someone buy me a book scanner!

- "Otsukai Blade", an illustrated thingomajig by Mikeou

Overall, I must say the Magi-cu is one of the best-value-for-money "magazines" out there. Not as risque as Megami (of course at the same time lacking in the tear-out-poster department, which it makes up for by having a two-sided full-colour pencil board), but comprehensively covers a lot of great artists, and most of it in colour and at decent resolution (there is a big section at the end which is black and white, but the colour stuff is very substantial). If you looked at the links above, you'll probably find that a quick romp through this issue has discovered a few names of artists previously unknown, who actually draw pretty well. If I had the funds, I'd order the issues that I skipped from Amazon. :P

House, and Alan Wake

2006-09-30T20:28:00.000+10:00

House Season 3, episode 4, was an outstanding episode which not only featured House pretending to be a charismatic minister, but also included a parody of Casablanca, and did a very good job of developing his character.

Hope is all those parents have going for them.

No, hope is what's making him miserable. What they should do is get a cocker spaniel. The dog would look them in the eye, wag his tail when he's happy, lick their face, show them love...
Is it so wrong for them to want to have a normal child? It's normal to want to be normal.
Spoken like a true circle queen. See, skinny, socially privileged white people get to draw this neat little circle. Everyone inside the circle is 'normal'. Anyone outside the circle should be beaten, broken, and reset, so they can be brought into the circle. Failing that, they should be institutionalised, or worse, pitied.
So it's wrong to feel sorry for this little boy?
Why would you feel sorry for someone who gets to opt out of the inane courteous formalities which are utterly meaningless, insincere and therefore degrading? This kid doesn't have to pretend to be interested in your back pain or your excretions or your grandma's itchy place. Imagine how liberating it would be to live a life free of all that mind numbing social niceties. I don't pity this kid -- I envy him.

Oooooh block quotes.

Other than that, check out this Alan Wake video. It's a game which is physics heavy and would probably induce me to upgrade to a Core Duo. :P

From the producers of Max Payne and Max Payne 2 (which remain in my mind, the most atmospheric games to hit the market, with the exception of FEAR and Condemned), this is a horror/action genre in which the writer Alan Wake goes and escapes the city life, only to find his nightmares and writings coming to life at this town.

New Blog Design: icie's Paper Cutout Theme - oil pastel style

2006-09-30T17:19:00.000+10:00

Yes, I grew out of my "glossy" stage. Upwards and onward I say! Upwards and onward!

This new theme is based heavily on the Mr Brown theme provided by googleit, with only slight modifications. Heck, I only replaced the banner and edited the template to suit that change. That is because I saw no other problems with this template. The yellow/orange words against black/grey fits well with my new banner, and having a standard black against white background for posts is good for reading.

I dub this theme/banner combination "icie's Paper Cutout Theme - oil pastel style".

Of course, the most special part about this redesign is the banner (the only element I spent most time on). With the exception of the font used ( "Beyond Wonderland" ), everything in the banner is original (see last post for more of the philosophy on this). It was of course inspired. Predominantly, the KOI-YAMI site (for the flower/Japanese style), template-like designs in YEN magazine (a woman's magazine which I was researching for uni), and the new TDK "Wa" MiniDisc designs (ignore the first 4 discs).

(Pic credit)

Originally I was thinking of just reproducing the effect on the last minidisc (the moon and yellow theme), but one day as I was walking back to my house I saw the perfect branch of flowers extending out, contrasted against the darkening sky. I immediately took a photo of that, the branch black against the blue sky. So that has now been incorporated into the banner, and the other line (using marker stroke in Adobe Illustrator) signifies the wind or something. The wind bell (fuurin) is the one I got last year. I took it, put it against a background which allowed better contrast, then photographed it. Played around with contrast and threshholds until I had it black against a white background.

The technique for producing this banner is quite simple. The effect is similar to what I used to do as a kid, which was to get normal crayon or colour pencil and colour a piece of paper with many colours, then using a soft black oil pastel crayon, to cover all of that with a layer of black, before using a paperclip or similar instrument to scrape out the desired pattern. The black layer of oil pastel gets scraped off, revealing bright colours against the black. Digitally, we are doing the equivalent.

Before starting, tweak your photographs and other stuff to create the cutouts. These need to be clearly demarcated black and white images.

In Photoshop, have a layer with your gradient as the bottom layer. Over this, have a pure black layer. Make these layers non-visible for now, by clicking the eye icon on the layers.

Take your b&w cutouts, and paste them as a new layer on top of everything else. In this layer, Select -> Colour Range, and select only the black. When this is selected, the black cutout shapes/lines should be selected.

In your layers selection, click the eye on the black layer to make it visible, then make sure you select the black layer. Click back to your main workspace (without affecting the selection), and simply hit delete.

Make your pasted cutout layer invisible, and make your gradient background visible, and you should see the effect.

Remember, if at anytime you don't like the gradient, you can simply change the bottom layer. In my banner, the wind bell has a separate gradient on its own, a patch placed just for it.

If you have problems with aliasing causing jagged edges (a big problem I had with illustrator to photoshop import of the line), a simple way to overcome this is to work with an image 300% the final size you want. That way, you get smoother edges when pasting in the vector.

The 1.2MB rar'd photoshop file is available for download.

Aesthetics: The Online and the Real

2006-09-28T05:03:00.000+10:00

The digital camera, the microphone, the scanner, anime

...against...

The mp3 player, the loudspeaker, Akihabara, the printer

...moderated by...

The TV screen, the PC's keyboard and mouse, the monitor

I subscribe to the design aesthetic advocated by Artemy Lebedev in article 61: How to get instantly creative: a concise guide. In design, in consumption and in releasing, I propell things from the real into the online -- digitisation. Yet, at the same time, my observations of culture have led me to see that information and ideas from the online do get filtered out into the real. This post will therefore examine the border between the online and the real, whilst acknowledging that they are both parts of each other, although the online seems to rely on the real quite a bit more than the real on the online.

The web designer's job is not to endlessly recreate things from information already on the Internet. It is boring, mind-killing, and copyright is a bitch to deal with. So if you are looking for a picture, make it yourself. Looking for a texture? Find the equivalent in real life and scan it in or take a photo of it. Looking for a sound? Go make it and record it.

Similarly, people take CDs or DVDs in real life and rip them and distribute them online. They scan artbooks and pictures for distribution online.

Anime takes things from real life, drastically transforms it, then broadcasts it. Raw capturers take this digital signal and broadcasts it to the rest of the net. Where exactly the boundary between the Real and the Online is, is anyone's guess.

Yet the loudspeaker allows sounds you have found digitally to be broadcasted into the world. Akihabara is where the online (or unreal) becomes the real. Where maids take on human form, where characters become moving and talking (or at least become 3-dimensional in the form of figures). Cosplay is another area where the Online invades the Real.

Both processes -- bringing elements of the Real into the Online, and taking stuff from the Online and putting it into the Real -- are moderated by the artifacts which pretty much act as gates. They are both part of the real, and part of the Online. The TV screen is in real life, but through it, the Online can be access. Similarly, the computer screen. The mouse and keyboard is in real life, but through their manipulation in real life, Online interactions can occur.

Of course, there are some people who do specialise in taking the online and bringing it into the real. But the most dominant mode for me (and I suspect, a lot of people) is the transfer of the Real into the Online through digitisation, converting real elements into bits and bytes understood by the Online. It is precisely through such a human-driven interaction between the Online and the Real that we can counter the tendency of the Internet to fall into entropy and become a stagnant pool of recycled ideas.

My Productive Day: Photoblog Part II

2006-09-26T03:23:00.000+10:00

After the must-take photo of Kinokuniya at pretty much the Sydney version of the "Ginza Crossing"...

I went seeking Maruyu. My favourite place to buy Japanese food. They have good prices and nice exclusive Japanese items. The stairs going up lead to Benriya which used to be a second hand shop but now sells Japanese cosmetics and such goods.

Nearly opposite Maruyu I noticed a Japanese restaurant "Sakuratei". The minimalist presentation of its sign immediately attracted my attention and I took a few photos as a reminder that this should be the next restaurant to review.

Because buses were rushing along this road, I could not give the camera enough time to engage in auto-focus. As a result the sign is a bit washed out.

A shot of the interior: looks nice and traditional and warm!

A quick passing-by shot of Asuka restaurant, which I reviewed in one of the earlier posts.

Towards Darling Harbour, I noticed the sunset peeking through the Grand Mercure building. Because I was taking a shot toward the source of light, the camera's automatic functions had trouble calculating the proper exposure to use. The sky is washed out.

Wonderful, with the sunllight streaming through the gap in the building.

Walking alone the winding walkway toward King St. Wharf, I did a typical office-building shot, with the buildings in salute to the setting sun.

Lime Street, paralleling the waterfront of King St. Wharf, is still developing. It is lined with restaurants and various funky shops, and is fairly quiet. I expect this to change however, because Wild Life Park just opened at the end of the street. For screaming kiddies to fill this haven of solitude...I can't bear it...

View of the waterside from Lime Street: a lighthouse I never noticed before, framed by two trees.

Hondarake, the second-hand Japanese bookstore from which one might dig some good gems. However, they ripped me off when I tried to sell them my old magazines...so only go there to buy stuff, not sell.

The promenade of King Street Wharf: on the one side, water and ferry boats, and on the other, bars and restaurants galore. Gets rather crowded toward the evening.

A typical high-end kinda bar with multiple levels and warm lights. I feel like going in there and going to sleep, even though I don't drink.

Of course, this post wouldn't be complete without the redux of the HDR. So here it is.

Amazingly, the second picture looks like the building is on fire (at least from the thumbnail). I won't bother uploading the original exposures for bandwidth reasons, but the colours are crazy here. Wheee psychedelic shiny!

A Productive Day

2006-09-26T01:09:00.000+10:00

Every once in a while, I do go out and today was one of my most productive days ever. I walked around a lot and saw a lot of things. As I was testing out my Sony DSC-F717, I took a lot of photographs. Here then is my PHOTOBLOG post (most photos were resized for web -- tell me if you want to see the original resolutions).

First of all, I went to Wynyard Station via train, and then got off and walked to Town Hall. Along the way, I snapped pictures of road signs for use in my assignment. The 10x optical zoom helped especially as I was on the other side of the road for most of the signs that I wanted to take pictures of. Despite my shakey hands, using the automatic mode ended up giving some quite sharp pictures.

I then went along to Kinko's (a print shop) to get my Aoi Nanase mini-poster laminated. They did it for half the price quoted by the other shop, plus they let me have matte lamination at no extra cost (the other shop wanted to add 4 dollars to the cost). You can see how it now takes pride of place on the apex of my Aoi Nanase trinity. The green poster was also laminated, but not by Kinko's -- I had a specialist framing art shop do it for me.

It is well worth having posters you like laminated, because it stops them from fading, lengthens their life, and also on wet days you won't have them soaking up the moisture from the air and getting wrinkled on the wall (that happened to all the other magazine posters that were up there -- thus the blu-tac scars on the wall).

I then walked along a side road towards the University, and I encountered a scene I had always wanted to photograph. A house with a modern facade, in a quiet neighbourhood. I just had to take a picture.

Luckily, my journey along that lonely neighbourhood (interrupted by the unmistakable chimes of the ice-cream truck) brought me where I wanted to go -- Seymour Theatre complex. This building with an almost full-glass facade, was my intended target practice for HDR photography. With this new camera being able to do 1EV+/- 3-step exposure bracketing automatically, I got to work. Shakey hands (you will notice from the photos multiple ghost lines) notwithstanding the results were quite impressive.

And last in this series, the technology center which backs into the Seymour complex, with its combination of metal and glass.

As you can see, the sky was unbelievably clear today, but there were still clouds. They were however, positioned in such a way that they did not make it into the photographs' backgrounds, but were instead reflected on the glass facades, giving an almost surreal feel to it all.

When I reached the University, I was walking around when I noticed:

Whoa. A bloody Japanese festival, and I nearly missed it! I only saw this by chance. What happened to all the publicity and stuff? No one saw this coming. So I went up to McLaurin Hall, to see multiple areas set up for different activities, but a woeful shortage of people actually there to participate.

Origami display:

Paper dolls:

Dolls:

Cheapo Ikebana (Flower arrangement):

Tea Ceremony!

There were other things like the Japanese multi-stringed harp and gold leafing, but those were a bit awkward to take photos of. I took part in the tea ceremony and learnt a few more tips on what NOT to do during one -- don't let your toothpick stick up on your sweet, and don't reverse the hands when handling the bowl (left hand supporting the underside of the bowl, right hand to wrap around it and rotate it).

The tea ceremony was not genuine in that we did not induce leg cramps by kneeling on the floor -- instead most of the time we were sitting on chairs in front of the master performing the ceremony.

Skip the boring university work stuff, and at last free from the shackles of uni, I go back to Kinkos and pick up my laminated poster, and proceed via bus to Town Hall. Along the way, I drop by a new cake/drink shop which had opened near Town Hall. As the queue was of exceeding length and filled with FOB's, I merely took a few photos and went on my merry way.

A scan of their leaflet/menu:

The special seems to be pretty good, no wonder all the cheapo Asians are crowding the sidewalks. {Insert a Yoshinoya-like rant here} But we'll see how it goes when the opening fuss has died down.

OMFG ITS MY REFLECTION!!!

Next up: Revisiting the old places, and a few more HDR's!

More Sasara Kusugawa + Flow

2006-09-24T03:59:00.000+10:00

From Jekyll and Hyde, who did the original of my favourite picture of Sasara. She's back in the same style! Yay.

Thanks to Void from IRC for finding this game: FLOW, which will take up a lot of your time.

Designed by Jenova Chen, it aims to explore what creates "fun". The answer is "flow", which is the zone between anxiety and boredom. We learn this in PE, that we are at peak performance when we are neither too relaxed nor too anxious. It is possible to have "flow" playing normal games, but that depends a lot on the "ability" factor -- the game stays the same (i.e.: "challange" is the static factor), but the people playing it change according to their day-to-day existence. I have days when I suck terribly at FEAR Combat, and other days when I am positively owning the arena. This is the same for sports and other games. If it is a good day, my ability counterbalances the challenge perfectly and you get a good sense of enjoyment and achievement (as well as ranking) out of it.

With this game FLOW, the aim is to make the GAME generate "flow". That is, by its nature, it is universally appealing, simple to use, allows control, fairly easy, but not too easy, etc. With its minimalist nature (helped along by the sounds of the game) and inbuilt logic, this game is fairly addictive and has taken around an hour of my time away from me.

On the other hand, an earlier game of the same concept "Cloud", is a more unpolished implementation of the idea. Weighing in at 38.5MB, and using a full-screen interface, the controls are too hard to manage (particularly in terms of perspective), and many of them are counterintuitive. Also it is buggy in that if you alt-tab out of it, or accidentally brush your Windows button, the mouse stops working in the game.

"FLOW" has I think, 3 distinct 'levels' -- serpentine form, 'jellyfish' form, and manta form, in corresponding difficulty. To disintegrate other organisms, simply identify and 'eat' their key cells. These other organisms in turn will try to eat yours, so navigate properly and smartly. It is of course entirely possible to just skip any level with organisms which are too hard -- simply find and consume the red level-switcher. But you must at least disintegrate one boss (at the end) to gain access to higher evolutions. Left click to make the creature move faster.

The shapes and stuff in "FLOW" remind me greatly of Mushi from the anime Mushishi, or of micro-organisms under the microscope, or even of the translucent floaters which float before your eyes (I read somewhere that these are in fact dead and detached segments of blood vessels trapped in the fluid of your eye).

Photos, Taka Tony and Other scans

2006-09-21T23:43:00.000+10:00

Here are two photos of my surroundings I took using my recently acquired Sony "prosumer" camera (it's an old one, but does a nice job).

Wall of Shitajiki:

Table and scanner setup. My table isn't that messy -- I just spread out the other pages from the magazine today on there. Yeah, I debound it with a hairdryer.

You can see my scanner, and the "dark backing sheet" which is a CAT scan film. Beside my cup is my logitech game controller used exclusively for Phantasmagoria of Flower View.

And here are some of the rest from the magazine.

The colour Aoi Nanase manga page: 7.95MB PNG

The pantsu shot foxgirl (other side of the fold poster): 11.4MB PNG

The edited Tony Taka original illustration (had to take out the text which was slathered all over it): 991KB PNG (smaller resolution to conceal edits but still rather big)

Aoi Nanase Work

2006-09-21T18:42:00.000+10:00

It seems that Aoi Nanase has come up with a new manga being serialised in the E2 magazine. Maybe it's not really new. But here's the scan. Beware: if you click it, it is 14MB PNG (4020 x 5333).

Source: E2 (Etsu) manga/illustration magazine foldup poster.

Yes, if you checked out the links, there is a Tony Taka illustration as well. Have scanned, but need to play around with it a bit.

Standard scanning procedure:

1) Scan both ends of the poster (too big to scan in one go) in CanoScan D646U ex scanner 400 dpi scan without filters. Use a black card behind the poster to prevent "seep-through".

2) In Photoshop filter with Neat Image noise reduction.

3) Smart blur.

4) Save as BMP

5) In Panavue ImageAssembler, open the BMP's and allow it to automatically stitch.

6) Save result as BMP

7) In Photoshop, open up the BMP and take out the foldline of the poster using smudge.

8) Save.

9) In IrfanView, open the BMP then save it with the PNGOUT plugin using multiple passes. Wait. Finished.

Comparison of file sizes:

Scans (after filtering) 52.2MB, 52.3MB.

Stitched 62.1MB

Enhanced: 81.7MB

PNG: 14.0MB

The Internet as a Country?

2006-09-19T17:28:00.000+10:00

The question is posed of course, by many people. Is the Internet a country? Third-wave thinkers of the Internet have identified two clear impacts on relationships that the Internet has manifested.

Firstly, there has been a thickening of social contacts. Pre-existing relationships between friends, family, etc are 'thickened' as in more time is spent on an intimate (albeit virtual) basis. The medium of the Internet however has freed most of the hierarchical bonds in these relationships.

Secondly, there has been the emergence of more fluid social networks with so-called 'limited purpose, loose relationships'. These are weak ties as opposed to the strong ties between family and friends, but they are still meaningful. When I participate in a forum, I am making a lot of weak ties. MySpace whores have heaps of weak ties. They are basically information-based dynamic ties. e.g.: People helping each other code HTML, people torrenting stuff, people sharing funky links and files, etc.

It is precisely this second impact which must be considered in the question of the Internet as a country. After all, tempuspatium has been compressed by this medium, and many people, regardless of their country of origin, have come forth to participate.

That is not to say that the Internet is a country proper. Certainly, just because there is no unifying leader, does not mean that this is a utopia. Like most countries today, the Internet is divided into almost infinite layers of communities, many of which barely touch each other. They might share various members, some might actively go out to attack other communities (4chan /b/ attacks for example), etc, but collaboration and communication is almost non-existent (except for fansubs groups who do joint projects out of necessity).

Regardless, if we were to press on with the model of the Internet as a country, what is the currency it uses? The answer is of course 'Information'. Information on how to do things, where to find things, how good some things are, how crap other things are, etc.

This is interesting because another community closely tied to information as a currency of trade is the Otaku in Japan. According to Takashi Murakami in his "Little Boy" book (a great read), the Otaku "king" or leader of the group is the one with the most information about the group's subject of interest. Status within the group is governed by how much each person knows about the topic.

Where anime is concerned, we might look at what new merchandise is coming out when, what new anime is coming out when, seiyuu of anime, small details like staff who worked on certain anime, etc. The faster your information, and the more comprehensive and accurate it is, the more "value" you have. This is true even on the Internet and in the various communities.

It is therefore interesting to see Western theorising of the Internet coinciding with the Japanese theorising of the Otaku. This says much for the validity of such a theory. Theories which work in certain developed countries in the West, but which do not work in other countries such as Japan are limited theories. But theories which can be applied to countries Japan and in which it makes sense, are stronger in the sense that they are more universal.

Personal Reminder

2006-09-18T03:15:00.000+10:00

http://70.87.114.98/~icie/

Espresso... Plus?

2006-09-14T20:15:00.000+10:00

Did Maki Chitose release another art book in 2002? She definitely seems to have made art for it, but was it actually released?

In a CD which came with the Maki Chitose collections, a little yellow CDR which I had at first dismissed as just a backup copy of one of them, I found that the seller had kindly compiled the content from the Maki Chitose site and blog. Of course it is not as up-to-date as my current pictures archives for Momoyuki, but it contained some stuff which has since been pulled from the web. I am especially happy to find evidence of the vapourware doujin manga she is supposed to be working on.

KOI-YAMI:

Wow. KOI-YAMI (especially the last picture) looks really nice. I hope she releases some new stuff soon.

Asuka Japanese Restaurant

2006-09-14T00:38:00.000+10:00

It was perhaps halfway through the ramen before I noticed most of the wall decorations were beer paraphernalia. Japanese beer, to be exact. An unlit neon sign for beer hung over the counter. Over the bar/fridge area a collage of Japanese beer/sake was framed. On the walls at intervals would be a poster with a model with the ubiquitous super big bottle of Japanese beer. "Ganbatte!" says one of them in flowing script, to the salarymen who would no doubt be looking at the kimono-clad girl over steamed glasses. Ganbatte indeed, if you are being forced to drink at a company 'party'.

(My phone camera sucks)

Curious that it should remind me of salarymen, because the Asuka Japanese Restaurant is located in close proximity to an office tower, and the first time I went there it was packed with Australian salarymen/women. I mentally marked the location, then went off to Umaimon for a curry on rice.

Today, a weary me made my way at 6:00pm back to the Asuka Restaurant and aside from another girl there, I was their only client. The staff seemed capable of speaking Japanese, but possibly due to their location and usual clientele they seemed more comfortable speaking English. So my dialogue was a combination of English and Japanese.

When entering, take a seat by yourself, and they will bring the menu. Don't stand around waiting to be seated or they will get scared.

Their menu is pretty sparse. Maybe not as small a selection as Umaimon has, but less than Ramen ken and Ichiban Boshi definitely. Many of their items were sold out, so I just ordered Takoyaki (which amusingly they termed "Small Japanese pancakes. With a little octopus"), Miso Ramen, and a dessert of green tea ice cream, mochi and red bean. Prices were on the upper end of average, possibly matching that of Ichiban Boshi.

(The only way I could justify spending that much money is that I didn't eat all day, and this was basically lunch and dinner together.)

Unfortunately, the Ramen was a pretty small serving, so even from the main, the value is suffering. Umaimon might have given a larger portion, and Ichiban Boshi definitely trumps this one. The soup was typically salty, and they only gave two medium sized pieces of pork. Garnishing was bean sprout and leeks and some seaweed, so unfortunately no red colour. Otherwise, it tasted pretty ok, if average. I was shocked to find garlic in the soup, but they seemed to have cooked it so that the taste did not overpower.

The takoyaki was perhaps one of the disappointments. Takoyaki in Japanese restaurants for Australia is perhaps THE gauge on how much attention they put to the food. Temperature, crispiness, dressing, etc., are hard to get right.

First thing about the takoyaki here is their pale colour when compared to past experiences. They seemed positively sagging and the label "small pancakes" would probably fit in well. Texture wise, the inside was alright, but the outside was not crispy at all. In terms of temperature, it was not piping hot, but was still at an acceptable level. The dressing was woefully short of bonito flakes (which in most if not all takoyaki dishes previously tasted, would have been heaped on, such that they would curl and flutter in the hot air flowing from the takoyaki), and they seem to have used the wrong type of yakisoba sauce -- for some reason it strongly reminded me of the yakisoba noodle dressing I use. For $7.50, it was woefully inept.

The dessert was perhaps the most enjoyable part of the meal. On a plate, it came with the three components divided -- a pile of koshian (not the smooth variety), one scoop of green tea ice cream, and one mochi -- hot and steaming, sprinkled liberally with peanut powder.

A complete spectrum of temperature and colour. Red, green, white and brown. Cold, room temperature, and hot. Almost like a wagashi selection. The variety however was unified by the texture of the components. The koshian seems to have had a bit of gelatin in it, such that it stuck together. The ice cream was chilled nicely and seemed to have been mixed in such a way that as the spoon got to the middle part it became sticker. And the mochi was...well, how the mochi is. Sticky and impossible to cut apart with a spoon. It was enjoyable to experience three key tenets of Japanese dessert on the same plate.

Besides the beer posters and such mentioned before, the restaurant followed Japanese tradition in having their menu written vertically on strips with the prices in kanji. Music played from a computer at the counter a selection of pop songs and jpop (mostly male singers), so that also provided good vibes. The lighting was ambient, coming from the big globes hanging overhead. The ceiling itself is nothing to write home about, with the pipes and some wires clearly visible. Clearly because this place is larger, it is less cluttered, and the decor does give it a sense of authenticity.

(Interesting kanji for a name, literally meaning 'flying bird')

I had heard about this restaurant with recommendations before, and unfortunately, the quality to price ratio was too low for me to pass those recommendations on. Maybe it was because it was their 'off-time'. Hopefully they do better with other dishes than what they did with the takoyaki (which, for what it is, is drastically overpriced compared to much better offerings at establishments like Ramen ken). Their dessert was a big point, as is the atmosphere. It seems to be a restaurant which would highly appeal to those who appreciate a wide selection of Japanese alcohol, although I am not a drinker myself.

Exposure Bracketing and HDR

2006-09-10T00:20:00.000+10:00

My sister asked me about HDR, and I am not exactly sure what it is anyway (something to do with bit depth). It seems some people have been able to generate pictures which look like 3D games using the technology.

Well, all I have been able to do is to use Exposure Bracketing (manual) to help out with colours and such. Exposure bracketing means adjusting your exposure and shooting multiple pictures with different exposures, then using HDR on CS2 (Photoshop) to merge them together. Maybe HDR and Exposure Bracketing really give its best effects if shooting landscape in natural lighting?

It all looks pretty damn normal to me.

BTW, this compressor I got for around 80AUD, and it's a big big monster of a red truck.

Edit:

Using Photomatix and 5 exposures (too bad the camera doesn't have a larger range of exposure options), this is what I have come out with.

Exposure: Neutral value (0)

HDR processing of 5 exposures, plus tone mapping.

Playing around with tone mapping can really change the look of the photo -- this gets into the extremely subjective range of it all. Notice the stuff outside the window and the reflections have become quite a bit clearer (even at the resize resolution it is still noticeable). For the most part it looks like I have upped the contrast, but there are other effects which could not be achieved with just normal photoshopping capabilities.

Will be looking to experiment more outdoors (when it is not raining anymore).

Note: Photoshopping from-above photos to look like models. This technique was actually used in the Akihabara feature in Kateigaho International (current edition) to make the people look like figures in a model world. Apparently this is not a hard effect to make, although pro's use proper lenses and such to do it.

Soft on Logic in "Soft Power"

2006-09-09T17:53:00.000+10:00

CNN Article: Japan's "Soft Power"

There are a few problems with this article. First of all, it counter-balances Japan's 'lack of reach' or lack of participation in the global security scene with the culture of anime/hobbies. These two arenas are so disconnected that such a link is ineffective. You won't see greenies and politicians going soft on Japan's whaling policies just because 'their anime is good', and your average anime obsessed fan isn't going to have a whole lot of influence on the political treatment of the Japanese position.

Secondly, it underestimates the power of the Internet and of online fandom to propagate itself. This leads to the illusion that Japan is actually actively exporting its culture to the world, when in fact, "Western" companies and fans are the ones actively IMPORTING the culture. Japan is not cramming anime down our collective throats. In fact, the Japanese companies usually produce anime and merchandise to cater to the local market. For the most part they aren't mass producing figures, putting them into big crate containers and shipping them to America. Fans who want such merchandise need to go through proxy systems and stores, as well as finding the few Japanese online stores who would export these goods, often at prohibitive shipping prices.

Companies in America are licensing anime and re-releasing it. Japanese companies may assist in this process, but the driving force of the cultural capillary action is on the part of elements in the "West". Importantly, fans are downloading anime, often overcoming various difficulties and boundaries to do so. With our current system of fansubs and bittorrent and raw-providers, etc, it does not seem that much of a border exists between Japanese anime and us, the consuming fans, but that is because fans over the years have evolved this system of easy consumption.

The second paragraph is also problematic:

"For a taste of Japan's soft power, look no further than "Gedo Senki" (Tales from Earthsea), the blockbuster animated movie that has just knocked "Superman Returns" from the No. 1 spot in the Tokyo box office stakes."

As if Gedo Senki were a threat to Western culture (epitomised by Superman franchise)! It's Japan's box office. It almost seems like the writer is trying to say that western cultural imports should have the first rank in Japanese cinemas. The paragraph totally misses the point of the article. If soft power were being used as international leverage, what does a Japanese animation upstaging a Hollywood film in the JAPANESE box office have to do with that? Japanese people preferring Japanese animation to Hollywood cookie-cutter films? NO! Say it ain't so!

It is true that in terms of the military, Japan is in a bad position. But the criticisms of Japan's lack of participation in "international security" is unjustified. Who had the most influence on the 1946 anti-war constitution ruling out offensive military capability, causing the current Japanese dilemma? Exactly. And why is military participation in the Afghan and Iraqi war considered actions which illustrate international responsibility?

Three Sabers

2006-09-08T00:55:00.000+10:00

Three Chibi Sabers

New Literature

2006-09-05T19:19:00.000+10:00

Today I went to Kinokuniya Sydney and bought two books. When I returned home, a magazine was waiting for me in the mailbox.

Firstly, I got "Fantastic!" illustration book by Tooko Miyagi. It was a bit disappointing despite the appealing cover. It seems that part of the illustrator's style is to use pencil-line type drawings with pastel/pale colouring -- a far cry from what I usually prefer which is rich and vibrant colours. The character designs are acceptable but seem quite normal.

With four colour sections "Fantasy of Tarot", "Fantasy of Wing", "Fantasy of Game", "Fantasy of West Wind", as well as a final "Fantasy of Monochrome", there ARE some quite outstanding illustrations in there, and one of the most notable things about this artist is the more-detailed-than-average texture, be it of clothes (usually) or the environment the characters reside within.

Although I do have some problems with spending 35 dollars on it, the few outstanding illustrations may prove to be worthy of my money.

Secondly, the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Official Fan Book. This book was basically a must-buy as soon as I saw it on the shelf. It is generally divided into two parts Part 1 and Part 2, as according to the anime TV series. Part 1 is episode 1 to 7, whilst Part 2 is episodes 8 to 14. Each section is roughly subdivided as well.

We start with colour illustrations of Noizi Ito goodness, then move to a character design section (for Part 1 only, since you only ever need one set of character designs), and then episode guides for the episodes in the section (in full colour with screenies, as seen on TV screening ordering of episodes, with a little graph on the side looking at which end of the spectrum Haruhi was for that episode -- tsun, or dere). After the episode guides, there is a feature on the seiyuu, so you get interview transcripts with the voice actresses and actors. This is followed by an extremely short 1-page report on the Haruhi live which took place in the Animelo Summer Live - OUTRIDE - event.

Next, a tributes section with illustrations of the SOS-dan by various other outstanding artists. paco, for example makes a horror-movie poster kinda look which is really dark, with Haruhi seen as a dark overlord or something, the SHUFFLE! artist does her thing with the characters, as well as a special interview with the artist who did the outstanding pic of Yuki sitting on the chair.

Next! A monochrome section about the settings of the anime, with greyscale screenies, as well as photos and details of the original places they took inspiration of. Stalking Haruhi Suzumiya could probably use some of this information too.

Next is another monochrome section which seems to be a glossary of terms used in the anime. As we know, the anime took quite a few sci-fi terms, as well as bastardised some RL names, so for all those trivia references, this section is one of THE sources.

Another monochrome section follows this with Aya Hirano's pencil NEKOMAN drawings, short comic strips.

Another monochrome section (luckily all these monochromes are very short sections), with interviews and history on the staff animators Kyoto Animation, presenting quite nicely a list of previous works. Also in this section is...an interview with Noizi Ito! YAY!

Back at last in colour, we get a two page spread of this pic:

then pictures of all the merchandise, as well as one page on the website. The URL on the NEKOMAN picture above was also given in this section. It looks like a secret page on the Haruhi site, but I bet it really isn't that secret.

Next are the episode guides for Part 2 of the TV series, ending with a diagram showing the proper chronology for the episodes as seen on DVD. The book then ends with a short section of full colour illustrations.

Seeing how popular the series is, most if not all of the illustrations can now be found online, some scanned to extremely high resolutions. But if you want it in hard copy (which is always nice), this book represents quite a good value for the sheer amount of content it presents.

I think this blog post is long enough, so I will talk about the magazine next time, when I've finished reading it.

Restaurant Review: Umaimon

2006-09-04T00:54:00.000+10:00

The author stumbled upon this restaurant a few years ago, when waiting for anime club people to show up for a Mongolian Barbeque near Town Hall. The Mongolian barbeque has long since moved on, but Umaimon still remains in its curiously hidden location. It seems despite its elusiveness, it has somehow managed to stay in business, and that is one sign of a restaurant which is somehow succeeding in plodding along.

Of course, prior to the Big Death of this blog, I had reviewed various restaurants such as Kura, Kura III, Ramen Kan, Ichiban Boshi, etc. I had also mentioned Yoshinoya, Uchi Lounge, and the Origami Cafe, amongst other more less-known restaurants. Umaimon in terms of its vibe reminds me most strongly of Origami Cafe.

Located somewhat off the main area of Town Hall (where Main Area means QVB and Kinokuniya), it is even better hidden than Maruyu Japanese supermarket. On an elevated plaform/balcony which it shares with a small Italian type cafe (soundly beating this cafe in terms of customer numbers when I was there), it experiences good natural lighting, is nicely sheltered, and is subject to a surprisingly fresh breeze (for the city). The view is mostly of roads and buildings, but it is a better part of the city than most, considering that Ichiban Boshi has a view of only the shopping center it is located in, Kura I only has view of the small road junction and daggy Chinatown shops, etc.

With aluminum surfaced tables and rickety metal chairs which screech horribly on the tile floor, the first impression is "crowded" -- after all it is a small place, and it is a miracle the staff can work in the 'kitchen' area at all. Almost as small as Kura I. One could imagine how warm it would get in there if the restaurant was full. There are a few tables outside, but those should be relegated only to smokers. For those who do not like 8mg of tar on their takoyaki, stay inside.

One of the features of this restaurant (or should it suffice to call it a 'cafe'?) is a refillable tea system. Basically a big heated metal dispenser which allows you unlimited refills of a lukewarm tea in plastic mugs in a self-serve system. I think Kura III has this as well, only it is hidden away and only dispenses water. The tea is nothing to write home about, but it is one level up from chlorine tap water served by so many restaurants.

The decor is perhaps what reminds me most closely of Origami cafe, with various Japanese cloth-based decorations like the blue cloth with wave patterns (I actually forgot the name for this one), big fortune cat, and a curious mobile made from a paper umbrella from which hung various stuffed toys in the Japanese style. Overall, it does not fail in informing anyone visiting that this is a Japanese restaurant.

The restaurant, being of its size, does have some of its mess protruding. The corner near the counter for example seems piled with various stock and rubbish, and the lighting system on the ceiling has the wiring visible. But perhaps all these -- the cheap chairs and tables, the barely concealed mess, etc., all add to the experience of the authentic small Japanese restaurant, and so these might count as charms as well.

The ordering system is pre-paid. Walk into the restaurant and you are at the counter already, with the strangely made-up "madam" figure taking orders from the menu written up on white boards placed either side of the counter. They do have Lunch specials bundles, like Kura III. However, they offer more choice (I think 5 possible packages), but cost a bit more (around a dollar or two more than the Kura III lunch specials).

I passed on that however, because it definitely felt like a ramen day for me, and so ordered a tonton ramen (roast pork). This is a pretty common ramen, being available at almost every restaurant, but most notably at Ichiban Boshi and Ramen Kan. One of the complaints I have about Ichiban Boshi is that sometimes their ramen can be really really salty, and the thirst after one of those is comparable to having drunk the Dead Sea (OK, that was an exaggeration).

To my joyful surprise, the ramen (which was priced at an average-y 8 dollars fifty) when it arrived after a 5 minute wait, was moderately flavoured, being comparably light on the salt. It was of course piled modestly with seasoned ginger, bean sprouts, etc, with a helping of around 4 slices of Japanese style roast pork. The serving size seems to be a bit smaller than that found at Ichiban Boshi and Ramen Kan, but it would be enough to fill you up for lunch at least, without bloating you. The noodle itself is normal ramen noodle as would be found in other restaurants, and is cooked just right (the al dante, if you will, of ramen).

The clientele found here are mostly business people, and that makes sense, seeing that this part of the city is mostly populated by business people during lunch hours. There was one Japanese couple, but everyone else was not Japanese. Of course, I pretended to know Japanese and actually succeeded in being passed off as one (not a great achievement, considering the relatively low skills needed to navigate through a restaurant ordering system).

The music choice was disappointing. Kura III has rather random music choice -- sometimes Japanese sometimes English, but mostly Japanese. Ichiban Boshi plays a rather eclectic soundtrack of dance beats and quite modern types of instrumentals. Ramen Kan perhaps has the most suitable soundtrack -- the last time I was there they were playing an album of Mika Nakashima, including the song for the NANA live action movie. Umaimon plays a local radio station. The atmosphere could have been enhanced greatly with a Japanese soundtrack, but I guess considering the patrons, the restaurant would have to cater to their wants of trashy Australian music radio station. Unfortunate, but that's the way the world works.

Conclusion: Hidden away rather nicely, but enjoys some naturally advantageous elements, Umaimon is one of the breeds of small authentic Japanese restaurants you can find around Sydney. They have low-to-average prices, a rather impressive range of choices on the menu, and their ramen has a distinctly home-cooking aura to it. It is a nice restaurant to drop by if you have run out of places or all the other more central restaurants are crowded to capacity, and will offer a good value lunch. However, combined with the atmosphere which could do with some enhancements, this restaurant falls squarely in the category of average. Whilst it will succeed in plodding along, don't expect any prizes or raving newspaper reviews.

Happiness: Requiem, the Street

2006-08-28T23:30:00.000+10:00

It is a street of greys we walk down each day as we go to work, and as we return. From the cracked windows of the buildings enclosing this rubbish-studded asphalt strip hang countless flags. Brilliant red in the joyous times of days past, they now hang, shredded, blackened by countless drenches of dirty and dusty rain. The dregs of society live here on this street alone, and no one dares venture here at night.

How long has it been since we came to this town, and started walking this road everyday to work? Eventually, our world became confined to this space, this grey, scummy street which enclosed our day. And our lives too became monotone, monochrome, strewn with the bitter rubbish and despair of our daily plodding.

Together, we hunted the elusive. In philosophy, in money, in work, in things to own, in the artifices of society, in ideals, in the lofty colours of commercial promises. Waterside apartments, hypermarkets, telephones with bright screens, erotica, minimalism, bank statements, Marxism, liberalism, children, roadside café’s…But that which we sought continually eluded us, for we ourselves knew not the nature of our quarry. We only gave it a name, and that name was Happiness. But we knew not what it was, and we knew not wherein it dwelled.

How was it that we became trapped in the smothering greys, the most vicious of traps unseen? How did the skies above us become shrouded in the greys of a winter storm?

And it was precisely on a winter day that I ventured out onto that same street. But the wheels of serendipitous events turned in their clockwork, and by some random, illogical impulse, I walked into one of the many alleys between the buildings which walled in the road. Along this alley countless old men took their refuge from the day on the main street, and it smelled of cheap beer and urine and dampness, of years of filth and sadness and death.

But I kept walking, half-tripping over the prone limbs of countless sleepers, unknown to light, nor known to life. Upon reaching the end of the alley, jumping over the hunched body of a desiccated man, I turned the corner to find…that which still today I cannot describe or ascribe a word too. “Happiness” is but a word unfit for an experience so deeply personal. But I will describe what was there.

Beyond the wall of decrepit buildings lay a field of vibrant grass and flowers, so vast as to see the shadows of the moving clouds and the path of the wind imprinted upon its swaying surface.

I knew not how long I stood there looking down at that serene scene – the intense spectrum of feelings at that moment transcended time, and I felt sure there and then that if I had to die, that would have been the best time to do so.

After the reverie and the dreams, I turned, and walked back into the greys of the alley and the road. Would I ever find that alley and exit again? I did not know. But one thing I did know – should I have stayed in that field any longer, that too would have turned to grey, and the blue sky would have again become covered in the hues of winter. Deep down however, I hope that amidst my plodding down that grey street, I might one day again, find an alley, a hole, a door which would lead to another field of colours.

After the Hiatus: The Fall

2006-08-28T00:18:00.000+10:00

As he slumped against the cold wet brick wall in the dimness of the drainage tunnel, blood slowly oozing from the wound in his chest, he realised his foolishness. He should have known this would happen. He was never the right kind of person for that Game, and it should not have been played -- at least, not by him.

But it had been so simple weeks before. He was tired at watching from the sidelines looking in at the vibrancy going on before his very eyes. So he joined the Game. Everything calculated with precise logic, all possible results of all possible actions coldly, mathematically predicted, played over in his mind. It was going to be a no-lose situation. Should he fail, it would only be an experience gained, and should he win, the results would have been so fabulous...

So he plunged optimistically, confidently into the game and played it hard and fast.

It was not apparent to him until after the Fall (by which time it was far too late), that the game had somehow assimilated itself into his chest, entangled itself in his rib cage. He had perpetrated a miscalculation of the highest degree -- the game was not one which followed logical rules, and neither did he, the one factor he had trusted all his life.

It only became clear when he Fell. When reaching for the prize of the game, he lost his footing and fell into the Abyss. He got his experience alright, but his chest was torn apart as previously unseen tendrils ripped themselves from their roots in his breast. The irony was that the Fall allowed him to see the big picture. That the seemingly illogical failure on his part (when previous calculations had assured him that Failure was out of the question, even if he did Fall) was in fact perfectly logical if the picture had contained all the factors -- including illogicality, and weakness.

And so, half torn-apart, in the darkest despairs, he remained in the Abyss. Unable to tear himself away from the sight of the contrail patterns made by the heavenly flights of the Game above him, but unable to clamber upwards because of his unhealing wound.

Byousoku 5 Centimeters Official Site Update

2006-08-21T22:46:00.000+10:00

This just in from my weekly (or so) perusal of the Makoto Shinkai fanweb.

"

CoMix Wave and Yahoo! Japan updated the official site of Byousoku 5 Centimeters. They added some new screenshots, wallpapers and trailers of Mr Shinkai's works. You can see completed film of She and Her Cat by streaming. (Language is Japanese)

Wallpapers: http://5cm.yahoo.co.jp/download/index.html

Byousoku 5 Centimeters
Screenshot: http://5cm.yahoo.co.jp/gallery/index.html

She and Her Cat
Streaming: http://5cm.yahoo.co.jp/work/neko/index.html

Voices of a Distant Star
Screenshot: http://5cm.yahoo.co.jp/gallery/hoshi/index.html
Trailer: http://5cm.yahoo.co.jp/work/hoshi/index.html

The Place Promised in Our Early Days
Screenshot: http://5cm.yahoo.co.jp/gallery/kumo/index.html
Trailer: http://5cm.yahoo.co.jp/work/kumo/index.html

"

Beauty, Happiness, Tranquility

2006-08-21T21:39:00.000+10:00

I look upon a sunset, subdued in its glamorous shining coat. The train passes over a river, and for a moment, the vivid shroud of light of the sky is reflected in the river, and two fiery expanses, one of water and the other of air, unite and harmonise.

The common man on the train continues his reading of the newspaper, continues dozing. The tinny sound of rock music leaking from white earphones buzzes around, an ever-present fly. The empty can joins the chorus, rolling around the carriage floor between the patent leather and sports shoes of its occupants. Only I am entranced by the beauty outside of the tin can carriage.

An exclusivity that everyday life affords to those who would take the time to observe and appreciate.

We see the photographs of sunset – high resolution, SLR-produced photographs, and we think, “Ah, what sublimity, what astounding beauty!”, but we fail to understand. Beauty has been slaughtered.

There are two kinds of beauty. Artistic beauty, and natural beauty. The photograph of the sunset is artistic beauty pretending to be natural beauty, but the only artistic merit it has is having been taken at the right time, from the right angle. The natural beauty within it is but a shell of true beauty. Certainly we may find the colours and refraction of light to be pretty, but natural beauty is constrained by time and space. True natural beauty is akin to happiness: it cannot be captured, and it cannot be fully appreciated without being “in the moment”.

A sunset is beautiful, and we feel happiness, but this must be contrasted with the fact that both are temporary. A sunset, unique in its configuration, must fade into night. The elation of the moment must become mundaneity. It is the knowledge that natural beauty and happiness is temporary, and their contrast with darkness and sadness, which gives them value. It seems hopeless then, that we seek happiness and beauty – such fleeting concepts which are barely grasped, and then dissolve with our consciousness. But our situation is not without hope. For happiness and beauty may be found in the mundane. Look hard enough, and we will find it. In light reflected against a wall, in ambience, in a single drop of water. The subjectivity of both means that they are concepts we carry with us, and if we so wish, they may be applied at any time, at any place.

A single piano note resounds and echoes, and we find ourselves in a world of true Tranquility – a world lost to our present being. We are in a dark interior, and we look out to the world outside, where it is sunny. A single tree stands at the window at the end of the room, bathed in late-afternoon sunlight. The floor is a glossy black, and the scene outside sunlight reflects onto the floor. The art gallery is an attempt to achieve tranquility, but people forget its aim. Tourists rush around galleries trying to get complete photographs of all the famous artworks. Tranquility shatters.

Another piano note sounds, and we are floating on clear water, gently lapping against the third floor of a skyscraper. We are on our backs, looking up at the glass facades of the city buildings, the sun reflecting off each of them to throw an ever-changing and complex pattern of light on the ground under the water. There is no sound but that of ever-gentle waves in the water, and nothing but the light and the water moves. Cities can be tranquil, but only if they deny their intention and their inhabitants.

Similarly, airports try to be tranquil, but their function must render that attempt futile. People will rush for planes, people will queue up for tickets, people will make a fuss, and tranquility shatters.

Garage Kit!

2006-08-20T20:06:00.000+10:00

Won a garage kit from this maker for Sasara Kusugawa (from TH2 XR). Garage kits are hard to build though this kit is relatively simple. I need a Dremel. :)

Testing the Microsoft Writer

2006-08-17T23:15:00.000+10:00

This is a test post for Microsoft Writer software.

Addendum: BlackBox

2006-08-17T22:13:00.000+10:00

It turns out that not only was YukiUsagi artist for BlackBox, but Fojy Headz (雨音響) was as well. There are other guest artists as well, but this is getting confusing.

Blackbox Artist found

2006-08-16T22:13:00.000+10:00

Hunting the elusive often entails little drops of information that leak in over time.

The doujin artist called Yuki Usagi seems to be the one behind the illustrations for BlackBox -- yes, all of BlackBox's games. This artist also did various other games (of the H variety) like MOON CHILDe.

RE: Emperor's New Clothes

2006-08-14T21:59:00.000+10:00

Dear sir,

Might I presume to question your recent article “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. Certainly it was a much-needed critique on the prevailing culture of academic writing. As a former student of the Belkenstein College, I can assure you that many a times, my colleagues and I have been off-put by the entangled language used in so many journal articles. It was with a degree of delight that I read a lay-person’s account of such practice.

However, far be it for us to presume “simple is best”. For should that be the case, nothing should stop us from adopting the standards of the lowest denomination. If in all our writing, we should aim to make it understandable to the widest spread of audience, then we should be relegated to writing in the language of primary school children. As such, our current standards of ‘normal’ writing are perhaps understandable to us, and many other people, but are not comprehensible to the uneducated or to the child.

In any article of communication, we have a duty, not only to inform – that is, your theme on the dominance of ideas, but also to educate. For as the child learns new words and structures from reading contextualized content in fairy tales, so too does this process continue in adulthood. One never actually finished learning grammatical structures and words during a lifetime. If it should be that in writing an article of literature, we find a relatively obscure word does its job perfectly in its context, why should we presume to simplify it for a less-than-perfect, albeit more comprehensible word?

Therefore I suggest an amendment to your moratorium (as such) on complex language. Certainly structures and sentence lengths should be kept simple, but more obscure words should not be avoided. They should however, be put in clear context, which would allow the reader to deduce their meaning from usage. If needed, brackets should be utilised as a method of explanation.

Yours sincerely,

Pireze

BlackBox

2006-08-12T03:27:00.001+10:00

So I was looking through my artbook collection and I came across Blackbox Crystalize again. This has always been one of the weirder artbooks in my collection simply because I didn't know why I bought it. The front cover, and the allusions to shoujo ai within that it promised, I think.

Well then. Blackbox is a small doujin kinda circle thing, and they have released three games. Majority of their CG are stylised monochrome sketch-like thingies but their character designs are really nice, and I think the games are kinda sad too. You can find some CM's of their games here too.

Now I am just looking for CG sets for their games.

Redesign: fail

2006-08-11T03:47:00.000+10:00

Unfortunately, the redesign of this blog failed. It was working OK in the preview on blogger, but once it got published it ended up crap...the title up the top has been pushed too much to the left (bad coding on the part of whoever wrote the original CSS), and for some weird reason the pictures where were supposed to be at the BOTTOM of the blog ended up being near the top, so I took them out...

Now it looks like shit.

New KOTOKO single for Maria-sama ga Miteru OAV

2006-08-07T22:41:00.000+10:00

GNCA-35
KOTOKO/Chercher[Limited Edition] CDA
1800 yen US$16/113.39 Release Date:2006/10/25
Description:New single from Kotoko and outro theme to the OVA release of hit anime series "Maria-sama ga Miteru." Limited edition includes bonus DVD with music video. *Unless otherwise indicated, DVDs are region-2 encoded (Japan, Europe, and Middle East), and carry no subtitles.

A very cool illusion using the afterimage from seeing inverted colours to create an illusion of full colour when looking at a black and white image. You can do it yourself too!

The Seige of Kolianosk Part I

2006-08-06T21:58:00.000+10:00

After death, fingernails and hair continue to grow. This is a commonly known trivial fact. But one must imagine this on a microscopic level. The cells which make fingernails and hair, oblivious to death which had ravaged the body in which they dwell, stubbornly continue their work in creating and pushing out ever more protein structures, until eventually, months or years later, they too run out of resources and die.

Machines which continue to function single-mindedly after their master has died.

........

The trainline running across the frozen equatorial region was in a bad shape. Another few trains hurtling across its half-rotten wooden beams, and it just might give up the ghost. That would mean severing Kolianosk from the rest of the world.

But no one expected it to give out this soon. Sentries on the Tower of Kolianosk had reported a large disturbance in the snow patterns and a major explosion from the site of the railway line 200 miles from the town. Le Defaurier and the other townspeople managed to reach the carcass of the iron worm after two days battling through the ice storm.

By that time, the fires which must have raged forth from the engine had disappeared, and all that was left was snow-covered charred pieces of metal, half eaten corpses of the unfortunate passengers and guards, and a totally ripped-apart secure carriage.

As Le Defaurier stepped into the "secure" carriage (which at this point was more like in two halves), he was surprised at its condition. All the fittings on the wall of the carriage remained intact and untouched by the flames, and it seemed like despite having been torn apart, the systems of the secure carriage had managed to protect its contents.

Books, manifesto's, antiques, jewellery, briefcases filled with foreign money, as well as scientific components and such...but on the left side of the carriage, a coffin. Originally it seemed to have been covered by bulletproof glass, but that had been smashed to pieces by the perseverance and diamond-hard claws of hungry polar bears. The body was nowhere to be found -- all that remained were a few fine strands of golden hair and the imprint of a small body on the white silk cushioned surface within.

Update: Sakura and Saber

2006-08-06T21:10:00.000+10:00

The maker's site has more pictures!

Fenix from hf forums has kindly provided the info:
WHF Nagoya, 2006.
1/10
Maker: Kagutsuchino
Original price: 8000 yen

Once in a while...

2006-08-05T21:43:00.000+10:00

...something happens to transform a 2-dimensional artform into a 3-dimensional object. We have seen it with the Haruhi bunny girl, the complete prototype of which was a perfect rendition of the character.

Last month, I was struck by an extremely beautiful but sinister wallpaper, of Dark Sakura with Dark Saber. As many of us know, in one of the arcs for Fate/Stay Night game, we find Sakura becoming evil of her own choice, using an entity "Shadow" to consume servants and turn them into Dark versions. Shirou lost Saber early in the game, as she too was consumed.

There has been much said about Sakura x Rider, and that is one of the more popular themes around. But the wallpaper for Dark Sakura x Dark Saber was extremely fine, in terms of the beauty of both evil characters exposed in their contemptuous eyes and face.

e2046 announced the release of a garage kit for that very scene. Possibly a recast (in the best traditions of e2046) -- I would be grateful to whoever provides the information for the original. For a (presumably) fan-made wallpaper to be made into a garage kit...this is impressive.

Below then, I have doctored an image to contain the original wallpaper with the pictures of the kit around it for comparison purposes. (400k)

New Temptations

2006-08-04T22:10:00.000+10:00

Looks like Azone International have finally completed their AIKA Chocoholic Nightmare page, but it is still hidden from the main EX CUTE pages. Well you heard it here first. Click on the frontal shot of the doll to get another picture as well!

It looks like another version of Miu is also coming out. And again, EX CUTE main pages don't have it, but the hidden page shows she will be wearing Victorian style maid uniform!

ALTER is coming out with a new figure for Sakura (Fate/Hollow Ataraxia). It is quite a strange costume too -- supposedly her "fighting" costume. Which is a nice "qi pao" (Chinese costume of type cheong sam) with a dress (qi pao normally don't go with a dress :P), and half of it is the "Shadow Sakura" type clothing. Her head is interchangeable too, to show a "I am gonna beat you up" expression. Looks pretty good...but I am of the opinion that the face still needs some work.

The figure of the character from "HAPINASU" ("Happiness") seems pretty well done however.

New Aika doll

2006-08-03T22:46:00.000+10:00

Heh...it looks like I might be getting this as well.

As we know (maybe), I am quite a big fan of EX CUTE dolls. Ever since their first release (AIKA - wicked style) they have been releasing updates on the dolls as well as releasing second versions of the dolls (AIKA - wicked style plus, which was just red leather in the clothes as opposed to black leather). They have also been releasing new clothing options for the dolls.

EX CUTE is released by AZONE International, but I don't like normal AZONE dolls because their facial features are a bit...weird...chubby? Something just strikes me as negative. But because the designers "Pure Neemo" did these dolls they have the right face design and fashion design to strike that chord. More like a hybrid between figure and doll (they do have articulated joints and loose fiber hair like dolls, but might not have as many joints, and further more are much more anime-like), they combine the cuteness of figures with the flexibility (in terms of changing clothes and poses) of dolls.

Currently, my AIKA is dressed like so:

The EX CUTE site isn't updated yet, and neither is the blog for the designers of the dolls. But on surfing 1999.co.jp, one will notice a new version of AIKA coming out in October (maybe?), AIKA - Chocoholic Nightmare ver.

Dyed hair plus a very very cute outfit. ^_^ <3

A hamster in the snow. With crutches.

2006-08-01T11:37:00.000+10:00

Just a normal guy, whatever normal is. Until my friend Leigh decided to start up a band of his own. Got a pretty vocalist with cinnamon-smoke voice, a fairly skilled drummer who could keep to a beat, and a guitarist who could follow his bass. Altogether they were a pretty fun bunch to hang around with, and 5 people could just fit into his car for late-night cruises to 24-hour restaurants, bars, café’s, whatever.

I don’t know what I was there for. After all I wasn’t “in” the band per se. Maybe I was just hanging on, using my “friend of Leigh’s” status. But eventually, it got so that I was helping to manage the band in a small part. Looking up venue’s whilst the band tuned their instruments in the semi-sound-proof room next door, calling up half-asleep bar owners and hotel managers to organize gigs whilst popular albums were rendered in “Statique” style, all the while watching the apple blossoms snow on the noir basalt outside.

“Statique” was what we called the band. But it was an ironic name, considering their style of playing. Of course, smart-arse DJ’s would mix in static effects in a musical pun, but they were anything but “static”, with their stylistic customization of songs fluctuating according to their mood, the brand of coffee they drank in the morning, whatever drugs they were taking, and who they had slept with the previous night.
Like most start-up bands, they eventually got tired of album covers, and began to compose their own songs. Of course they could whistle up a tune and then turn it into a powerful drums-bass-guitar combination, but none of them could write the part for the vocalist. Even the vocalist just tossed her curly oak hair and pouted when asked. So I became their lyricist, having a way with words. I’d sit down with them like a psychoanalyst and they would get high or drunk and spew on about their thoughts and dreams and illusions, which I would then take parts of and write into a song-like thing.

I wrote love ballads mostly. Some songs for the angsty part of the audience maybe. Some songs which went with the hair of the vocalist, some to go with her face, some to go with her dress. Poetry to a beat, poetry to chords and melodies. Songs which went well with whisky, with rain, with the lingering cigarette smoke. Songs best performed when high on two-parts heroine and one ecstasy tablet. Normal songs.

Your hair made brown by the setting sun
The azure wind from the sea brushing gently against my face,
Its fingers revealing your ears under the rosé strands
Coming closer behind you, a scene, like a movie
But from the embrace I withdraw, a film reel entangled
Why does it hurt so much, to be blinded by your flowing hair?

The band took off. It was a local sensation, and got a few hit singles into the charts. I got my name in small print at under the title of songs in the CD insert booklets. “Band: Statique, Lyrics: … “

By this time, we had our own managing team, so I just had to be the lyricist, whilst the team took care of all those details of record companies, contracts and places to play and stay at, etc. We just had to hop on the plane at the right time and do what was needed. I tagged along mostly because I needed to keep in synch with the band when writing my lyrics. Along with brand new quality instruments for the band, we eventually accumulated enough to get our own recording studio in a quiet part of town filled with brick buildings.

But after a few years of such a hectic life, the lyrics stopped flowing. It’s not like one day the verse-spinning hamster in my brain ran out of my ear and got killed by a cat. It was just that the hamster eventually stopped talking. It was getting tired. Its fur was scraggy and stuck together in lumps and bunches, its ruby eyes (it was an albino) got clouded and it had an infection on one of its legs. No longer would it talk of the rainbow in the window, the wet diamonds on the cobblestone road, or the reflection of the sky on ponds in quiet forests. On the subject of death, love and vampirism, it also had nothing to say.

A writer’s block at the worst possible time. An album was halfway in the making, and I still needed lyrics for four songs. Random sentences and verses came to mind, but could never be continued or strung together. All that I thought I imagined was taken from songs I knew, or songs I had written before. Only one thing brought the hamster back to life. Fantasy.

Not the drug.

I would imagine, for days at a time, that I was an impoverished artist living in a creaky Victorian mansion, a run-down Corsican estate with vineyards, a frescoed Sicilian manor, a ruined cathedral, or a lighthouse on a dark Irish crag. I would buy furniture and art and props to transform my house, for that period of time, into the fantasized place and seclude myself in its confines to write the songs. Perhaps it was because the hamster was limping, or because of the effort in squeezing those lyrics out, but the songs, though taking double the time to write, were of even better quality than those from before.

The band got more and more popular, and soon they were going to all manners of exotic places – yes, Ireland, England, Italy, France…but I had stopped following them around the world for their tours. Five-star hotels bored my hamster to sleep, and seeing the modern cities with their crammed convention centers and stadiums shattered my fantasies one after another. Where, in Hong Kong, could I find a tea pavilion on the edge of a vibrant blue lake? Where in Amsterdam, would I find hay-filled lodgings in a creaking windmill on green pasture? It was an impossible task. So I continued building my own fantasy worlds.

But over time, the amount of furniture and artworks in my apartment accumulated and it became impossible to continue with building those fantasies at my own place. I was needing greater details – moving lights and screens outside my window simulating the scenery outside, floorboards and fabrics being a specific type and pattern, etc. So the band decided to give me a room at the studio, and a small team to help materialize the imagined worlds.

Meanwhile though, Leigh had hooked up with the vocalist, and the guitarist and drummer were gay. It seemed the real world was becoming increasingly absurd. The studio became my home, and I hardly needed to venture outside. Fantasy and lyrics flowed together, entangled like skeins of fine silk, a Gordian knot of existence in the quiet brick-lined neighbourhood.

Winter was here. In the silence of an 18th century forest in Germany, gentle falling snow covered the last vestiges of a lonely log-cottage. Spring would be a long time coming.

Reviews

2006-07-31T21:27:00.000+10:00

Saikano is obviously a good anime series. Above average. The manga was good too. The OAV started getting a bit spin-off-ish. But looking at the Saikano movie, which should have been good due to the miraculous CG effects possible on that medium, one will find themselves disappointed.

Starting with Chise.

She looks like crap.

Japan, land of the kawaii. Often criticised for it's inability to produce anything other than "cute" (this was the reason given by many 'experts' on why all the actresses in Geisha were Chinese), Japan finds itself unable to find a sufficiently cute counterpart to anime Chise. She is short, she has the hair...but she is UGLY. The cliche "cute = ugly but adorable" is not applicable in this instance because she is not adorable.

Basically, the movie took the most boring bits out of the manga/anime, and crammed on it. So there's a lot of slow parts, and pining, and flashbacks, etc. Sorry, but that does not make for deepness. It's not that I have anything against romance. The romance in the original series was done really well, and as a result, it could, on that vehicle alone, power 3 or 4 of the most emotionally-powerful sub-plots seen in the anime. But for a time-limited, continuous (remembering that anime is episodic and can safely jump time spans from one episode to another) movie, the choice of material to cover was bad.

The Akemi arc, for example, was patchy and less-than-well-done. The Fuyumi-senpai arc was half-baked. The main plot was so full of holes, that it was hard to suspend disbelief. The ending in particular, defied logic. For those who watched the anime, you know that Chise turned into a full weapon which defended the town, but nevertheless the world was destroyed by war. Well, in the movie version, she just flew up up up into space, followed by 10 missiles, and then the missiles crashed into her and killed her in a blue explosion.

The Russian fighter planes and carriers and battleships remained.

A better version of the movie could have been made. Considering the CG wizardry that went into it versus the amount of boring crap, it seems this movie was made on a tight budget. But should they have had a better budget, casted some better actors, etc., they could have sidetracked from the original story (which is really far too long and involved to be condense), and perhaps talked about it purely from a soldier's point of view. Explore the world as the first rumblings of distant war approached, and peace was shattered. Look at the full devastation of conflict, with its brutality and merciless destruction of life. Of the pain of decapitation in battle, and of the fear. Of the ambiguous feelings about this new weapon "Chise" (covered briefly, but poorly in the movie), fitting in the relevant parts of the original plot into the POV of the soldier, and introducing characters like Tetsu and Shuuji's friend who joins the army into the soldier's world. Witnessing at first hand the devastation wrought by the Angel of Death, etc.

||Giniro no Kami no Agito||

This is another movie I watched. It is an animation, combining traditional anime with CG effects. At points of it, it looks really really nice.

But at other parts, it still suffers from the defects which plague technologically-similar movies like Appleseed. It is, I suspect, trying to go for the Ghibli style. Which it fails. As most of us know, Howl's Moving Castle used CG, despite Miyazaki (Hayao)'s deep attachment to traditional cel-animation. But the CG was masked extremely well with textures over the structure, to give it all that hand-drawn feel.

Giniro did not mask the CG. Instead, the machines and fluids and certain structures stood out in stark contrast with the drawn parts, showing us that integration problems still remain to be overcome even today.

The characters themselves were surprisingly "archaic" in terms of how they looked. Kinda like astroboy crossed with Ghibli at times. In fact, Agito often reminded me of Pazu with his less-than-graceful but somehow super-human strength. Agito in particular, was worrying because his character (despite being the protaganist) was so "flat". It was basically an extremely simple character in terms of his dedication to his world, and his attachment to the female character Tula.

Another aspect of the plot which fell flat for me was the clear distinction between "good" and "bad". It was almost like Arjuna with its environmental ideology. Certainly, Giniro tried to blur the boundaries. The forest, which was genetically modified to become much more active, was also a source of destruction, which threatened humans. Humans on the other hand (those who were not "Neutral") had also developed big sophisticated machines and power in a bid to fight the power of the forests. Humans could make use of the power of the forest, and it strengthens them, but in return, they could be claimed by that power if they let the inherent wildness of the forest overwhelm them.

Despite all that, there is little doubt throughout that those who Agito fight against are the "BADDIES", especially that main Colonel guy who, despite his Char-like appearance, is seen to be an utter bastard who must be destroyed (until the improbable ending, after he got killed, when he suddenly became benevolent).

The ending also kinda sucks...too much Deus Ex Machina at work there for my comfort.

But other than all those negative aspects, there were parts of the movie which I liked. For example, it explores a theme I have found to be very attractive. Starting off from a post-apocalyptic world, it brings together the "past" (a technologically sophisticated world) with the "present" (post-apocalyptic, technologically deficient world). The apocalyptic event between those two known worlds is eventually revealed through various revelations, and parts of the "old" world with its technology and its massive buildings are still present, hidden in the "new" world.

This is a theme explored by Ghibli films such as Laputa Castle in the Sky and Nausicaa.

Conclusion: Has very good premises, and is quite creative in some of the plot elements, but possibly too obviously a rehash and recycling of the Ghibli formula. Falls prey to the weaknesses of CG effects in animation, and has classical defects in character and plot.

NOOOOOOOOO

2006-07-29T02:15:00.000+10:00

Oh noes!!! What happened, Miss Chitose?? WHY did you rapid-update your blog with ugly chibi-pics from Death Note? WHY!!!!! When will the pretty girls return????

Satoyasu Maturi/TENKY + Optometry in Illustration

2006-07-26T21:52:00.000+10:00

Chitose Maki's blog is updated again with a chibi-type sketch for death note.

A very minor artist, I think TENKY is a group or part of a group, but the artist we are talking about is just one artist in the group. Anyway, he/she illustrated the novels Owari no Chronicle which I have scanned the front covers for and put onto meidokon.

I think what is especially good about his/her work are the eyes (of course all the girls are very pretty). But then again, when I look at artwork, I almost always focus a lot of attention on the eyes. The "window into the soul", eyes in illustrations can tell you not only about the characters and make a drawing much more appealing, but also tells us about the artist -- the amount of effort they put into the eyes (very much the most expressive and detailed part of an illustration) often reflects on their caliber. For example, I often excuse myself from painting garage kits based on the reason that I am not strong in terms of illustration. What worries me the most in painting a character or drawing them, is that I get the details for the eyes totally wrong, and that would totally screw up the look of a character.

I've done some digging around and come up with my favourite artists in terms of eyes, and here's a comparison picture:

Of course, different pictures will have differing eyes. I have tried to get all of these samples from sources of higher quality (though some I couldn't find them readily, so they are enlarged), and more current complete works (so not sketches and chibi stuff). So, looking at the picture, you might notice (as I just have) that I favour eyes with that little curve of light in them.

The artists differ quite a bit in where they place the white bits to signify reflection of light but again, this really depends on the pictures. TENKY's eyes seem to be "the odd one out", but has quite a bit of "depth", just as Itou Noizi's also has the depth in showing some of the inner structures of the eye -- note of course that Itou Noizi's artwork (especially doujins which seem to be of a lower general quality) does not often portray that depth. CARNELIAN also seems to display quite a bit of depth in the eyes.

Interesting Maki Chitose in the eye depicted, included the lines of the pupil muscles in the "curve of light". Aoi Nanase and Jekyll&Hyde seem to have the most 'featureless' eyes, but they still hold quite a bit of interest to me. Note the different sizes, and if in context, also note that the distance from eye to eyebrows will differ quite a bit. Also note the ratio of white to colour for the eye depicted, as well as the surrounding eyelashes and such. These contextual things will also affect our perception of these illustrated eyes.

Maki Chitose CG Collections GET | My release policies

2006-07-24T21:58:00.000+10:00

Well, Comiket 70 is coming and all we have the traditional half-yearly pilgrimage of self-professed otaku's to the biggest doujin convention in anime-dom. Get the catalogue, plan your walk with the map, highlight all the stores you have to get to, and start queuing at 5 in the morning to get there first and snatch up those limited edition goodies. The rest of us get to pay extortionate prices at yahoo japan afterwards.

Maki Chitose's blog has been updated with a new line sketch! Yay!

Studio Rikka which is the site of the creator of "Pale Cocoon" (Yasuhiro Yoshiura) has updated with another news item about his work appearing in some festival...he seems to be doing the rounds on all the events. He also made the short opening animation for POPJAM DX TV program...but the real question is, when is he and the independent music company VALB gonna release the Pale Cocoon OST?

Today, I got my 3 Chitose Maki CG Collection CD's in the mail! Yay!

In the spirit of true fandom, you can think of it in the following manner...

She burnt the CDs (they are Mitsubishi CD-Rs) herself on her computer.

She printed the CD case inserts on photopaper (Epson) and puts them into the CD case...

And now I hold them in my hands. The connection is there! Something tangibly transferred from my favourite artist, to me. Think of it the same way you would an autograph.

Of course that's only one of the pictures. Besides the standard pictures (many of which you may find on the gallery at her site), the CD-R's contained her diary art (which are the sketches and drawings she makes regularly for her diary/blog), which are mostly not available now. They are quite pretty too (in fact I like them quite a lot better). They also contained links to "ongoing works", which, being like 3 years old, are outdated. :(

Also, to provide us with an understanding of how she does CG, she has included photoshop files for a few of her artworks with all the layers and stuff intact, so we can see how she constructed the final look through a series of layers, each adding something to the work. Quite worth a look for the CG-ists amongst us :P

I'm trying to find if she is going to have a stall at Comiket...but it looks like she won't be.

Jekyll-and-Hyde, on the other hand, will be going to Comiket 70 to sell their doujin...I so want to see more of their art.

The above is one of my favourite artworks ever.

BTW, except for limited distribution of a few files from the CG collections of Maki Chitose to a few people/sites, I won't be releasing them in any way. I was a bit stung recently when I found Chinese sites had been releasing low quality versions of the Strawberry Panic scans with their watermarks plastered all over the pictures. I don't expect all that much when I release stuff, but when people just slap their own logo over a picture they downloaded take credit like that it does piss me off quite a bit. It's almost like they have soiled the pictures (and I will admit it, it cost around 350AUD all up to get the collection of Strawberry Panic! illustrations, most of it gobbled up by shipping, so when that much money is involved, it does get a bit personal).

My release policies are based on personal logic, but it goes something like this:

1) Release rare stuff no one else has done yet.
2) Put a bit of effort into the release (be it subtitling, or paying for it).
3) Put originality into the release (so no redistributing from Winny/Share) -- so most of my releases, are things I have actually bought already.
4) Consider the impact on the creators of the original works (because I am usually a fan of these creators, so I don't want to do stuff which might hurt them).

There's usually a balance which must be considered, because releasing their stuff might make them more widely known, but might also stop people from buying their stuff. For example, I did not release aoineko's "fragile machine" short film because they were beginning independent film makers. Any leeching away from their DVD profits would have immense consequences for the creator.

I released I've Sound Live in Budokan, because I've Sound is a pretty big thing by now, and financial leeching wouldn't hurt them that bad (I know, "trying to justify piracy", but that's how my logic works).

I release Strawberry Panic! scans because they were nice, and because it was not highly available on the Internet, and not many people would actively seek out the magazines to get to the illustrations. Basically it was between "leave it unknown and buried" or "get it out to the open and try to make it popular".

Tenmon's music album was the same, because it was limited release, and wasn't widely available for people to buy, so any effect of leeching away from sales would be invisible anyway. It would serve to make him more popular however.

Pale Cocoon was released because I liked it a lot and would like to increase people's awareness of independent anime and the quality they can reach. Of course it was also to pre-empt other groups who would eventually get to subbing it. Undermining the ego's of established subbing groups is part of what amuses me too, of course.

The Potentials for Theorising Anime

2006-07-22T23:44:00.000+10:00

Foreword: The author does not claim to be an otaku. Certainly, I am interested in anime. Certainly I am interested in the culture behind the anime. But I am perhaps more interested in observing it and theorising about it than actually becoming assimilated into it.

...||...||...||...||

Many philosophers of art have speculated about the end of art. The "end of art" has been talked about by Hegel, Nietzsche, Benjamin, Adorno, and Heidegger. Though some of their points are quite interesting, we can usually treat them the way we treat "apocalypse nuts" -- that is, these "symptoms" they point to as being the path toward the end have existed for ages, and nothing has happened yet.

Arthur C. Danto, in particular, held an interesting theory to do with the end of art. For him, art in the traditional understanding ended with Andy Warhol's "Brillo Box" piece. The "Brillo Box" piece was a stack of duplicates of Brillo Boxes (Brillo being a common type of washing powder during that time) as an artistic installation in an art gallery, visually undistinguishable from a pile of REAL Brillo Boxes found in any supermarket during that time. The question this art piece asked was "If you can't tell the difference between this pile of Brillo Boxes, and the pile in the supermarket, why is this one art, and the other just a common entity?"

And indeed this problem has plagued artistic philosophers ever since -- what exactly makes art "art"? Is it the unseeable "blessing" afforded certain artifacts by the "artworld" of art critics and gallery directors? Is it the intention of the creator?

But for Danto, "Brillo Boxes" was the end of art, because at that point, art questioned its very own existence. An art piece did the seemingly impossible -- by questioning its own artistic status. It seemed that from that point onward, art can only loop back on itself. That any other artistic creation would not be art -- rather it would be an imitation of former art. Historical artistic progress was terminated at its apex, when the entity questioned itself.

"At the end of evolution...is death."

These ideas have intrigued me, because over the last two years, we have seen a similar phenomena in the fast-moving world of anime. But self-examination is not a new trend. Anime often parodies itself. Nadesico was of course quite an early type of parody anime, which looked back at the age of Macross, and beyond into the "super robot" era of Mazinger and such.

But over the past few years, the anime culture and anime itself have begun to examine the "meta-anime", if you will. The watershed was the successful novel/drama series/movie "Densha Otoko", which provided an insight into "otaku" culture or the "Akibei" -- an aspect of Japanese society which had been largely ignored up until then. Densha Otoko brought it out into the open, and what an impact it has been. Terms like "moe" (and more recently "tsundere") have gained currency. Densha Otoko's opening sequence has brought more awareness on the part of late-coming fans to the anime scene into the beginnings of the anime otaku -- that it originated from sci-fi shows and conventions like Daicon (remember that the early anime were just sci-fi, and then it diversified from there). There have been otaku "copycats" resulting in "real" otaku complaining of idiots running around in Akihabara dressed as otakus trying to pick up "Hermes-san"'s, when "real" otaku's don't even show their faces outside. Akihabara itself has been recently flooded to saturation point with girls cosplaying as maids in order to hand out their leaflets, when only a year or so ago, one would be hard pressed to find even one cosplaying leaflet lady.

(Here then, it would be all too easy to go into a side track about subcultures' assimilation into the mainstream, but we'll leave that for now.)

This change of mode into "self reflection" has furthermore become reflected into anime. I will suggest three case studies of these effects:

1)Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu
2)Ouran High School Host Club
3)NHK ni Youkosou

1) Haruhi is an extremely popular character, partly because "everyone else likes her, so I must be a fan too" syndrom, partly because she is cute, partly because she is whacky, and partly because she is otaku.

What, really? Haruhi...an otaku?

Yes. Well, she embodies certain features of otaku-ism, but she is not a hard core otaku as such. She questions, for example, her own significance in the world, recognising that she is not at all special. She engages in her own fantasies of the paranormal and indeed creates her own world involving such things (except she is god so she actually DOES create such a world, as opposed to an otaku who can only surround himself in such things to simulate such a world). Moreover, she is highly aware of what makes otaku ticks. She is aware that her SOS-dan requires various character archetypes which appeal to the "moe" of otaku's -- namely the "lolita with big bust" and "quiet studious megane-ko". Of course she also dresses Mikuru (and herself) up in fetish costumes -- maid, nurse, bunnygirl, etc.

Playing in all these factors, an anime with the concept like that would find it hard to fail to appeal to all the otakus and "otaku-wannabes" out there.

2)

Ouran High School Host club explores the other side of the otaku world -- the bishounen world (which is predominantly for the girls), exploring such (real world) aspects of shoujo genres as "reverse harem" (one girl with many boys -- I think), "loli shota" with its many sub-facets (stoic, devilish, etc), twincest, etc. The boys in the Host Club as well as their self-appointed "manager" are well aware of such formulae for character success and repeatedly play on them to achieve results with the girls in the anime. As for whether such self-awareness has gained this anime success with the girls, that has yet to be established due to the overwhelming number of males populating the online anime communities.

3) A very recent anime which has just started airing is NHK ni Youkosou, which explores the previously hidden world of Hikkikomori. Hikkikomori's are quite linked to otaku-ism, and it is possible to have an overlap of the both in one person. Hikkikomori's is an extreme form of anti-social behaviour found in Japanese society, where for some reasons, people just shut themselves up in their room for long periods of time (years), engrossed in games, anime, the online world, etc. For a long time, hikkikomori has been a point of embarassment for Japanese society, and has largely been shoved under the carpet and not talked about openly. NHK ni Youkosou particularly parodies cute magical girl shows which are highly successful with otaku's, and questions the creation of such anime, using a conspiracy theory that NHK (the Japanese broadcaster is what is being caricaturised here) really is an organisation involved in the mass-production of otaku and hikkikomori.

Interesting enough, such a theory has been entertained by me for some time. Despite what we anime lovers would like to think, anime is there, like many other entertainment artforms, to make money. DVDs, OSTs, merchandise, etc, can be sold on the back of a successful anime series, and there is probably quite a bit of money to be made from it. Otaku's too are quite proficient spenders on merchandise, and that is why the entertainment industry in Japan can be so self-contained. Otaku's with boring office jobs and with disposable income can spend most of it on amassing stuff from the anime and the industry can then propel itself onward to make new works and make more money.

Of course, anime is also made for the purposes of creativity, and there have been some very meaningful, very quality-driven anime out there. Like all critical thinking, we must not be fooled into thinking just one theory fits the world we live in. The anime world does not function purely on economic reasons. Similarly it does not function on social reasons purely, or artistic reasons exclusively.

But now, after looking at the self-reflective mode of the anime world recently, we return to Danto's original claim. If what he said were true, then anime has ended with its self-questioning. Or it is the beginning of the end. We don't know if what he said is true. We know definitely that something has ended...but probably something has begun. I would say that "moe" has ended to a large degree. "Moe" was a concept most effective when it was not articulated. Now with everything and most anime it is "is she moe? is this situation moe? moe moe moe??" to such a degree as to make the concept almost valueless.

But the fall of "moe" into the hands of commonality does not signal the fall of anime. It has returned by giving us "tsundere". Unlike "moe"'s sweet loveliness, tsundere is a more complex character with two personality types: tsuntsun (unpleasant, antisocial, etc) and deredere (meek, loving, etc). But even tsundere has become articulated recently in the community, and it should not be long until we see anime themselves referring to the tsundere traits of characters in self-reflection. But the fact is, before we even knew what "tsundere" was, we have loved those characters with that trait (look, for example, in the wikipedia entry of tsundere for a list of characters from various anime which were identified as tsundere).

The irony of course, is that as soon as we become aware of certain categories and term them as such, that class of character reaches the end of its progression (if we adhere to Danto's view), and a new class appears to become dominant. (Note, end of progression does not mean that suddenly moe characters or tsundere characters stop being created, but just that the attributes of the class stop expanding beyond the fixed meanings.) The happy part of this is that anime can probably keep developing such classes, deriving them from the current body of work, and from newer works to keep its fans contented. And as long as anime can keep doing that, Danto's view of the end of the artform will not catch up with it.

Illustrator focus: Tinkle

2006-07-21T21:12:00.000+10:00

MSFW has yet another update. This time a translation of Makoto Shinkai's 16 July news. Nothing much to report.

Tinkle (or TinkerBell) is another of my favourite artists (probably ranked 4th or something). They did the illustrations for various games including Cafe Little Wish, and are also serialising coloured illustration for Duel Dolls, short stories in Magicue magazine.

Their artbook from a few months ago "Tsukiyono Chakai" (great name: Moonlit Night Tea Party) was recently scanned and released by the [Moe] group, although the scans weren't perfect (alignment a bit skewed, and parts of pictures near spines cut off). I have the actual book and I highly recommend it. The illustrations are very very cute and also highly elaborate.

My Favourite Artist

2006-07-19T23:13:00.000+10:00

Today, I was gonna do another creative piece in fantasy mode, but lost the thread halfway, so here's a few updates:

MSFW (Makoto Shinkai Fanweb) has updated news -- a translation on Makoto Shinkai's recent history from July 10.

Chitose Maki's blog was updated a few weeks ago and has a very small screenshot of her workspace for the next illustration. She is my favourite artist (having outplaced Aoi Nanase) but I think she should stick with CG as opposed to Copic (see the 13th July entry for a sample of her copic experimental work). She seems to have the colours for CG work down pat, whilst her Copic experiment seems to indicate a kinda lack of control in that area. That or she doesn't know how to colour it in with markers.

Why has Chitose Maki usurped the place of Number One artist for me? Well, it has perhaps more to do with Aoi Nanase than Chitose Maki. Aoi Nanase was my favourite artist (and is now ranked second, so still a favourite artist). She made many doujins (some of the H -- under the name of Mayu Nagase), and also did stuff like Seraphim Call (there's an anime of it), a few games, Angel Dust, Angel Dust Neo, Petite Monster, illustrations for Report of Weather Spirits etc. She also released two artbooks "Angel Flavor" and "Seven Colors of the Wind". But recently her works have been harder and harder to get, because she now does a lot of work for Aquarian Age (a card game). I hate that. First of all, that stuff is expensive. Secondly, the pictures on the cards are small (and thus lower resolution/lower quality). Ugh. She seems to be so attached to the card game however, that most of her recent releases have been for the card game, or are only black and white illustrations for magazines. In other words, none of that full colour quality stuff that I like.

Chitose Maki on the other hand is a relatively unknown artist. She was the original illustrator of Strawberry Panic! in Dengeki G's magazine (I have gone through the expense of getting all the past issues of Dengeki G's with her work in it and scanned and released them), and indeed it was her artwork which I saw in an old issue of Dengeki G's which first got me into Strawberry Panic from a year or so ago. It has of course, since then been passed over to another (I would say INFERIOR) illustrator and also has been made into an anime. But Chitose Maki did the original character designs and such, so one can say she did have quite an impact on Strawberry Panic! on the whole.

She has also done (or is also doing) two new doujin's "The Bomb in the Sky" and "Koi-Yami". It must be noted that these are pretty slow, ongoing works. There's yet to be proper illustrations out for "The Bomb in the Sky", and "Koi-Yami" has been around for a year or two, and only recently have I seen very raw page illustrations for this manga doujin. They look very very nice however.

She has also done one or two illustrations for websites here and there, but they're Japanese websites, and are hard to scour. In addition she has a published "artbook" (very thin doujin) which has profiles of girls written by someone else but which she illustrated. This is quite easily available to YHJ people, called "In the Room*".

In addition, she has released (in Comiket, I think) 3 CD-R's of her illustrations called "Orenge Cut" (sic)(2001 Summer), "Antique Candy" (2001 Winter) and "Espresso" (2002 Summer), plus a 2001 Summer postcard with samples of four of her artworks.

If you look at her gallery, you can see that she has made quite a bit of progress in terms of style and quality of her work over the years. She draws mostly girls, and she collaborates with a lot of yuri writers to illustrate their stories.

This is perhaps the first comprehensive English information page on Chitose Maki (maybe haha), but the girls she draws are gorgeous. She isn't an "artist" like Range Murata and stuff in that they make illustrations which are "works of art", but I like her characters, her colours and her style, and that's what matters in a personal judgment of taste. :)

Work Shift

2006-07-18T23:35:00.000+10:00

So there I was working, as usual, in the high end department store. Measuring, tailoring, putting money in the drawers, swiping credit cards. Working there for hours at a time, my whole reality was confined to the polished interior of the store with its vivid lighting and poised dummies modelling clothes I could never afford.

I of course take a bus to work, being too poor to afford anything like a car. And I travel light, with only an umbrella and bus money for the trip home left in my locker.

It wasn't unusual for people of all backgrounds to visit this store. You get Americans, Australians, Asians, British, etc., each with their own accents and complexions. But as the day wore on, it seemed that more and more people came in with their posh English accents. Maybe a tour of the local area? It seemed strange that the unmistakable accents of London were gradually overwhelming the locals in the store.

At last, five o'clock came around. Taking my umbrella and my bus money from the locker, I stepped out the front doors of the shop, and was confronted with a very strange sight. Gone was the familiar sight of the local shopping center in the stages of closing shop. Instead, I was on a street, bustling with people, distinctive red double decker buses jamming the street with other cars, and old style streetlights illuminating the place with fluorescent white.

The sky was overcast and cold air blew past me into the open doorway. I looked back at the store, then quickly stepped out of the doorway into the street.

"What in the world...?"

It seemed pointless to keep myself in delusion. I had to confront my suspicions. Examining the nearby bus station confirmed them, bizarre as it was. I, with only my umbrella, $1.60 in change in my pocket, and the clothes on my back, was halfway across the world from home...in London.

Guide to Sniping

2006-07-18T00:07:00.000+10:00

Sniping is not an artform. But it sure comes close. At that moment when the head of the target is in the crosshair of your scope, there is a unique connection between you - the sniper, and they - the soon-to-be-dead. And it's not really a malicious connection. Just a matter-of-fact thing, really. And if you choose to prosecute, that connection between you and the quarry is materialised in the form of a bullet connecting the rifle (the trigger, your finger, your nerves, and ultimately your brain's electric signals) to the head of whoever is shot. And at the moment such a material connection is made, it disappears. One end is dead, the other end is disassembling and packing up. But part of the sniper has now become part of the dead - the bullet.

At the request of my friend, Windbell, I have walked him through his auction sniping operation. Yahoo Japan, however, is not really a good place to practise sniping. For one you have to use a proxy service to bid, and that always complicates the timing. Secondly, Yahoo Japan has an anti-sniping policy in place, so that any bid placed in the last 5 minutes of an auction automatically increases the auction end time to 10 minutes again. So any snipe can only be as effective as a normal bid.

But on ebay, it is a completely different thing. Ebay allows sniping in the dying seconds of an auction, so it is completely possible to execute a snipe in its full beauty.

The differentiating factor between a snipe, a normal bid, and a n00b bid, is the element of surprise. First, let me explain what a normal bid is. A normal bid is made any time between the opening and the closing the of the item (but not too close to the closing time). It is the recommended type of bid, which is "the maximum I am willing to pay fo rthe item". Technically, if "the maximum I am willing to pay" is high enough, you should win the auction. If it's an auction for a common pencil and you bid 100USD with 4 days to go, you're probably going to win it.

A n00b bid, on the other hand, is that of a person watching the auction. They place bids in small increments gradually driving the price up until they have become the highest bidder. Though a popular method, it is quite ineffective, because you are too predictable. These types of bidders, however, are generally an annoyance to both snipers and normal bidders, because usually they overestimate the value of the item and drive the item price too high. Normal bidders will find themselves constantly frustrated by the antics of n00b bidders, and the unwary sniper who plays his cards too quickly will also find themselves ambushed by n00b bidders. N00b bidders usually have enough time on their hands to be sitting at their computer refreshing the auction page in the dying minutes (and seconds) of the item. Snipe too early and they will have time to get another of their n00b bids in.

A snipe bid is done in the last few minutes or even seconds of an auction. The differentiation between snipe bid and a "last-minute n00b bid" is that a snipe aims for the head. It is no weak bid which pushes up the price of the item in a small increment. It is effectively, all the cards on the sniper's hand thrown down at one go on the table. The maximum amount the sniper will pay for the item. In other words, it is a normal bid, but made in the most risky of conditions.

There are two scenarios for what happens when a snipe is made.

First of all, the snipe could be made a bit earlier. Perhaps 1 minute until close. The n00b bidder will be able to make one or two more bids (depending on conditions) before close. Usually they will do their usual increments, and fail if the gap is too big for them to bridge with those increments.

Secondly, the snipe could be made so close to the auction close time, that the n00b bidder is taken by surprise and finds himself unable to get another bid in before the auction closes. This is the hardest, but the best scenario which minimises the amount you have to pay for the item.

There are of course risks to sniping. If you snipe too close and another bid was higher than your maximum, you may find your snipe working against yourself in that you cannot get another bid in. But this should not even be an issue if you had sniped with your maximum price.

You could mistime, or something could happen to cause you to miss the end of the auction without even placing in a bid.

The nitty gritty of sniping:

You need to have a few browser windows open to snipe. Start your operation around 10 minutes prior to the end of the operation. First of all, log in to your account. If you are using a browser which supports saving passwords, the username and passwords should have been saved to autocomplete, as during this process, anything which shaves a few seconds off the time can be crucial.

Set another browser window to point to the page of the item itself. This is your monitor page (think scope of your rifle) which will be constantly refreshed to show the latest movements.

On the first window, go to the auction page and get ready to place bids key in your maximum bid amount or whatever.

Keep watching the auction on your second browser window, but don't touch anything in the first, unless you want to revise your maximum amount.

With five minutes to go, open up another browser window, pointing to the auction. Leave that. It is your backup snipe page.

Click "place bid" on the first browser window and it should go to a login page. Enter username and password (or autocomplete) and log in. Now it will display a confirmation page. Hold your fire.

Keep refreshing the item on the second browser window, ensuring that your bid is still higher than the current price of the item. Expect the price of the item to be changing quite a bit as n00b bidders and other snipers pitch in their bids in the last minutes.

Depending on your confidence (especially in the speed of your internet and such), you might choose to confirm your bid in the first browser window when the time hits 1 minute. Or you might choose to do so at 30 seconds. Or 20 seconds. Or 10. The closer to the end you snipe, the greater the risk of missing the boat, but the less the risk of other people getting a bid in to beat yours.

If you should find after all that, you were still beaten, be content. Know that you would not have been willing to pay that much for the item, and look forward to that reflected in your next bank account statement.

The Emperor's New Clothes

2006-07-15T22:51:00.000+10:00

Hans Christian Anderson wrote "The Emperor's New Clothes" as a fairy tale. But contained within it is a lesson applicable to many areas.

One of those areas is philosophy.

Yesterday, I was party to a philosophical "discussion" in an IRC channel. By "party" I meant occasionally popping in to throw in a few cynical comments at them. It might be elitism on my part, but I don't believe in engaging seriously with online discussions of most sorts. That is because the fast pacing of these "discussions" means that it relies more on quick regurgitation of other people's theory than developing your own thoughts on the matter. Also, because it is pointless. At most, it comes to a clash of opinions talking past each other. Would anyone seriously think that a bunch of people spending their time on a channel are actual philosophers? From experience, they're usually computer-sciences majors, with philosophical experience of one junior class. So most of them would be arguing from google, wiki, etc. i.e.: Bullshit.

But that's enough with the whole "Arguments on the Internet are retarded" thing. That's not what this post is about.

In the midst of the scrolling words of multiplayer notepad (i.e.:IRC), there was one particular person whom I took notice of. This user would, every few minutes, post an incoherent sentence...

"psychological gratification exists in ethereal so it could not be determined, thats why bassless theory crafting is a classical egoistic expression to justify the euphemisms and discourse, but not malcontent."
"miniscule trivialities are meant for us to understand our projection of the world...but you wouldn't understand why those buildings exist, growing and spawning."
"pseudoscience is our defination, not disruption"

Until someone brought them up on it: "I think you are arguing silly sophistry from empty statements", and someone stating "[user] is speaking on a completely different level...i can't understand anything he says".

I'm sorry, but he is not "speaking on a completely different level". He is speaking nonsense. His sentences, dressed up in complex words and structures, are essentially empty. His quotes might be good enough as decoration in extremely small font on a picture, but certainly not for any semblance of coherent discussion.

"The Emperor's New Clothes" therefore points out one of the main problems with the study of philosophy. Like the commoners who gasp in awe of the splendour of "nothing", so too, does complexity in writing strike the unwary. Obscurity in expression, unnecessarily long sentences, etc, may make your views seem impressive, but after a few minutes of decoding, or to the trained eye, the true form of your argument is revealed. And in the case of those sentences above, the true form is nonsense.

Philosophy is based mostly around bantering ideas around. One philosopher might write his argument up in an article for a journal. A few months or years later, another philosopher might rebut with another article in another journal. Or someone might release a book with their argument, and someone else will, some time later, publish their essay counter-arguing against the book's ideas. And so the literature for philosophy builds up. It seems to me that unduly complicating grammar or structure in the literature serves merely to slow down the decoding process. Or it presents a "chilling effect" for those who would recognise the weaknesses of the argument and counter it. People spend more time trying to understand what you're trying to say, than thinking critically about it and poking holes in it. And the point of philosophy is to allow progress of thinking through arguments and critical counter-arguments. In the end, it is not about the words. It is about the ideas, and these ideas should be understandable by everyone.

Therefore, I do not believe in complicating my writing. I don't believe in long sentences, or using complex words when a simpler one is sufficient. I have spent days in my life poring through texts by famous philosophers, with their almost incomprehensible syntax. To understand their ideas, I have had to decode them sentence by sentence and write them out in my own words. Their thinking is great, but it is great DESPITE their complicated wording. It is not great BECAUSE of it. But because of such literature, philsophy has become bound to obscurity of expression, and in most discussions of philosophy, it is deemed necessary to form sentences in similarly complex ways.

What I DO believe in is writing in a coherent and easy-to-understand manner. I believe in developing my own original ideas in response to other peoples' ideas, and expressing them clearly, in the hopes that the resulting dialogue would help all parties in developing their thoughts. Let us look on our writing as a child does, with perfectly frank and clear eyes, that we may easily point out that which is real, and that which is nothingness.

Blog Template

2006-07-15T18:02:00.000+10:00

Done a lazy-man's revamp of this blog, using a spring pattern (though it's winter here).

I took the sakura pattern from the picture I found on some imageboard, but of course did quite a bit of work on it myself. The little squares were replaced by vector versions, and I had to extract the sakura shapes via a series of brightness and contrast plus funky selection criteria.

The balls up the top have been replaced by an original texture scanned from Japanese folding paper.

Cicadas and Crickets

2006-07-14T01:14:00.000+10:00

Not many people notice the difference.

But Cicadas make noise only in the day, and Crickets do it both at night and in the day. But cicadas overwhelm the sound of crickets during the day.

Walking, as one may, beside an infrequently-used road during dusk, one might be able to hear both the sound of day, and that of night.

Or perhaps, driving along said road during dusk, one might be able to hear an intermittent mix. One section of the road populated by crickets, and another section by cicadas.

Which is why, during one fine dusk, when the sky became a sea of vibrant fire, the Grand Council of the Cricket population decided via a vote of 25 to 12, to declare war on the cicadas.

The cicadian ambassador agreed to the war, and the conditions were thus stated:

1) Cicadas and crickets must kill each other, without discrimination for gender or age.
2) The war will take place during the day, and during dusk, but not at night.
3) The war will determine not who is the loudest, but who is the strongest. And the strongest shall automatically be the loudest.
4) The war will be effective after that night.

The ambassador hurried back to the Cicadian Empire with the news, which was greeted with great joy on the part of the population. After all, nothing increases food supplies more than a war.

That night, for the first time in the history of insectdom, crickets did not play their tunes. They instead rested up, such that they might start the war with full strength.

(Crickets worked in shifts -- half during the day, and half during the night. So it was important for the purposes of this war to merge the night shift into the day shift because the rules stated explicitly that no fighting was to occur at night. There was no point wasting troops on an ineffective shift.)

When day broke, it was the cicadas who started the onslaught. Pouring in the masses across road and field, they laid seige to the cricket fortresses. The seiges were however ineffective because the Cricket Kingdom was linked by underground tunnels, and it was not long before the cicadas found that their shallow burrows were being infiltrated by crickets. Crickets also found their expeditionary troops repelled and driven back, and cicadas began to infiltrate their complex tunnels.

The summer day was filled with the powerful calls of troops upon troops of crickets and cicadas battling each other to the death. Fortresses were defended, taken and retaken, and insects were stabbed, decapitated, blown away (with a powerful blast of sound), crushed by cleverly placed pebbles, devoured, and run over by cars.

The situation became even more confounding when flies began to join the war. Attracted by the countless carcasses, the various squadrons of flies made conflicting treaties with the two parties and began bombarding both sides with stomach acid from the air. It wasn't too long after, that both sides realised that aerial dominance could be very advantageous, and organised troops to rise into the shimmering air to duel, slicing, grappling and generally crashing about. Insect limbs rained down on the melee fighting below. Eventually, the flies too got scared of the ferocious fighting and left as well, with half the troops they had arrived with.

It was when the sky turned a purplish hue that the fighting stopped. The dying crawled about trailing unmentionables, whilst the dead simply lay there. The road through the field was in a disgusting state with a two-cricket-height layer of tyre-compressed bodies.

The Cricket Kingdom had three fortresses left into which to retire, and the Cicadian Empire was more like a county now. But it had been determined by the rules that the fighting could not end until one side had capitulated, or been wiped out decisively. And that had not happened yet.

So, during the next day, when the dew of the night turned into raging rain, the casual observer (sensibly donned up in a blue raincoat) could see before him a curious sight. On the road (washed clean by the rain, with the crushed bodies neatly washed-up as ridges on either side of the asphalt), the entire remaining populations of crickets and cicadas stood in orderly columns and lines, facing each other across the glistening surface.

All was silent but for the patter of precipitation upon the bodies of the insect foes.

It was only when a car raced past, barely missing the front lines of either side, that the fighting began. The lines converged on the road in a frantic charge and struggle. Curiously, it was still more or less silent, with only an intensified sound of grappling and clawing. Until the first blood was drawn -- an unfortunate cricket beset upon by the fangs of three cicadas letting out a shrill cry, and then a louder cry from a cicada 5 inches from said cricket, who was having its abdomen cut open by the sharp wings of a cricket.

The final battle was over in a matter of minutes. During this time, two cars rushed along the road, crushing the greater half of the battlefield under their wheels, and greatly shortening the struggle.

It was the end of the Empire and the Kingdom. As the clouds parted, grey lined with gold, the last cricket and the last cicada ceased their fighting and laid down on the slippery road. From the wet fields around them, the frogs started calling.

The Cave

2006-07-12T00:47:00.000+10:00

She had long been in that place, but could remember her home as if it were yesterday. For reasons not known to her, she had been sent to this place during the time when it was covered with ice. In a blazing rock, she had descended, to the astonishment of those who beheld the Falling. For her, time was a fluid concept. After all, she was not a creature bound by time, or living on borrowed time. Just as she experienced most of human history in a minute, she also experienced the most intense of seconds as years. Sending out as her avatars the birds, she listened to the concerts of human music, she experienced the taste of human blood on the battlefield, and felt the rending heartaches of those hopelessly in love.

The cave, once sparkling with ice crystals, had now become a surreal wonderland of translucent minerals and coloured streams of water, carving their way through the rocks. And it was in the middle of the cave that she had stood motionless ever since she arrived.

But around the time when her plumaged avatars were stricken by devastating illnesses, and the sky turned toxic, she began to feel the first tinglings of activity. Her wings, which until then had been a transparent film, grew white feathers. It was not long after (or was it eons after?) that she felt another Falling. One like her, but very far away.

But what brought her out of the cave was the second Fall. The descent had torn the wings off this angel, and this -- her daughter, her sister, her mother, was at absolute risk of being impaled by the poison of the world. It was then she awoke. She was to bestow new wings and create warriors who would purify the world.

Makoto Shinkai new work unveiled!

2006-07-11T01:00:00.001+10:00

Makoto Shinkai's newest work to be released in 2007 has been unveiled, with the opening of its official website. "Speed of 5 centimeters per second - a chain of short stories about their distance" is going to be a series of 3 short works (Sakura, Cosmonaut, Speed of 5 centimeters per second) probably about the distance (physical or otherwise) which separates those who should be together. The site contains trailers, wallpapers, a gallery. It looks to be a great work. The director seems to have gone full circle with this latest announcement: Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko was in reflective mode, and then Hoshi no Koe and Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho were works of prevailing science fiction themes, but contained undertones of human loneliness and love. This latest work takes that particular strand and emphasises it.

I am looking forward greatly to Mr Shinkai's future works!

2006-07-09T19:44:00.000+10:00

Maki Chitose collection complete.

This might be counting the chickens before they hatch, but my Maki Chitose collection is pretty much complete:

1) All the Strawberry Panic! illustrations from Dengeki G's magazine.
2) "In The House" doujin/artbook
3) All three CG Art collection CD-R's.

Only thing missing is the "Postcard Sample Collection" and "KOI-YAMI", which is quite hard to find.

|| A dialogue by the pool ||

"So there is no doubt that people are animals."

Firmly he grasped my hand and looked at me with his startling blue eyes, cold as the Arctic sea.

I put down my glass of green tea liqeur and looked expectantly askance at him.

"There is no question about it that despite the advances of civilisation, humans remain animals. And capitalism, the so-called column of civilisation, the system of social organisation hailed as the victor of the modern ages, inherently betrays the animal qualities of humans in its promotion of desire, consumption and waste."

No doubt he had thought deeply about this. I took another sip of the fragrant green liquid and replied.

"The Principle of Humanity, my friend. Kant's philosophical tenet. 'Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another, always as an end and never as a means only.' Would you presume to violate this principle which you hold so dear?"

"Let that be our ruler", said he, "But Kant is overly optimistic about the condition of these beings we call 'humans'. For how could we apply the Humanity Principle to dogs or sheep or cats? Certainly we can be _kind_ to them, but nevertheless, they are animals. Treating as humans must be differentiated from treating kindly. And I cannot be sure that these beings I called 'humans' indeed deserve the distinction from animals."

"You surely jest. For are we not humans? And if we should call ourselves 'human' and treat each other as sentient human beings, why should we discriminate against others of our kind? Though we know not the reality of their thoughts, we should be safe to presume that they, like us, are sentient humans, and thus deserving of treatment as such."

"Then we have it there in the open. Are we as human as we think we are?"

"What are you suggesting? That we are equivalent to dogs, or cats, or common cattle? Surely you must hold some distinction between humans and animals. Sentience, empathy, spirituality, morals, ethics...these things differentiate us humans from animals!"

"Certainly, I would not suggest we _are_ animals, but all things considered, are we as human as we think we are? Would we be justified in thinking that humans are not at least part animal? Just as I cannot deny that humans are in some aspects different from animals, you, too, may not deny that humans are in some aspects similar to animals. Thus far in our history of thinking, it has been that of absolutes: at one end, the animals, the barbarians, the uncivilised, uncultured, uncouth, unhygienic. And at the other end, humans, civilised, with all those things which differentiate us from animals. But any observation of reality will reveal to us that such absolutes are unjustified. Humans are less than ideal. Humans cannot be at the absolute end of such a scale. That is, humans are somewhere in the spectrum between absolute animal, and ideal civilised creature."

The lights in the pool turned on, and the wavering reflections of the water criss-crossed the umbrella above me. Holding up my glass, the reflections transformed the liquid inside into a shifting emerald. Measuring out my words carefully, I formulated my reply.

"So how can the absolute end of the humanity scale be beyond humans? After all, the humanity scale was shaped according to humans. If humans were not on the opposite end of the spectrum to animals, what is?"

"An ideal of humanity. An ideal which we strive towards, and until such time when 'humans' reach this ideal, I hold that the Kantian Principle of Humanity must necessarily be violated time and again."

"Upon what would you base such a pessimistic view?"

I turned my head slightly to follow his glance.

"Humanity is filled with paradoxes. Observe, then, the lady at the table at the opposite end. Yes, she in the red evening gown with trimmed lace. The very epitome of human civilisation, would you not say? Yet, see the reckless abandon with which she taps the ash from her cigarette into the pristine water of the pool, when an ashtray has been positioned by our friend the waiter on the table just in front of her. Recall too, the scenes at high-end departmental stores during a sale, when one might find people in suits and high heels rummaging through stock like vultures on a body, leaving behind a trailing carcass of discarded goods."

"Surely that is trivial?"

"Yes, it is trivial. But, my friend, at every act of triviality, we betray our animal traits. Everytime we choose to smoke, knowing full well its dangers to ourselves and others, we display animal carelessness. Everytime we subtly deposit our rubbish in some corner, we are acting like a common animal burying its faeces in a shallow grave. Everytime we allow personal laziness to override the Principle of Order, we resemble pigs who trample their food in their sty."

"But this fallibility...this randomness of action, surely that is the very _point_ of humanity? Surely this vulnerability is the seed of human creativity? For adherence to perfect order must certainly render us as mere machines! For example, humans in possession of Free Will should certainly be able to act as they please, even if such action is detrimental to themselves, to Order, or to those around them."

Chuckling, he wiped away a few drops of condensation which had gathered on the outside of the glass.

"There we have it. The contradiction inherent in a discussion of humanity. Is fallibility part of the ideal human? Surely the very concept of 'ideal' must preclude fallibility. Why should an ideal human, at the 'human' extreme of the Humanity Scale, have such weaknesses as to revert to animal behaviour? And why should the Kantian Humanity Principle be applied at all times to all people, when there are times humans bear more resemblance to animal behaviour? Surely it would be more realistic to treat people as animals when they act like animals?"

He continued his musing, "It is true that part of our condition is the constant struggle between the human and the animal. Even during the processes of creativity, we may be engaged in the animal or the human. For example, we might imagine violence against those who have wronged us, versus, for example, the composition of a piece of music. It is perhaps only through the processes of reasoning that we reach the apex of human ideal."

Through the frosty green of the liquid-filled glass, I spotted Her distinctive figure at the doorway. She waved, and we both looked up -- my shadow and I.

2006-07-08T00:10:00.000+10:00

Unable to move the machine, she knew it was over.

"Precipitation: 10% atmospheric saturation", flashed the screen.

Slowly the display was taken over by black blocks, as the visual sensors started dissolving. Not that there was anything to see. Just the drab sky, enclosed by the melting grey skyscrapers. Without Positron Armour insulating the machine's body, she knew that pretty soon now, the shell enclosing her cockpit would disintegrate, and she too, would be vulnerable to the Rain.

Suddenly the control panel on her lap, which had been silent and dark since the Fall, reactivated.

"All systems up. Positron generator activated. Neuron power source detected."

Neuron power source? Where from?

In any case, it appears that her machine's activation had not gone unnoticed. 3 power sources immediately appeared on her detection system, and an artillery shell smashed into her machine's head. Luckily the positron armour had restored itself, absorbing the energy of the blast.

I don't understand...

2006-07-07T23:47:00.000+10:00

...Murakami's short stories. They're experimental of course, so perhaps one shouldn't expect too much in terms of making sense. Perhaps it is like artworks, not understandable at first glance, but making more sense upon further inspection. Indeed, his short stories tend to have some great revelation at the ends of them which seems to have little relevance to what was first read. Maybe, keeping in mind these revelations when rereading the stories will actually allow decryption of some kind.

I do kinda get the "Blind Willows, Sleeping Woman" story, but that was probably one of the more obvious of the stories.

I am a dreamer

2006-07-06T23:54:00.000+10:00

Late afternoon. It was late afternoon when I sat at the rocks, on a craggy hill overlooking the sea. The blue blue sea with infinite texture, the bright sun, and the crickets unseen, but not unheard. The sun was bright, but something about it told me it was going to be evening soon. The smell of mechanic parts emanating from the motorcycle just behind me mixed with the smell of the sea whenever the wind blew. Machine and nature mixing a relaxing cocktail.

When did this happen? How did it turn out that I was all alone? A fear, perhaps, from the adolescent years, somehow persisting until today. Or perhaps not a fear...perhaps reality. As real as the waves breaking against the rocks below me, as real as the pain would be should I, in a moment of incoherence, jumped from this height.

So it was with massive doubts that I approached this year, doing what I always did, going along as it always was. But somehow along the way, the path split, and those I know started on the mountain road, whilst I continued along this level way, ending up here. A nice peaceful place it is. Solitary, comfortable, quiet. A place for the hopeless romantic, and a place for those who would care less. A place for those who do not understand, a place for those who still dream.

Revival...again?

2006-07-06T23:45:00.000+10:00

So I left off blogging for nearly a year now...and a lot has changed. I have become perhaps more academic. I've made mistakes (one in particular, but this blog is no place for it) which have changed me (for better or worse).

For example, what is the meaning of blogging? This blog aimed to be something more than a diary on which to vomit out my rhetorical questions (oops, just failed that), or an expression of personal frustration. But perhaps because of such an agenda, this blog failed after sustained activity. The personal, and the research must be counterparts. One may not exist without the other.

It's really too bad that in the course of one year, quite a few "elusive things" which I have found have not been documented in this blog. For example, I found wagashi, I found more of Maki Chitose's works, I found Hondarake, Beard Papa's, more of Itou Noizi, and a new book by Haruki Murakami ("Blind Willows, Sleeping Woman") has been released in English.

From now on, this blog will continue to document various discoveries I make, along with some of my creative processes, which may or may not incorporate personal things. And although it is not etiquette to double post or quadruple post in a row for forums, I will be breaking that rule, cuz it's my blog. :P

More Kumo no Mukou

2005-09-09T23:01:00.000+10:00

Kumo no Mukou memorial box. You can see the details in the MSFW post derived from my original forum post.

That's all for now. I really don't have much I have to say right now. :P

Merchs

2005-09-01T01:02:00.000+10:00

My new shipment

"Report from sector C purple: th-there's a woman...she's half the height of skyscrapers and she's brandishing the sword Excalibur...sh-she's razing ORB!"

Cagalli launched immediately on her Strike Rouge.

"Support! I need a buster rifle right now!"

But she realised that using that powerful weapon range would surely result in the annihilation of thousands of her citizens, and so threw it down, crushing a convoy of fleeing people.

Somewhere, watching this unfold on a screen, Kira buried his head in Lacus's lap.

Equipping herself with an Aile Strike weapons pack whilst giant Sabre demolished another 20 buildings, Cagalli immediately went on the offensive by accurately (!) throwing a beam boomerang at the raging female, only to have it deflected by an efficient swing of the Excalibur.

"FFS, she is using a bloody aimbot, I swear."

Recalling the moves made on her by Shinn on his Destiny Gundam, Cagalli pulled out her beam sword and activated it. But as soon as the vivid pink beam fully manifested itself, her Strike Rouge became underpowered and the Phase Shift system deactivated.

"Damn, so I'm a daggy grey now."

Eagerly, Cagalli rushed down to engage in close combat, sword vs sword. Finding herself no match for ExcaliburxSaber, she found shelter behind a populated skyscraper, only to have the Excalibur penetrate through the building and take out her shield, together with half of her left arm.

"dammit, someone ban her, she's wallhax0ring"

Giving the mumbling Cagalli no time to recover, Saber stepped through the by now ruined building, and finished her off with a clean blow. As the grey mobile suit fell flat to the ground (killing another few hundred by crushing the underground shelters), Saber looked on nonchalantly.

muses

2005-08-28T23:36:00.000+10:00

Black and white photo's. They're not really black and white, although I guess you could say they *are* on a micro micro level. They're really greyscale. But then again grays are made of tiny tiny pixels of different concentrations of black amidst white, depending on how closely you are looking at it.

I go through different phases of viewing black and white photo's. First of all they are stylish. But then I get tired of black and white, and I long for colour. I want to see the colour, the vibrant colour that Makoto Shinkai shows us in his films. (Is the way that he presents the world, really what he sees? Or is it simply the emphasis on vibrant colour in order to provide us with an illusion of what is possible?)

Yet, going back to photographs. Black and white. I want to see the actuality of the place, to know the colours and textures, which black and white photography seems to hide.

This photo by Leonard

However, aside from a visual aesthetic point of view, is there a deeper meaning to black and white? How do you define photographs?

Photographs are visual memories captured in a permanent (semi-permanent depending on your scope) form, whether online as JPGs and PNGs, or in prints. When I went to Japan, we captured those memories in full colour. Even to this day, I can look at the photographs and relive the moments, the very atmosphere that was there when the picture was taken. Yet...there is a degree of detachment. My unstable hands caused blurs in the photo's, the lighting was less than perfect, giving them a dim look.

For what are memories, in essence? Human memory changes, it distorts. Do photographs anchor our memories to prevent their being warped? Yet photographs can be less than perfect. Thus I believe the black and white photographs play the true part of being as close as possible to being memory. It reminds us: these are but fleeting images. Like memories, they are imperfect, their colours have disappeared. Photographs are not alive, they are dead shadows of events which have once happened. It tells us, instead of living in the past, of repeatedly reliving these memories, we should focus on the vibrancy of living in what is the *now*. Taking my eyes away from the poignantly colourless photograph, my inadequate imagination unable to colour a scene I have never seen, I look around my current environment, at the hues of colour, lifelike, perfect. I am living, sensing with all my senses what is around me. Each black and white photo is a reminder: "this is past, live in the present, and appreciate the events of the present as much as you can, for it can never return."

\\Blog redesign//

This blog is currently using a default blogger template for its layout. I don't like to use default things, so I will be redesigning it. However, due to IRL commitments, this will likely take a long time, so don't hold your breath for it. In this design, I will be trying my best to use materials from IRL, instead of just ripping images from the countless sites scattered in the web. A more creative designing paradigm for me.

\\Phantasmagoria of Flower View//

Use the tool "thbgmextractor" in addition to the correct text file to extract the music WAV files from the phantasmagoria music DAT file. The text file contains the memory addresses of the music files. Where to find? Google it. :P

I have also written a basic guide on gameplay mechanics of this game, it is on Touhou Wiki. If anyone reading this is happy to edit it, the editing discussion page includes a whole lot of raw data about gameplay which you must reword yourself and insert into the actual article.

\\Wagamama//

Wagamama...it's a Japanese restaurant I have not tried before. I think it's a fusion type Japanese cooking focusing on healthy eating. A new branch is opening in Galleries Victoria on the level just under Ichiban Boshi and Kinokuniya. It's gonna be in direct competition with Ichiban Boshi! Galleries Victoria: Sydney's Mini Akihabara!

isolatium

2005-08-22T01:41:00.000+10:00

Yeah, a kinda different title today. Maybe it's to do with the hour and my recent reflective moods. The barrier keeping this blog from becoming a personal one is really straining.

In case you didn't notice I have enabled comments to be posted by people outside of the blogspot community. That is, if anyone reads this thing. I know Ducky does, but since I don't have a stats machine running here, I have no idea at all.

\\fragile machine//
The DVD arrived the other day, and indeed it is a fantastic production. It is beautiful and detailed, although I just rushed through the film, and so did not fully appreciate the philosophical and religious implications. Perhaps I should do a closer reading next time. But I am beginning to think it's not there. Or is the film so complicatedly abstract that I need more time? In any case the DVD came with some nice bonus extras like shots of their limited edition prints and other stuff. It also granted access into the "secret section" of their site for download of various things. The UN and PWD were wrong though. They're supposed to be all in lowercase. :)

I'll maybe do more work on this later.

\\Music//

I've been downloading quite a bit of Comiket 68 music to refresh my portable player selections. So far, I have found White Lips Vocal edition to be quite outstanding. Another outstanding single from recently is Amrita, the theme song for Tsubasa Chronicle Theatrical version. I like the song "Jasmine" in the single more than the main song though. :p Yui Makino has a nice voice.

Now I am looking for the Key Sounds Label 限定CD Ma-Na, containing:
01.朝影「Kanon」
作曲:折戸伸治
編曲:羽越実有(I've)

02.夏影「AIR」
作曲:麻枝准
編曲:恩田直幸
二胡演奏:JIA PENG FANG(ジャー・パンファン)

03.Gentle Jena「Planetarian」
作曲:戸越まごめ
編曲:清水由紀(I've)

04.渚「CLANNAD」
作曲:麻枝准
編曲:京田誠一
二胡演奏:JIA PENG FANG(ジャー・パンファン)

With only four songs, I don't feel like buying it. Same with the ministerettes CD for Iriya no Sora, which contains versions of the two main vocal songs.

Another thing I am looking for is the OST for Phantasmagoria of Flower View. I don't think it's out yet, but mmmm the music is great for reliving the excitement of the game on a train.

\\Phantasmagoria of Flower View//

I think that during the few months when I stopped posting here (which shall from hereforth be referred to as the Gap), I discovered Phantasmagoria of Flower View, a "fire curtain" shooter, dual player. You shoot the fairies on the screen and also the butterflies to get rid of killer dots and to send crap to your enemy AI's screen, they do the same. Destroy enough things and your level goes up. Max level is 4, after which you can do a bomb -- unleash a spell on your opponent. If they are smart enough they will be able to reverse your spell with a spell of their own.

Despite the damn thing looking so complicated and beautiful, it is not IMPOSSIBLE to navigate. Why? Because even if the things get into your sprite (figure), you are not dead yet. You get screwed when the things hit the dot in the center of your figure, which is called the "target box", and becomes visible when you press the button to spread the field. So you navigate basically the center of your figure only.

I got the full version courtesy of Hongfire and was playing it normal level. Got through the damn thing pretty easily! Surprising? Well not really. I was playing my strongest character, and my computer was lagging due to Azureus taking up too much RAM. I think the game speed was halved or something, so it was easier to navigate. Even so, I could not finish the last level. The final boss is VERY strong. And his effects are absolutely mind-bending. It's like being in a drug-enhanced dream.

There is a very cute (but kinda pointless) fan web comic about the characters of Toho's games too.

\\Hongfire//

Due to servers going down and getting replaced, there is a warning that Hongfire is going down at the end of this month. Hopefully for a short while. We are getting someone to download the 10GB database file so they can restore it to the new server. If all goes well, 1 day downtime. BUT I seriously doubt that.

\\Yahoo//

I have completed my needed purchases and will be shipping the items back home. Destiny Gundam, Strike Freedom Gundam, Tenmon CD, and other stuff will arrive soon. I hope.

\\RL//
I talked to my primary school friend via MSN. He is now a freelance journalist and has accomplished a lot of things. He has also become very much an artistic person. Perhaps I didn't expect him to do this, but it's really great how someone my age, someone I knew from that time, has risen. His blog is at times funny, at times inspirational, and at times poignant. If it is at all possible, I want to one day work with him.

\\Create//
ad hoc creativity

Isolatium

From the echoing dome, columns of light stream down, paralleling the Grecian pillars of white marble, celestial ghosts of their counterparts, yet with much purer light than the white of the virgin stone.

A place built in my heart, a place of rest and beauty. Yet, perhaps a place of binding? For the dome hears my soft footsteps, and amplifies it. Timid steps become giant strides of imagination.

Faintly, I hear the murmur of the crowd outside, the traffic, the expectations, men scurrying like insignificant ants towards their equally insignificant vague meaningless goals.

Perhaps my dome is a place of victory. Here I find quietness, a degree of happiness. Happiness sought by those insignificant masses, not knowing it is hidden in their hearts.

Yet, a longing? A whispering draft swirling the twinkling dust in the light - "Is this right? Are we in the right place? Should we not follow in the footsteps of our fellow man? Should we not strive for the things humans strive for?" Uncertainty.

Within my pristine shell, am I left behind? Shall I never catch up, locked in self-imposed naivety?

O Isolatium
Happiness and Contentment
Or Shackling Limit?

I've Update, Fragile Machine, Links, Tenmon

2005-08-06T15:17:00.000+10:00

\\ I've update //

I've Sound has pushed back their release date for "Collective". :(

\\ Fragile Machine //

So I was in ausleech the other day and they posted up Fragile Machine which is an American independent production, a short film in 3D. Somehow that concept reminds me of Makoto Shinkai, but the work itself has echoes of Ghost in the Shell, especially "Innocence". It seems to be intriguing enough, and the trailer does look good (with the exception of a badly rendered man's face). I am going to get the DVD and see what can be done with it.

However, seeing it IS an independent production, I don't think I'll do a full rip and release of it, because I think they would appreciate some revenue from their work. Plus they are in America, and there would be a BIG problem if they decided to make it a copyright issue. Might do a partial HQ rip to get people interested in it though.

But it's interesting, isn't it, that animation like this are pushing the borders between normal animation and "anime". There might come a time when the term anime is no longer stylistically differentiated from normal animation, but instead would depend strictly on the locale and language. (If you don't understand what the above sentence meant, you are missing out. Dissect it carefully.)

\\Links//

Revenge CD kit is what Boing wants.

Adust's blog

\\Tenmon//

From the Makoto Shinkai Fanweb, it seems that Makoto Shinkai is visiting Korea and the UK. Lucky guys! I wish he would visit Australia too. But then again seeing Australia isn't exactly at the "centre of the world", not much of a chance.

But I was just thinking, if I got rich enough I'd invite him over here and see if he can make a short film from inspiration gathered here. (Sorry for the tangent just then, this blog is dedicated to facts, not fantasy. :P)

Anyhow, Tenmon, a few months back released his first album 風のセルフェリアス which I was really interested in getting at the time. daike's words were:

"I e-mailed to Mr. Tenmon and asked about his first album. He said the album was almost sold out. The album was sold only at Toranoana and K-Books, but they do not have stock now. (Anyway the two shops don't ship items internationally.) The album was Mr. Tenmon's personal production, so that may not be pressed again."

"I wish Ms Mizusawa (Ms Low) had some stock. She is going to appear at Comic Market in this year-end. I'll try to visit her booth."

Well, now I've found it, but at a premium. Unlike "Fragile Machine", because this album is so scarce, I will have no qualms on doing a full rip and releasing it into the torrent pool.

Of course, those more savvy of us out there would be hurriedly searching P2P for it. You cheap bastards. :P

Sakurazawa Itumi and I've Sound

2005-08-01T20:36:00.000+10:00

Went to Kinokuniya the other day and got Sakurazawa Itumi's La Cerisaie artbook. It was quite expensive, but oh well, Kinokuniya deserves some money. :)

If you recall, Itumi was ranked something like second in my "favourite artists", but she has since been displaced by Chitose Maki and Itoh Noizi. So she's now fourth. Her style is usually cat/dog girl loli's. The artbook is pretty cute and has a lot of content from different stuff she's done. Overall, pretty good value.

\\I've Sound//

I was wondering cuz I've Sound and more specifically, KOTOKO, had not been releasing CD's, and KOTOKO also does not have any announced works coming up. So then the other day kiki (another op) was mentioning downloading their "Fair Heaven" CD from p2p, so I checked the I've sound page.

(Fair Heaven, btw, is the limited edition CD that was received when a ticket to the Live Budokan concert event was purchased.)

Behold, "I've Sound Girls Compilation 6: COLLECTIVE" to be released 12 August 2005!

Wheeeee.

An Update At Last: Kateigaho, Kumo no Mukou, Origami Cafe, Maruyu

2005-07-23T23:23:00.000+10:00

If you thought this blog was dead, then you thought correctly. Until today.

But really, who reads this anyway?

Firstly

\\Kateigaho//

Got my Summer 2005 issue of Kateigaho International. Lo and behold, the letter I wrote to them was published. Wheeee.

Also, good news. Seeing that Kinokuniya takes around 2 months to import Kateigaho issues (due to them using sea shipping), I was considering subscription. Good thing I am a procrastinator. In Summer 2005 issue, I found out there are new subscription rates which are cheaper to ship to Oceania (that's here).

http://www2.ocs.co.jp/kgi/en/info050427en.html

Wheeee

\\Kumo no Mukou//

"Beyond the Clouds" R1 DVD came in. My full review is here.

\\Origami Cafe//

When I was going to Yoshinoya, I passed a cafe a lot of Japanese people seemed to be heading towards. This was Origami Cafe (it's just a name, it doesnt actually have anything to do with origami, and the decoration inside is crap too). It is a small operation but seems to be run entirely by Japanese and is very popular locally. I tried some of their Japanese style curry and it was not bad. However, I will have to return there someday to refresh my memory.

\\Maruyu//

One of a small chain of Japanese "konbini" stores. I found it today via a free Japanese newspaper in Kinokuniya. They were having a sale (because their stuff was expiring soon. heh). They had a lot of Japanese snacks and food, and amongst other things:

- frozen Japanese Kobe beef (!)
- frozen Takoyaki ready to make via microwave or frying pan
- a lot of instant noodles
- Pocky and other snacks. Even choco-banana flavour Pocky.
- no kitkat matcha flavour. :(

\\ Links //

http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/
Check out their "Mandership" section as well, it has some really good articles.

http://www.orbit-soft.com/index2.html

Shure E2C

2005-05-29T21:53:00.000+10:00

So the Shure E2C's have been with me for some time now. Here's a personal review of them.

The Shure E2C's are marketed as "isolation earphones". This is to be distinguished from "noise-cancelling earphones". NCE's have a little electronic box with processor inside and generates white-noises according to the environmental noise in order to neutralise them. IE's are like earplugs -- they seal the ear in order to block out the noises from outside and give better acoustics.

The main problem with IE's are getting them to seal properly. A lot of reviews have dissed the Shure E2C's because "it doesn't have bass". It actually does have bass, but the seal needs to be tight in order for the bass to be transmitted (it's lost otherwise). Perhaps it's just my ears, but none of the 3 sleeve sizes for the earphones give a perfect fit -- they unseal after a minute or two.

So I "modded" them. When I got my old mp3 player (crap machine which plays only up to 256kpbs mp3's), it came with two "clip on" phones which I never used (because it leaks sound like crazy). I took off the sponge, removed the sound drivers, put in a wad of toilet paper into the cavity of the casing, and covered it back up with a sponge. This "pseudo-phone" I clip over the E2C's in my ear to provide just the right amount of pressure to keep the phones from unsealing. It's perfect. Isolation 96%.

In other news, check out "Naisho no Tsubomi". Great stuff.

Earphones and Stuff

2005-05-23T23:27:00.000+10:00

Well, looks like I haven't been updating here for quite some time. 2 weeks or something, to be exact. Been busy. Real life in intruding everywhere and assignments and stuff keep going on and on.

Anyhow, today I got a new pair of earphones to use with my MD. I was sick of not being able to listen to the music when getting off the train, or when the train was in a tunnel. So I got the Shure E2C earphones. I was considering the Etymotic E6 ones, but they are just a bit too expensive. And hard to get. The phones are pretty nice, built strong with thick wires. They are a bit fiddly to put on and it was only after a few tries that I decided on using the "Standard" plastic sleeves for the best fit.

121 AUD. Ouch. But I sure hope it works to block out external noises. It doesn't seem to work when there's no music playing. I want to be able to listen to the softer phases of classical music when on the train in a tunnel, and I want to be able to block out other people talking. I hate the damn people! >:|

Also, KOTOKO's new Album is coming out sometime early June. Hurray. It's on preorder of course. But I've given up on Nami Tamaki (in terms of buying her stuff) -- her Heroine single was crap (I am sure I've talked about this before) and her album "Make Progress" did not have many outstanding songs either.

\\Sukuuru Deezu//

A song I would definitely recommend to everyone is "Anata ga...inai", a vocal from the game SchoolDays.

Here are the lyrics I did for it. Ph33r my poetical skills.

1) Jpn Script + Translation
2) Romanised

<<>>
<<>>

笑顔がゆらぐ
声が震える
にじんでく景色

A fluctuating smile
A trembling voice
The spreading vista

仲良くなりなく声がけたの
純粋な瞳まぶしくて
近くにいたいから　もっともっと
小さな痛みわ知らないフリ

Friendships disappear, words remain
Your pure eyes are dazzling
So I want to be nearer, more and more
A small pain comes from not knowing

本当に大切な人を
いつのまに手に入れたの？
はしゃいでる　いつもよりおしゃべれね？
突き刺さる現実

A really important person
When did I put my hand in his?
Frolicking, talking normally?
A piercing reality

笑顔がふらぐ
声が震える
気づかれぬようにうつむく
あなたが。。。いない
ここには。。。いない
わかりあえたのに埋まらない距離

My smile comes and goes
My voice trembles
Not wanting to be noticed, I look down
You are...nowhere to be found
You are...not here
Just having understood and met each other, we are separated by an unbreachable distance

コトバ交わすだけで嬉しくなる
優しい瞳に包まれて
ひたむきな気持ちに怯えながら
精一杯の想い　そっと捧げた

Only by exchanging words can we become happy
Your kind eyes embrace me
Even though I'm afraid of these single-minded emotions
My earnest feelings, I give them to you gently

本当に大切な出逢い
ゆっくりとはぐくむたい
届けたい　届かない　いつからか
不安だけふくらむ

A really important encounter
I want to slowly cherish it
Wanting to send, not receiving, since when
Did only uneasiness grow?

離れることが運命なんで。。。
ずっとこのままと信じてた
あなたが。。。いない
ここにわ。。。いない
受け入れられずに探し続けた

That our separation is fate...
That is what I've always believed
You are...nowhere to be found
You are...not here
Without having accepted anything, I continue to search

涙が伝う
コトバは消える
からまる想い　ほどけない
あなたが。。。いない
ここには。。。いない
ゆき先なくした　孤独なため息

Tears follow each other
Words disappear
Entwining feelings cannot be undone
You are...nowhere to be found
You are...not here
You went ahead of and were lost to me | A lonely sigh

笑顔でいるから。。。好きでいさせて
Because there is a smile...love is created.

<<>>

Egao ga yuragu
koe ga furueru

Nijin deku keshiki

Nagayoku nari naku koe ga ketano
Junsui na hitomi mabushiku te
Chikaku ni itai kara motto motto
Chiisana itami wa shiranai furi

Honto ni taisetsu na hito wo
Itsunomani te ni ireta no?
Hashai deru itsumo yori o shaberi ne?
Tsuki sasaru genjitsu.

Egao ga yuragu
koe ga furueru
Kizukarenu youni utsumuku
Anata ga...inai
kokoni wa...inai
wakariaeta no ni umara nai kyori

KOTOBA kawasu dakede ureshikunaru
Yasashii hitomi ni tsutsumarete
Hitamuki na kimochi ni obie nagara
seiippai no omoi sotto sasageta

Honto ni daisetsu na deai
Yukkuri to hagukumu tai
Todoketai todokanai itsukaraka
Fuan dake fukuramu

Hanareru koto ga unmei nande...
zutto kono mama to shinjiteta
anata ga..inai
kokoni wa...inai
Ukeire rarezu ni sagashi tsutsuketa

Namida ga tsutau
Kotoba wa kieru
Karamaru omoi hodokenai
anata ga...inai
kokoni wa..inai
yuki saki naku shita kodoku na tame iki

egao de iru kara...suki dei sasete

...I hope the Japanese rendered correctly.

SchoolDays is a H-game (duh) which is "revolutionary" in that it plays like an anime OAV. It is animated (albeit looking like cheap animation, but animated nevertheless). It is fully voiced of course, and if any of you were downloading it, you would know it takes 8 GB. Then another 8 GB for install.

What should I say...don't. Don't download, don't play it. It is an outstanding game to be sure, but there's some pretty twisted stuff in there. I'd do a Freudian analysis of one of the characters, but not here.

\\Classical Music//

I found out the song which the Gunslinger Girls ED is based on. It is Faure's "Apres un Reve". Now can someone tell me what the Maria-sama ga Miteru ~Haru~ OP is based on?

\\Poems and stuff//

Whee I am a creative person, so not only am I posting the lyrics above, I am also posting a suite of Haiku in the theme of Summer that I did the other night. Haiku, remember, is 5-7-5 in terms of syllables for each line.

Awake to darkness
A sliver of rainbow falls
A new summer day

Rattling kettle boils
Chatter of radio news
Yawning, I emerge

Sea of white earbuds
A light-flooded carriage
A cage of beauty

Isolated man
Refuge in beats and rhythm
Hedgehog's Dilemma

A stale breeze blows
Yellow grass, shimmering air
Furin cools my soul

A glistening shell
Blinding amidst hot bright sand
From whence has it come?

Two birds in the sky
Empty lemonade bottle
I yearn for the wind

Cicadas calling
Two shadows on pitch black ground
Darkness overlaps

...and here's some more stuff I made up for one of my friend's birthday...

~Introduction~

The day which only comes once a year
Remembering it

A great friendship is embodied in small words
These I give to you

~main~ ::haiku::

On this your birthday
No presents but words I give
Wishing happiness

Three people chatting
In the shimmering summer
Treasured memories

Though the years may change
Numbers are only numbers
Enjoy the moment

~conclusion~

Happy Birthday
San Yak Fai Lok
Shen1 Re4 Quai4 Le4
Tanjoubi Omodeto
Bonne Anniversaire

Gankutsuou, Links, and other stuff

2005-05-11T12:30:00.000+10:00

First, other stuff(TM)

I received my furins, but right now the one I deployed is hanging in the dining room window, and it doesn't seem to get a lot of wind, so I haven't seen it in natural action.

Now, for anime and stuff.

I recommend Speed Grapher (for those little readers out there who are not already watching it). It's got some risky content, but overall it is a captivating show.

Other than that, I highly recommend Gankutsuou, which is the anime version of Le Comte de Monte Cristo. The reasons for "highly recommend" are as follows:

- Plot: extremely involved plot, though deviating a little from the traditional novel storyline. It covers not only the main line, but also all the side lines of the 3 enemies and their families. All these are networked with each other in a complex manner and all in all it becomes an epic. This is truly a modern interpretation of the text, as the context/setting is that of interplanetary travelling, where conflicts range across the universe, yet in the midst of all this there is still the old-style feel, old style cars, coats, staffs, opera, etc.
- Detail/Graphics/Animation: one negative point many will point out is the use of textures for clothing and hair, which is basically a texture sheet behind the cel, the clothing and hair is transparent to show the texture behind it, and when there is movement, the texture does not move, instead it is as if the clothes/hair is moving over the texture. This is a cost-saving measure, I think, but the animators do not shirk from work in other aspects of the animation, with good blending of 3D with 2D, and just sheer volume of details in decor and such, especially in architecture, paintings, etc. in the environment.
- Characters: believable characters. Gankutsuou (King of the Cavern) is very multi-faceted, and you can see his internal conflict and pain very clearly, especially towards the end. It's also quite cool he can't be killed. Not only the protaganists are fleshed out, other side characters are also more or less detailed in background stories and emotions. The character of Haydee ("Ede" in katakana) is great.

I love Haydee's dresses.

Links:

American as a teacher in Japan: extremely humorous accounts of his teaching times

Other stuff:

More other stuff! I love my HiMD, it is a RH10, 1 GB of stuff in one disk. I think I have posted about this in here before, but's really great. I am waiting for new generation of the media, for cooler looking disks.

Yoshinoya

2005-05-11T11:59:00.000+10:00

OK, Yoshinoya has a store in Sydney, had it there for I'm not sure how long. It was around when I first went to Uchi Lounge, and I had passed it. It is located on Oxford Street in Darlinghurst.

The first time I went out specifically to find it, it took a lot of walking from the wrong streets, a lot of street crossing, etc. However, I have found that it is not that inaccessible. You just need to come out of the right exit of Museum Station (alternatively it is possible to walk to it from a street located horizontally between Town Hall and Central). Find the corner of the Memorial Park with a grey canon, and it should be pointed in the general direction of Yoshinoya.

The cheapest "meal" is just a regular bowl of Beef Don, and it will cost 4.40. Not bad for lunch. Thinking of it this way, it is possible to buy both lunch and dinner total costing less than 10 dollars. Meals are a bit more expensive, coming with standard options of green tea (Sencha teabag), salad (potato or garden), rice bowl, miso soup. Possible to upgrade the tea to cold green tea (Lipton) for extra 1.10. Possible to add a fresh (i.e.: raw) egg for 95 cents.

The egg, when mixed in with the bowl, adds to the texture of the rice, makes it more smooth (obviously), and also much more filling. Of course I know some people will have problems with raw eggs and all that, so obviously that is not a choice.

In the end, the Beef Bowl is the best value for money. I tried the chicken teriyaki one for more expensive, and it wasn't as nice (possibly to do with seasoning sauce) and had more vegetable and only like 5 slices of chicken. So stick with the rice bowl.

The place seems to get most of its business from takeaway. It has a fast turnover rate, which makes it ideal. But they come in foam boxes, which is not microwaveable. So when I got takeaway for dinner (around 7 hours after order), I warmed it up by putting a plate on top of the foam box, turning the construction around, leaving a perfect bowl-shaped heap of rice on the place with the beef at the bottom. Without touching it, microwaved it for a minute or two till heated up (or warmed). If you are lucky the heated up thing will keep its shape, and you merely put the foam bowl over the heap, reverse the construct again, and you have a perfect heated beef bowl.

Of course it's not as good as when fresh, but the quality is acceptable and due to the moisture-retaining nature of Japanese rice, it is not all dried out and hard. Try it with other Asian grain types and you would have cat food.

And here is the infamous Yoshinoya rant, I believe first from 2ch then translated in 4ch.

[[[ Anyways, >>1, please listen to me. That it's really related to this thread.
I went to Yoshinoya a while ago; you know, Yoshinoya?
Well anyways there was an insane number of people there, and I couldn't get in.
Then, I looked at the banner hanging from the ceiling, and it had "150 yen off" written on it.
Oh, the stupidity. Those idiots.
You, don't come to Yoshinoya just because it's 150 yen off, fool.
It's only 150 yen, 1-5-0 YEN for crying out loud.
There're even entire families here. Family of 4, all out for some Yoshinoya, huh? How fucking nice.
"Alright, daddy's gonna order the extra-large." God I can't bear to watch.
You people, I'll give you 150 yen if you get out of those seats.
Yosinoya should be a bloody place.
That tense atmosphere, where two guys on opposite sides of the U-shaped table can start a fight at any time,
the stab-or-be-stabbed mentality, that's what's great about this place.
Women and children should screw off and stay home.
Anyways, I was about to start eating, and then the bastard beside me goes "extra-large, with extra sauce."
Who in the world orders extra sauce nowadays, you moron?
I want to ask him, "do you REALLY want to eat it with extra sauce?"
I want to interrogate him. I want to interrogate him for roughly an hour.
Are you sure you don't just want to try saying "extra sauce"?
Coming from a Yoshinoya veteran such as myself, the latest trend among us vets is this, extra green onion.
That's right, extra green onion. This is the vet's way of eating.
Extra green onion means more green onion than sauce. But on the other hand the price is a tad higher. This is the key.
And then, it's delicious. This is unbeatable.
However, if you order this then there is danger that you'll be marked by the employees from next time on; it's a double-edged sword.
I can't recommend it to amateurs.
What this all really means, though, is that you, >>1, should just stick with today's special. ]]]

Copy and pasted from here. Translations have many versions, and there are better versions with a lot of swearing. :P

Links and Eat

2005-04-25T21:23:00.000+10:00

I just found out about LiteStep. I mean, it's been around for such a long time, I guess I must be the only one who didn't know about it. :P BTW, the page linked is not the 'definitive' page, but as close as you can get to a solid collection of n00b-useable resources for it. I'll be experimenting with it a bit on and off.

Secondly, what about Aliens Love Predators, a second-rate but quite humorous web-comic.

Next, with Winter coming up, I am thinking of getting Furin's (Japanese glass wind-bells) (yes, they are for summer. :P) I am contemplating Edocraft as a possible source of it.

As for eating:

Oxford St., Darlinghurst is home to a Yoshinoya branch (first in Sydney). Yoshinoya sells gyudon beef rice bowls, which is a favourite in Japan (didn't eat it in Japan though!). That is one place to check out.

End of the "main Chinatown walk", on the right hand side, is a "fast-food style" Chinese dumpling restaurant. Some dishes there are not good, they use far too much coriander...but other than that it is refreshing to have such a specialised place. The orders are slow to come through though I think it will be more streamlined in the future.

CocaCola Amatil has introduced Fanta Grape to Australia at last. My friend Ducky is crazy about Fanta Grape of course (got hooked in Japan), so I had brought back the small metal bottle-can of Fanta Grape from Japan for him. But now they sell in 1.5L bottles, so it's cool. Hopefully it's not limited edition, I bought three from the supermarket, and they're all finished (gave one to him), and the supermarket has none left on its shelf either.

Kura Japanese Dining

2005-04-22T17:02:00.000+10:00

Nestled away in plain view (I know that's contradictory) in Chinatown, Sydney, is a small Ramen Bar. It is along a roads junction, opposite of Market City.

During the evenings, that place is always crowded with people waiting for seats/food. I wondered why that was.

So this is one review about a place which is not obscure -- rather it is widely known amongst "the normal people", at least those around that area.

The place is small -- there is no "hidden kitchen" though there might be a hidden storeroom. Like most ramen and sushi bars in Japan, there's a bar people sit at, behind which is the "kitchen" where around 3 attendants make food. Satellite to that is a "counter" with simple cash register and someont to take the order. There is another row of bar at the window, whose people sit with their backs to the other bar. Just generally a small place, ok?

Anyway, I went there today just before midday to see what the fuss was about, cuz you know, it ain't crowded during that time. But alas, all the seats were already taken (which is not a hard task, I guess). Rather than wait for a seat (which would take half an hour at least, I thought), I ordered takeaway. Takeaway Japanese food means sushi -- I am not confident enough of my reflexes to order the liquid-filled Ramen or fragmentary rice. So I ordered their "Sushi Combination Set" for 9.80 (the Super Set is 12.50 or something but BIG...and VARIED). Also ordered Takoyaki.

After some waiting (around 7 cycles of traffic lights), the food came out, neatly in plastic boxes and plastic bags of course, the two items separatedly. They also added as a bonus a foam cup of miso soup. Points added as required!

Presentation and equipment:

Styrofoam cup with lid for miso. I think it might work better if they used coffee-type lids, but then again the shallows wouldn't go through the spout, would it.

2 pairs of disposable chopsticks with their paper covers. Too bad I'm single, but useful to use separate chopsticks for different items.

1 packet kikkoman soy sauce. I didn't bother opening this one. Too unstable to be playing around with liquids here.

1 transparent standard sushi takeaway box, fairly large.

1 decorated foam tray with tight fitting plastic lid for the takoyaki. Nice touch, the lacquerware-like patterns.

Miso soup was good. It was white miso, and didn't taste like it was instant. I dunno, maybe it was. But it was good. Thing is, it wasn't swimming with seaweed, but did have a bit of shallots near the bottom.

OK, so I went on the train and started with Takoyaki. Problem is, by definition, Takoyaki has a kinda watery soy sauce thing which goes with it. Not a Good Thing(TM) if it's in a plastic takeaway box. I mean, the tray was nice, all flowery and looking like lacquer-ware. But not liquid proof! So unknowingly I took the thing out and a drop of sauce landed on my trousers! OMFGWTFBBQ! Black trousers though, so it was ok. Quickly pushed the thing back into the (by now soaked with sauce) plastic bag, and proceed from there.

The Takoyaki was good. I haven't really developed a system for evaluating quality in Takoyaki (they seem to all taste the same), but this one was good: the batter inside was light, though the skin was not crispy. Taste was just right, bonito flakes alright. The only thing I would bitch about was the skin -- some were sogged (due to being in the sauce for 10 minutes or so) and the others weren't crispy. Not sure if it is supposed to be crispy, but it's always nice. Just the right temperature (last time I had Takoyaki they were piping hot inside). Depends what you like of course -- for me this will do because it allows "easy" and "quick" eating. Which is what you want when you are on a shaky train.

For 3.90 for I think 8 Takoyaki, it's good value too. Kinda. Similar items at Michitaro would give you 4 or 5 only.

Next, main item. Sushi Combination Set. It was a large box (compared to say Sushi ya's "Lunch Sashimi Set" which is maybe half the size). There were...about...6 cucumber type small wrapped sushi, and Tamago (egg), Salmon, Squid, Unagi, Prawn, White-type, another Pink type, so around seven sashimi which were not normal type servings. These were the REAL(TM) thing with size, luster, etc to match. The variety of fish used was something laudable, especially the choice of less well-known varieties such as eki (squid). It was a true sampling of the different styles of sashimi.

When I last had sushi (at Sushi Ya), their wasabi could be eaten by itself without effect, and I think I used quite a bit of it in soy sauce for the sashimi. Presuming that here would be a potentially fatal mistake. I soon found that the wasabi these guys used was extremely potent -- use in moderation. Considering that they already put a little between the tane (fish piece) and the rice, any additional wasabi brushed on must be extremely measured.

Of course, without knowing this at first, I got "wasabilated" as they say. Wasabi stuck on the roof of my mouth, going down my throat then back up through my nose. As if one time wasn't enough, I managed to do it a second time when eating the eki one (which I had left to last). First was normal wasabilation: mild rush up the nose, then came the second and third waves with absolutely stinging eye-watering nose-holding pain. Well at least it got the loose eyelash out of my eyes.

Now, if you know anything about eating sushi, it's that chopsticks should not be used. The focussed force of the sticks tend to break up the rice, which was what happened. The train movement did not help. If I had a more static environment in which to enjoy the dish, I would have used my hands.

Miscellany aside, the ratings for this establishment are as follows:

- Food: 8.5/10
- Presentation and packaging: 7/10
- Speed: 6/10
- Environment: 5.5/10
- Authenticity: 9/10

The only thing taking marks away from Authenticity would be the fact that they offered takeaway and used plastic/foam packaging. And the fact that the environment was not decored like a sushi bar. However, it was pretty authentic in that you could use Japanese in there without problem. Hell, I walked in and they assumed I was Japanese, so good enough!

The environment could of course be much improved. But I have a feeling if it went to larger premises and more staff, the quality of the food and other stuff would decrease. As such it's good keeping it small and simple.

Places Part 1: Lindt Cafe

2005-04-15T11:30:00.000+10:00

So I am a little bored, and figured since I hadn't blogged in a while, why not do what this blog was for, and make a record of the various places in Sydney that I found were cool?

So first up is food. Lindt Cafe will be the start, because I was thinking about it on the train today. This first of its kind in the world, located in Sydney. I am somewhat surprised they didn't put one in Paris or some other class place, but anyway.

It is located in Martin Place, along that big avenue where Channel 7 building and other stuff is. Characterised by the Lindt icon on the front of the building, it is usually populated (at the correct times) with suits and other crazy people.

However, if you go at the "in-between meal" times or during the weekend, you will find more casual type people there. I have even seen hawaiian shirt and shorts in there.

The food of course is expensive, and most of it, if not all, is chocolate based. Lindt being a world-famous chocolatier of course. They range from Lindt Chocolate ice creams, multi-layered cakes, etc to chocolate tart served with a dollop of fresh cream. The feature, however, I think is the hot chocolate. Made from melted quality chocolate, available in Dark or Milk chocolate varieties. Add hot milk to the chocolate and you have what I think is the best hot chocolate in the world. Extremely filling. Order two cups or more and they include a refill jug of chocolate and hot milk. It is really quite something else and must be experienced if you have not done before.

Of course, in this age so many people worry about their weight, like eating chocolate is a sin. But believe me, it is one of the great pleasures of life and even if you must work out for 5 hours after that, it is a must.

Oh yes. At the Lindt Cafe you can buy various Lindt Chocolate products which are exclusive to that place, as well as some of the cakes and tarts featured in the menu. They all come at a price of course.

In other news...

I just bought a Hi-Md player.
I just bought Tsubasa Chronicle Manga vol 1 (English).
I will be actively following Tsubasa, and Futakoi Alt anime, in addition to the GSEED Destiny which is just getting really interesting now.

2005-04-10T21:59:00.000+10:00

My KOTOKO Live DVD's and CLAMPAZAR set arrived!

I know I haven't been blogging, because there wasn't time and I couldn't think of anything to write.

So here's my description of the merchandise.

KOTOKO live DVD's come in a box which flips open to reveal a flexi-case with two DVD's in it, then under that is the photobook from the concert carrying autographs from the band members at the back pages, then underneath that is a little compartment with a bandanna, duplicate backstage pass, and a set of 3 guitar picks.

KOTOKO sings many of the new songs like suppuration -core-, resublimity, chi ni kaeru, etc. However she also sings many of the great oldies like Short circuit, Face of Fact (preluded by a very impressive drum solo), I Just Pray to Stop My Cry (which was my favourite song for some time), and for Onegai Teacher fans, Snow Angel.

Counter to what I first thought, she hasn't straightened her teeth. She has a moderately impressive range of wardrobe though, from silver shirt + short black skirt to "snow angel" costume and other things. She also seems to have a fondness of fake hair: the silver hair she used for resublimity, and also long hair.

Overall, the concert started out cold, but the people on stage got more and more free as the time went past so that by nearly the end it was really full blown. Of course in terms of scale it cannot compare to MoMusume's concerts but it is really pretty good.

CLAMPAZAR contains 3 CD's with CLAMP anime theme songs compiled in them, and one further DVD which contains the WISH video, a new WISH animated sequence, the three CCS OP's, CLAMP School Detectives OP, X TV OP, and Chobits OP. No Clover.

CLAMPAZAR came with extra big poster of the CLAMPAZAR piccy, and Mousepad. Also the box is textured like washi paper, the words on it are mostly gold embossed. The discs are full-colour on the face. There is a little lyrics booklet too.

\\ Story //

I am starting a new literary work based loosely off the characters of Lost Angels Story. It will attempt to be quite a major work with an extensive plotline. And since this time I am writing for my "action" side interest, I think it won't be as beautiful a work as "World Without Wind". When there is too much focus on action, my writing tends to slide badly, so don't expect too much.

Current stage: I am making up the plot. Following this I must develop characters.

Orders, KOTOKO and Hiyashi Soumen

2005-04-01T23:17:00.000+10:00

Pireze released the KOTOKO Live DVD TV Raw, which basically is a preview/trial of what the "real" KOTOKO Live DVD (for Winter concerts) will be like (which was released on 1 April). I have that on order of course, bundled with the CLAMPAZAR. Only thing is, I think that the extras which came with the KOTOKO DVD(s) (there are 2 DVD's) were heavier/bulgier and so the shipping cost is increased by more than 1000 yen (closer to 2000 yen rise, probably). Not enough money...!

True to my expectations, and somewhat disappointingly, CLOVER box set by Tokyopop once again missed its release date (has missed release dates for close to three times, since year before. I don't know why Amazon still lists it).

I have of course, ordered all the first press (blah blah) AIR R2 (nosub) DVD's from Amazon.jp. I suspect (seeing its KEY), that waiting for the official box set to come out would yield more "extras" but AGH. I will need to get someone to do the omake "send in proof of purchase and postcard to get duper duper extra" thing for me.

\\Hiyashi Soumen//

In other news (though I have been doing this for the past week or so), I made Hiyashi Soumen (cold white noodles, Japanese style). It's really easy (the hard part is getting the ingredients). It just requires a few more steps and more preparation before hand than instant noodles.

Wow. The elitist nerd whatever thingy icie can cook. *hakushu hakushu* (subtitles: applause applause) So here's the recipe (cheap readymade version):

1) Gather thy ingredients with care and mercy (irrelevant to store clerks and drivers). Thou mayest find all thy required fare at thy local Asian Grocery Store, Japanese section.
- Soumen (more or less instant variety, cook in boiling water for 3 minutes type) The type I bought came in a big cuboid package, noodles bundled.
- Lots of water (purity and drinkability of the water may be varied at own risk)
- Dipping sauce concentrate (there are readymade varieties, but considering they all come in those little glass bottles with almost the same prices, concentrate will give more for your money) I got the concentrate 1 part to 3 part water variety, they called it "Tempura Dip", but it works as well.

2) Pre-preparation (a day or two before). Thou wouldst do well to chill a liter or two of water in thy fridge. Also, wouldst be wise to freeze a medium/big bowl of water in thy freezer.

3) Read the instructions on the package, and cook thy soumen in accordance with the ordinances. Drain thy soumen. Run cold water through it and drain it again.

4) Introduce the prepared big bowl-shaped ice block into a large bowl worthy to fit the ice block and the volume of noodles thou hast made. If aid is required for the detachment of the block from the bowl, use warm water with care.

5) Pour a volume of normal temperature water into the large bowl, such that the water is chilled by the ice block.

6) Pour thy drained soumen thus into this chilled aqua and large bowl. Stirreth thou? Alloweth it to cool?

7) Thou shalt now measure out in wise quantities the dip, introducing cold water from thy fridge to dilute the potent solution. Pour a quantity into a small bowl, grasp thy chopsticks and be ready for merry making.

8) Fish from the large bowl bundles of 5-6 strands of noodles, introduce them into the dip solution, stir around, then push it out and slurp it in. Behold there is much 0wn4g3.

The noodles keep in the refrigerator for around 3 to 4 days (I haven't actually pushed the keeping limits, so I can't tell you for sure). You may want to add other ingrediants if noodles + stock seems a bit too bland for you. As for me, I'm a minimalist.

BTW, this is the cheap readymade version because in the actual recipe you would be required to make your own sauce.

Elitist Rant

2005-03-30T23:19:00.000+10:00

I got the Madman trailer thing DVD in the mail today and now it is time to show off my absolute elitism -- bastardisation at its ultimate. I will demonstrate my utter contempt for the local "anime scene" as such.

As an elitist fan of the Art of Anime, I would say my attributes would be:
1) Data miner and collector
2) Artistic revelment
3) Highly anti-social
4) Culture academic
5) Collector

As a data miner and collector, that identity parallels what I am doing on this blog -- to find out information (current or otherwise) and amass them, then gather them into a coherent whole. That's what we use refined and informed keyword searches in google for, as well as translation services operating on Japanese sites. This is the core of "research". In doing so, I have refined my tastes to extremely specific areas of interest -- these are the "projects" you find on the blog, in addition to certain genres in music, film and anime. For me, the anime "scene" locally and in America are always months or years later than Japan. To remain on the cutting edge of information on the net for such a long time means watching the previews dvd madman produced was painful and boring. To be dumped backwards, to have information which is "old" recycled and sensationalised over is an unnatural state. Here they are, self congratulating on release of Gundam SEED, and Gundam SEED Destiny is already around half way into the series. There they are, rhapsodising on what a great convention Animania was, when it does not even compare to COMIKET or some of the American or even European conventions.

So in terms of anime, I am no longer "I enjoy all anime" sort of fan. It's more like "I enjoy the genres of...". For example, I no longer seek out comedy, old-school or slapstick action (as opposed to more serious asskicking action). The exclusion of the three above categories (and more) has meant that I no longer share the interests of a majority of local anime fans. I would identify myself as one caught between boundaries of "gaijin anime fandom" and "hardcore comiket-going otaku".

For me, being anti-social is a vital part of my identity. For "otaku" in Japan at least, social skills with the rest of society is a large issue, but for me, socialisation with any external persons not within my pre-established circle is unacceptable. Indeed I find it pointless to be engaged in a large or a close community. I have huge problems with conformity, to being "like the rest". That's not saying I am a goth (especially with that dreaded overused word "conformity"), but I have trouble with "fitting in". I don't like operating to a status quo, being highly individualistic. That is why I won't take part a whole lot in communities, real or online. That is also why small, specialised, loose groups like Ausleech are perfect for me, and why I like the IRC chat medium. I hate boundaries and protocols. This has, I think, been one of the reasons for my withdrawal from the local anime scene over the past year or so, especially from the anime clubs. I cannot help but feel contempt for the organisations of community and the pseudo-social gatherings online or IRL they seem to be so fond of.

Culture academic: I have gone perhaps beyond a simple interest in anime to a deeper need to understand the Japanese culture. This is accomplished partially through what can be seen in anime, but also by experiencing Japan itself, and by data-mining it. Kateigaho International, I will admit, has developed a lot of my perspective on Japanese culture. I guess the biggest question for me to answer would be the history and process by which the Japanese society has managed to create the unique otaku community and culture, and the extreme contrast between the Apollonian "honourable primness" with the Dionysian wildness of concerts, and the dark world of pornographic material. How "light" and "darkness" in this society managed to be developed in parallel yet kept away from each other is a point of extreme interest.

And in the end, as a collector. Sure collecting R4's is nice to have subtitles and stuff, but R1's come out faster, and R2's come out even faster. Compared with R2's in terms of quality and "extras", R1's and R4's pale. Though in terms of cost, well I have nothing to say. I'll say right now though, original Japanese merchandise rules all. I won't bother with cheapo China-made keychains, crap printed laminate posters, etc. That's why I don't like Tamarket or other local merchandise shops -- their stuff is old, most of their CD's are not original or authentic, and they just don't sell stuff I would be interested in. Add to that, their cost is some crazy rip off.

\\JPOP//

Recently in terms of Jpop, I downloaded Nami Tamaki's upcoming "Heroine" PV. She does considerably less dancing (not good) and there's like this weirdo woman in the video with her. At least her voice still retains the quality I find so attractive, but the song on the whole is not that nice.

Also, downloaded Double You's 2nd W album. Excepting the "Samidare Koiuta" song, their song's were not too good. Samidare Koiuta was excellent though.

Got acquainted with a new artist, the singer of NOIR ending. She has a big discography (well, medium, not as much as KOTOKO). So I will be trying to get some of her albums.

\\Releases//

CLAMPAZAR
Possibly CLOVER box set from Tokyopop
"Heroine" single
KOTOKO Winter Live DVD

\\Anime//

I went to a leech party over the week end and got approx 30 GB of stuff: complete Tenjou Tenge (watching now), Otoguizoshi, Gankutsuou (Count of Monte Cristo) (partially started), Jinki, etc.

Jinki is pretty confusing. I don't think I can accept that the blond long hair girl, the main character in the manga I have read, turned crazy.

AIR finished. There will be an ep 13 as a recap, and reports of an August episode with Kanna as the main girl. Hmmmm... I'm getting the first press DVD's too so yeah. No subs rewatching goodness.

AIR ending was good, tearjerking stuff there...for 5 minutes. Then after that it was "let's tie up the ropes". Much as I hate criticising what has been my favourite series so far, I felt the ending was rushed, and I am pretty sure a lot of people will be like "WTF, do a bit more explanation on the Yukito -> Crow issue plz!" In addition, the story suffered from the weakness of "reducing the audience to tears via use of an implausible and fantastic scenario". I think that the real skill in drama type storylines would be to skilfully bring out the intrinsic sadness in a normal situation. Whilst AIR succeeds in most part to do so, especially the relationship between Misuzu and Haruko, the whole winged being, dreams and imminent death construct was needed to frame it together, somewhat reducing its impressiveness.

I was disappointed of course that Misuzu and Yukito and Haruko did not succeed in resolving the Kanna situation. After all, it was the same repetition: the girl died without being able to bring happiness to Kanna. In a way, the ending is a "reset" one -- the cycle repeats again with the words "Bitter days for them, a new beginning for us". It was weak though, I thought that the will to help Kanna was passed on through the bloodline, so unless the boy is some hidden brother or whatever...

Clover, Murakami Haruki

2005-03-25T22:50:00.000+11:00

So I have not been doing much nowadays, trawling around on ebay and yahoo jp trying to find new things, but nothing new has been released.

\\Clover Update//

The only thing I have bought is the Amie Dec 199x issue, and "A Work of Clover", a doujinshi artbook by Nobuteru Yuki.

"Why get an artbook?", I hear the queries. Indeed it would seem mightily strange to my (substantially little) readers that an elitist/purist such as myself would deviate from Genuine/Official Articles to dabble in the inferior world of fan-made fantasies.

Well, two reasons:

1) It looked good.
2) It would be available from normal sources at around twice the price, at 4000 yen it is a steal.
3) Nobuteru Yuki happens to be the character designer for the CLOVER animated video.

Ah, there's the rub. Bam Bam, 92 pages of line drawings. Heh.

\\Murakami Haruki//

Okay, seeing I have nothing to write, let's write a relatively easy section on another of my pet projects. Hunting the elusive writings of Murakami Haruki.

If you don't already know about him, you need to read more book reviews. Even TIME magazine has had one recent article about him. His newest book is "Kafka on the Shore" (well maybe not latest, released beginning of the year in English). 4 years to wait for his next book to come out in English.

I first got into his literature 3 years ago (I think). In the middle of the "World Without Wind" major work, I found myself avidly consuming new anime. And one of the new anime was Haibane Renmei (Charcoal Feathers Federation). Doing basic research on it, I found out it was based on Murakami Haruki's world in "Hardboiled Wonderland and The End of the World". After some time I went to Kinokuniya's to find it and read it. I was impressed by its "contemporary-ness" and went on to collect his books.

He is a renowned author in the Western world and fortunately the translators are excellent in preserving or embellishing his style. To cut things short, the quest is for his out of print English-translated books:

Pinball, 1973
Hear the Wind Sing

Both were published long ago and are small books, now out of print. Recently a copy of Pinball 1973 sold for a crazy amount of money.

I can find both books in the university library, but really owning them would be nice. I got Hear the Wind Sing from ebay already (quite easily, I must say), so it is just Pinball.

Besides the books translated into English, he also wrote a few other more obscure ones, and some short stories and essays which have not been translated. Too bad I can't read Japanese (yet).

\\Merchandise update//

Got the Angel/Dust Neo compilation manga from Kinokuniya.

2005-03-22T15:18:00.000+11:00

Project: SoftSubDVD

Status: Complete/Compiled

Duration: Approx. 2 weeks

Software count: Subtitle Workshop, Substation Alpha, WMP, VbSb, DVD Decrypter, DGIndex, Gspot, Notepad, VirtualDub, MaestroSBT, Firefox, WinDVD, Paint Shop Pro, DVD-lab Pro, Nero (Total: 15)

Image Version count (in quick succession):
Alpha (failed: subtitles failed to load, menu not highlighted)
Alpha X1 (failed: subtitles display wrongly, menu not highlighted)
Beta (fixed subtitle partially, problems with parallel lines and lyrics positioning, menu's fixed mostly)
Pre-release (subtitles fixed, but with subtitle freeze at ~00:03:00, menu's partially fixed), Release-ready (subtitle freeze resolved by variations of the milliseconds: currently awaiting tests)
(Total: 5 attempts)

\\ DVD Sub Project Update //

2005-03-21T19:17:00.000+11:00

You might have noticed that this blog was not updated for another few days. Real life is catching up to me, and I am too busy running.

But it was a condition that "real life" (apart from food/cool places quests) would not figure into this blog, so that entire part is gone.

I have to remind myself to put up the photos and diary entries from the Japan trip some time.

So the sub project.

The subs were finished long ago, and in the interval between the last entry and this one, I started on (and nearly completed) the DVD Authoring.

At first, I was using Scenarist. All going ok (seeing that Scenarist was harder than most programs to learn), until it decided to be a total bitch. Firstly, it wants subs in its own format, a time text file referring to uncompressed BMP's of the subs. So I have to use this program called MaestroSBT to convert. Secondly, when I DO give it what it wants, it freezes, spits out an error, or just closes without explanation (or all of the above). That program has SERIOUS compatibility issues.

So I decided, to hell with dodgy subtitle support, crappy compatibility and even more complicated menu making. I went one step down from "professional" and into the waiting arms of DVD-lab (PRO). DVD-lab by itself doesn't have features I need such as subtitles. DVD-lab PRO does. It features a good GUI design (like that of web design tools or graphic design tools). Importing assets (unlike Scenarist) is fast and painless. Most of all, it allows import of subtitles. Of course, you need to "process" them in the program to make them useable (I didn't know about that step so my first DVD compile was a failure).

As for menu making, they are pretty easy too, although the graphics designs tools available are very limited in choice and also the options there are pretty obscure sometimes. But once you get used to it, it is easy. It uses an object-oriented design (click, change object properties, etc.) If you want to do more complex design in terms of buttons, a graphics design program is a must. I made most of my buttons and stuff using Paint Shop Pro (hahaha, I don't use Photoshop for some reason). I also copied a lot of stuff from the original DVD menu graphics.

In addition, with the clone menu option, it is easy to make the chapter select stuff, though you need to unlink the clones or they will affect each other (not a good thing if you want them to display different text, links and pictures).

In terms of menu button selections, there's only a highlight in xx color option, but that's enough for my current purposes.

Am now compiling a second DVD, let's see if it will work this time.

Soft Sub Project

2005-03-15T19:20:00.000+11:00

So I haven't updated for a few days, I was busy.

First on my list is transcribing the Kumo no Mukou subtitles to soft subtitle file so

1) Can resize the subs to watch on TV
2) Can use it with the DVD-Raws
3) Possibly author a Kumo no Mukou DVD with subtitles.

It's taking a long time, but progress is being made. At first I was doing manual timing via notepad and virtualdub. Then I was using Subtitle Workshop (which still sucks, it does not allow simultaneous subtitles and other finer features). Then I used AVISubDetector + Subtitle Workshop, which is my current working configuration.

AVISubDetector is definitely a recommended tool, saves a lot of time by capturing subtitle timings from AVI files. It detects colour changes in the bottom segment of the video picture. It does have OCR, but since that's in BETA stages, it doesn't work (froze a few frames in).

Of course, it does have problems. If the picture changes too suddenly it thinks subs have appeared, and rogue subs come up everywhere, sometimes it misses when the subs change, etc.

Subtitle Workshop allows pretty quick subbing with good enough keyboard shortcuts, quick preview of subs with the video, etc. I'll have to do the final edit with SubStationAlpha once the main body of subs have been completed though, to add the multiple lines thing and other crap.

As for the DVD-authoring...well we'll leave it for later.

\\ Anime related news //

CLAMP's Tsubasa Chronicles is being animated and shown on NHK.
Gundam SEED Destiny (since being licensed) will be subbed by Haro^2 and Tori^2 group.
The new Gundam in GSD is called... *gasp* the Destiny Gundam. It features a gun in it's hand (like Godfinger effect).

\\ Stuff related news //

Found this new place to get Japanese stuff (especially food). The JUSCO in the Chatswood Westfield (I think it's Westfield), 2nd Top floor has a good Japanese section selling specialised Japanese food. I saw Green Tea Soba noodles there, amongst other goodies. Also a good place for cheap Japanese Green Tea (though of course they do not have premium matcha). I got some sorbet mix, a big pack of soumen noodles, and Genmai-cha tea bags.

Of special interest in JUSCO Chatswood (I only refer to this branch, because there are many JUSCO in Sydney and some of them are shit) is the wide array of drinks (most imported), a moderate selection of canned asian food, but a big selection of instant noodles.

\\ Me related news //

I need a new DVD-ROM drive for my laptop. My current one is one of the rare ones which refuse to work with all-region software.

\\ Links //

http://www.despair.com/

ahahahahaa

New Project, Package and Links

2005-03-10T22:15:00.000+11:00

\\ Strawberry Panic and Chitose Maki //

Chitose Maki is the illustrator of Strawberry Panic, an illustrated novel found in Dengeki G's Magazine (it's yuuuuriiii). Her art is pretty good, though she has a status of doujin artist still. That basically means that her books and arts compilation CD's are extremely hard to find. I think she/he is a school girl/boy still, the site said something about stopping some work due to school commitments. If Chitose went on with the art, I think she might displace Sakurazawa Itumi as my second favourite artist.

\\ Package arrived //

My package from Shopping Mall Japan came in. Contained within (not exhaustive list):

- Seraphim call CD's whole character set.
- CLANNAD phone cards and book thing
- Aoi Nanase's poster
- Another poster (haven't opened)
- Takahashi Ai's DVD
- POTATO plushie
- Winter Sonata music boxes and snowmen plushies
- Sakurazawa shitajiki
- Aoi Nanase's Weather Spirits Calendar 2005
- I've Sound Verge+Outflow+PVDVD set
- I've Sound PRIME PV DVD
- Report of Weather Spirits books 1, 3-6.
- CLOVER animated video program (B5 was bigger than I thought!)

\\ Links //

fluidtek: Cheap Carlingford computer shop
JPOPSUKI: Semi-private tracker for jpop needs (esp MoMusu)

Project: NanoNano Tshirt

2005-03-10T22:00:00.000+11:00

\\ NANONANO T-shirt Project //

Having visited the blog of the NANONANO, noticed a Jacket emblazoned with NANONANO logo and picture. It seemed like a white latex material, but was of course not for sale. "Staff only"? I wanted one. Thus this one-day project was born. :P

In any case, they had posted a pretty large (well, medium) picture of the jacket on the site, in JPG format. There was a bit of a problem with wrinkles in the jacket and glare off the latex. Quickly saved the picture, and since the jacket also needed the logo, went back to the site and saved a version of the logo.

On the train, started work on the main picture (with laptop). First, to convert the photograph to a 'vector-like' picture: resize to a bigger (and thus easier to manage) size, approximately 200%. Adjust brightness and contrast, then reduce to a non-weighted black and white picture. Obviously this resulted in a less-than-perfect vector picture, but surprisingly the effect was pretty good. It looked like a line drawing. Technically, it might also be good to increase the contrast to full, that would give the same effect. Use clarify function to fix up roughly.

Of course, due to the glare from the camera, parts of the main picture and logo lack lines or the lines are incomplete. Use the zoom function and the paint brush set to 1 or 2 pixel size to micro-manage and fix them up. In some cases, where the lines are the same on either side of the drawing (symmetrical), copy and paste on as a new layer after mirroring or rotating appropriately. Use layers of course, and erase the parts of the pasted layer that obscure other parts of the main picture.

After two intense sessions of micro-correction, we ended up with a more or less respectable and complete line drawing of the nanonano. Clean it up in micro-super-zoom mode by taking out rogue pixels, then do a clarify, and a smooth preserving edges on it to remove some of the jaggedness. What comes next is to fix up the rest of the picture.

Firstly, the logo. Use the version of the logo from the web site, increase contrast to something crazy, and the same thing happens as did before: black and white, with smooth edges (just decreasing to two colours ends up with jagged edges). Resize to appropriate dimensions, paste it in over the old one as a new layer. View or hide the new layer to position it correctly over the old words.

By doing this, I noticed that the original logo on the jumper was actually more warped than I thought it was. This could be due to the wrinkle in the jumper, and it might also affect the nanonano drawing, but there's nothing we can do about it. Just be glad we fixed up the logo without having to micro-correct, and ended up with a more or less respectable result.

Next, the rectangle surrounding the nanonano. It has been severely damaged by the conversion to line drawing, and due to wrinkles, some parts of it have been warped. To fix it up....why not just replace the damn thing? Select the correct line width (5 in my case...probably pixels or whatever), then use the rectangle tool to draw over the existing rectangle. View and unview the vector layer to position and resize. Once done, erase the original damaged rectangle on the background layer.

Fixing the copyright notice: scanned an unopened nanonano and took the copyright notice from there. The result was not too good, but after a bit of tweaking, managed to get a better result than the original notice, so it's going in.

To print the Tshirt, I can either use an iron on, a service locally, or use CafePress. CafePress seems to be more cost-efficient in terms of quality and material.

Poor People's Tea

2005-03-08T19:38:00.000+11:00

Well, haven't got much to update. However, I have had notification by CDJapan that the KOTOKO Live DVD has been pushed back nearly a week from its original release date to 1 April 2005. Just in time for April Fools. Well, more time to save up money.

\\ Magazines //

Got recent G's Magazine (contains a Princess Bride how-to-draw guide and anime heroines calendar). Also, Megami magazine (which featured a big AIR poster with Kanna and Misuzu).

In terms of finances, I'm in pretty bad shape. I have exhausted the debit card account and people are chasing me up. Ah well, I'll just need to transfer more money in.

Enough of personal things. Let's talk...food.

\\ Tea //

Tea, most people like it. Some people hate it. They can go screw themselves. I'm not like a hardcore tea lover who has to go to all lengths to try all the types of tea there are, but I do like variations in tastes and stuff.

My favourites types of tea will have to be Japanese. English tea is pretty unrefined, they taste all the same. Chinese tea is not that bad, there are some pretty good variants such as proper oolong which have depth in terms of taste, but most of them seem to be pretty cheapo type. Japanese tea on the other hand -- well there are many types. But the three types I like the most are:

- Genmaicha: tea leaves mixed with roasted rice, to give the tea extra taste.
- Matcha: first-rate tea "powder" which has premium tea leaves treated in a certain way to retain its green-ness. The powder is consumed along with the tea, and the brewing method is unlike normal, you need to whip the powder into the warm water and drink before it settles. Makes a thick tea and is oh-so-luxuriant.
- Arare Usucha: great stuff as a casual drink. Is basically tea leaf powder + icing sugar, with small mini Japanese cracker/sweet mixed into the thing. Can mix it with cold water and it still dissolves.

To tell the truth, those three are the only ones I have tried, though I might have tried others without knowing their names. I'll get around to trying them all eventually. I'm not hardcore you know. :P

With matcha, the normal way is to put half a teaspoon into a Japanese bowl (sold separately), then fill with a bit of 60 degree water, then whip it up with a bamboo whisk. Too costly.

The first time I tried it with a bowl. Very bad results, even rapid stirring would not break up all the clumps and...yeah it was a mess.

So now what I do is half a teaspoon in my cup, 60 degree water into 3/4 level, then use an electric milk whisker I had bought from the supermarket to "process" it. Very good results, minimal effort.

The electric milk whisker is like a small version of a normal electric whisk, but it's for frothing milk for cappucino's or whatever. Operated via two AA batteries, the pole with the whisk at the end spins. Basically a very quick automatic stirrer. Recommended for casual enjoyment of tea. :P

Anyway, I know only one really accessible source for tea stuff in Sydney: Taka Tea Garden...I think they have two branches, one in Double Bay (integrated tea cafe), and a smaller one which is just a shop, at Mid City Centre. Double Bay is not one of my "explored territories", so I got my stuff from the Mid City Centre Branch.

To get to there, it's really easy, follow the map, then go into Grace Bros (now Myer) through the Pitt Street Mall entrance. Cosmetics and perfume on your front and left hand side when you just come in. Turn right, go into the men's clothing section, go straight through it, finding for the wall on the very right hand side. You will see there is actually a doorway there which leads straight into Mid City Centre. Go in, go right around the cafe and escalators, turn left (towards the George Street exit), and opposite the perfume shop and 3 shop (near the elevator which goes up to Dick Smith), there's the green tea shop.

Even Bigger News on Clover

2005-03-05T02:13:00.000+11:00

Well, what can I say? I uncovered a hornet's nest.

Thanks to this blog, and shao's help, I managed to find that Kawasaki City Museum is holding a CLAMP works exhibition, and within that exhibition is a CLAMP film fest which will screen CLOVER animated music video, amongst others!

I want to be there! But of course I can't. And no one's gonna be able to CAM. BUT if CLAMP is actually screening the CLOVER music video as an official thing, then you can BET that it will be released on DVD sometime in the future (probably not too distant, but don't hold your breath).

Anyway, I have provided HERE web-translated versions of the relevant pages. All the pictures and stuff are hosted on the server, so even if the temporary pages of the museum go down, this will still be here. If you have been following my quest for CLOVER, you will find the schedules page very interesting. :)

\\ CLOVER //

2005-03-04T23:29:00.000+11:00

Did more research today, and here is an update on the CLOVER quest.

I have ordered my items to be shipped ASAP. But in the meanwhile it seems developments have come up on the Internet which I had overlooked before.

Case 1: AnimeNewsNetwork have in their Info page on the AMV, a small screenshot pertaining to be from the AMV. How on earth did they get this? Was this fan-made, or authentic? If authentic, there must be a source. Secondarily, they have information such as Director and studio.

Case 2: ALI Project seems to have a strong link here. The previously mentioned info page pointed to the music being "Clover" by ALI Project. There is no such track listed. But a search on google, leads to the following, very cryptic piece of information:
In the link to http://bokura.exblog.jp/ Google had the text in Japanese which roughly translates to "Isn't an ALI fan glad, either, after much ALI PROJECT music is also contained? album the music which is not recorded [ っていう or ] -- it is ... I wanted you to record なら CLOVER at any rate ..."

Whilst this isn't much, it is as if a new ALI album is coming out soon with previously unreleased music, amongst which the CLOVER music might be... Intriguing.

Case 3: ALI Project is researched: their 1999 album (CLOVER AMV was supposedly released in 1999) is Noblerot. Not only is the cover art drawn for them by CLAMP, look at the themes and the overall feel of the picture! It's a modified CLOVER, darou? There is thus a possibility that the CLOVER music is hidden within the album, though unspecified.

In any case (heh), 30th March 2005 may or may not be the date of release for TokyoPop's vapourware CLOVER box set (originally the information was April 2004 release, but got pushed to eternity). My hope of enlightenment shall be making its way via EMS soon (hopefully with no complications). That is all for an update of this quest.

BTW, Kumo no Mukou used this science paper in one of its' "data screens". It deals with prehistoric animals, so I guess it was KINDA relevant to the content, though nothing at all about parallel universes. I wonder if there is actually a factual basis to the claim that prehistoric animals could have unconsciously detected parallel universes.

Promised Place, Duo-girl bands, and Planetarian + Bonus temporary bookmarks

2005-03-02T23:57:00.000+11:00

OK. We take a break from the "Quests Briefings" to bring you my little short spoiler-free preview of "Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho", the latest film by Makoto Shinkai. This is the same preview that I posted in the forums of MSFW.

\\ Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho //

Just finished the film (subtitled in English by fans). It is spectacular, and so beautiful. I would tend to disagree about the story (the person running MSFW had thought the story was the weak point, because it used too many complex words) -- I thought it was good. The advanced physics topics they talked about, whilst abstract, did actually make sense in the English subtitles, and I thought it was unique how he weaved the two ideas together (prior to this, I would never have thought the concept of PU could link with that of D's) {used acronyms so as not to spoil, those who watched will know what they stand for}.

So yes, I guess that the words used would be pretty hard in the original Japanese, but it all makes sense in the end. Although certain strings were not tied up in the end, the ending was poignant but satisfying.

Of course the story was not without its weaknesses. For example the sudden change of heart by one of the main characters in the second half of the show was not really explained, and the structure of the story itself might be seen as "nothing new" (though not "cliched"). The premise and ideas expressed within the story, however, do have a lot of drive.

My ratings:
Character Art: 8/10 (Of course this was better than Hoshi no Koe's)
Background Art: 9.5/10 (Or as close as you can get to full marks, every second scene was wall-paper material, and Mr Shinkai once again shows his flair in the use of light. His world is vivid and very beautiful)
Story (overall): 7.5/10
Character Development: 7/10 (there was character development intertwined with the story line, with the tragedy being a cataclyst for character development on all parts. The last part especially about forgetting something important, I saw that as a very good indicator of character development. I guess Takuya had the most character development though Hiroki was in a way, static)
Music: 9/10 (no doubt on this, even the tracks on the OST I thought were "duller than the others" was used very well in conjunction with the atmosphere of the film)
Voice Acting: 8/10

In terms of harsher criticism, I think some movie critics would find the "narrate the story and feelings as we go through the pictures" technique to be less-than-satisfying. Most people will prefer a movie to "show us, not tell us". At parts, it did seem like a moving slideshow with voice-overs. Though it seems to be Mr Shinkai's style, I think he could develop a better way to propel the story forward and to tell of the feelings of his characters.

\\ Duo Girl Bands //

This is something I just got into this past week. They are girl bands with 2 members, and they tend to have good songs. If one female singer is good, 2 is better!

This is not just cuz "wow we have two hot girls" (most of the duo-girl bands feature faces which are not attractive), but because of the usage of harmony in the voices. Duo-girl bands tend to feature better harmony (instead of singing together, one might sing major, the other minor, or one might sing with intermissions by the other).

So far, I have gotten hooked on two: RYTHEM, which did Houki Kumo, the OP for Yakitate! Japan, and TIARAWAY, which I found out about whilst researching Kumo no Mukou (see above if somehow you managed to get here without seeing what I wrote above). They did many a song for many a game (though not surprising I had missed them somehow because of my eternal obsession with I've Sound). In addition, one of the duo was the seiyuu for Sawatari Sayuri in Kumo no Mukou. They also did the OP for W-Wish.

\\ Planetarian //

insani released the patch for the full version of the Planetarian game. Used in conjunction with the game I got from HF-network, I finished the game in 3-4 hours. I tuned the auto-text to go faster of course, otherwise I would have been bored waiting between lines.
Although I do understand that it is a game engineered to appeal to emotions, and I understand that the structure of the story and events is pretty cliched, I could not help but be touched... it's so good (even with the resource-limitation it had), I would recommend it to anyone.

\\ Links //

SADAKO Ogarasawa and Yumi dollfies: These two are superdollfies in the form of Marimite girls. They look scary.
Rather old, but still good. Playing with paper manga characters
Scroll down to the end, information about the Aoi Nanase 2005 Report of Weather Spirits calendar -- which I won. Hopefully it will contain a picture I really like from Dragon Magazine
Eggs Benedict: After eating Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict in the small cafe before the Steamboy screening last year, I have found it quite fascinating. Unfortunately, I am the Instant Foods type. The writer of the site must be an elitist type of cook ("instant mixes suck!")
Shrimp Butler: This looks cool, but I don't think I eat so much shrimp that I would need it.
Software for Reverse Engineering various Japanese games. I used this to extract BGM and pictures from Planetarian. I also translated (roughly) the Readme for the planetarian PAK converter.

\\ Current issues //
Aoi Nanase's "Report of Weather Spirits" seems to be illustrations for a set of novels by "Something Fujisawa". So it's not a manga. No wonder there aren't scanlations.
Got a few people looking for the Kite He music CDs, as well as Quartett OSTs.
Listening to AKA OST again, after such a long time. The music remains extremely good, with a powerful violin.
Searching for the doujin ｃ67介錯神無月の巫女「蒼月と太陽と…」

Chronolog and Warmer

2005-02-28T16:07:00.000+11:00

\\ Sakurazawa Itumi/Izumi //

This artist ranks second, closely below Aoi Nanase. She is not too differentiating in her drawing contents -- specialising in H-games (most notably those by KLEIN), and H-doujin/manga. Her webpage is coupled with that of another artist (I think). Anyway, her side is the CHRONOLOG side.

In terms of art, she holds her characteristic flair in terms of catgirls (and dog-girls), loli and a bit of yuri. Her drawings of characters' eyes are pretty much unique and oh-so-pretty. She also seems to have a few characters that she uses as "stencils", so that at times in her different works you think it is the same character.

Search string: 桜沢いづみ

\\ ZIPPO Handy Warmer //

In a topic not following the preset ones, I found this Japan-only device created by the Zippo company. It is the ZIPPO Handy Warmer, something similar to those charcoal based "warmth bags" or eggs used to warm up hands in winter. It's summer over here right now, so not much use for it, but having been to Japan in winter, I know this stuff is definitely useful over there.

Anyway, the translation for the blurb on the page is:

Burner units available separately for 630 Yen.

ZIPPO Handy Warmer

HIGH POWER
The warmth radiated by this device is 13 times that of a disposable hand warmer.
Although the metal unit itself gets quite hot, it is possible to use it as a hand warmer by use of the fleece cover provided.

ECONOMICAL
The exothermic period lasts very long, with the maximum being 24 hours. The amount of heat generated is at a fixed constant, and it will demonstrate its usefulness in a really cold place.
* Needs two "cups" of ZIPPO fuel

ECOLOGICAL
As it uses ZIPPO fuel which is burnt, unlike disposable hand warmers, no waste is generated. You can use it over and over again.

CLEAN
Hand Warmer uses chemical reactions where vaporised ZIPPO fuel is used to carry out oxidising generation of heat with the help of a platinum catalyst, rather than straight burning of oils -- thus there is no generation of unclean gases.

Usage:

1) Measure out the correct amount of zippo fuel using the "lubrication cup"
2) Fill the tank with the fuel slowly.
3) Insert a burner unit, stand it up, and put a lighter or match flame against the platinum catalyst for 3 to 5 seconds from the top.
4) Attach the cap of the unit, the put it into the provided fleece cover. It is getting warm.

~~
I'm not sure if the "burner unit" with the "platinum catalyst" is sold separate from the main unit, or is it disposable or something.

~ Links for today ~

Nanaca Crash: The addictive game most people have been playing
The translated Help section for Nanaca Crash, with some additional help.
Greedland: Even more effective than TokyoTosho for fast and great releases. A bit unstable though.
More on ZIPPO Handy Warmer, plus comparison with other warmers of the same type in the past and some stuff on Zippo fuel filling stations. Of course, if you translate it, it will be much more useful.

Ummm Next.

2005-02-25T17:12:00.000+11:00

Well, this blog wasn't updated last night. To show that I haven't abandoned it yet, I am posting now!

Yeah that was lame. I don't really feel like posting. This is the beginning of the end. Fear this! There shall be much blood!

BTW, I promise to post pictures of Moe Wall when I feel like it. :) Just like I promised to digitise my Japan trip diary and post it with photos. :D

\\ Evangelion Missing Music //

Well, this one was solved long ago, but the solution has not been released to the general public yet. I was first interested in this when the question come up in Animeboards (now a pretty dead community) about the music in Shinji's walkman in random episodes. Some of the Jpop on the music player had been pretty good, I thought, and it was interesting that despite all the multiple OST's, S2 Works, etc, those music were not on them.

The answer provided by MDWigs was that the music came from two different albums: Ys II - Lilith (or Lilian or something) and GYUU, an album by the seiyuu of Misato. These were old-school albums from long ago, and so they were a bit hard to find. But I managed to find GYUU on W**** and then the Ys II album had been released by a small music group.

I was supposed to release them on HF-network, but somehow it all got muddled in the process and now I can't release it since my main computer is dead. Should I now whine about my dead computer? I won't, but just to reassure my approximately 0 readers of my absolute eliteness, no, it was not struck by a virus, no, windows did not screw up on me. It was a hardware fault, a motherboard problem causing two of my power units to blow. So I am just waiting for money to come in and fix up and upgrade the thing. Yep. Paypal all donations to... :P

\\ Aoi Nanase //

What is there to say about Aoi Nanase? She's the best artist in terms of character designs. Number 1, ichiban on my list. Her characters are the cutest ink blots to inhabit paper or film, and anyone who says otherwise does not have an aesthetic sense. (Though some may prefer Sakurazawa's girls...)

She is aka Nagase Mayu (but I don't think she has used that name for a long time). She is a "clean" artist in terms of her name of Aoi Nanase, but she used Nagase Mayu to release h-works. Amongst Aoi Nanase's work are included (but not exclusive to):

- Puchimon
- The Report of Weather Spirits
- Angel/Dust
- Angel/Dust NEO
- Character designs in Seraphim Call
- Character designs for various games (including one which is coming out soon)
- MANY doujinshi type manga/compilations
- Angel Flavor, her only artbook (in the true sense) released to date.

The quest in this instance related to getting as many of her works as possible. Half points for digital copies, 3x points for real stuff. So far I've mostly been getting half points, but amongst the "true assets" I have:

- 1 Dragon magazine trading card (by Aoi Nanase illustration)
- Angel Flavor
- 1 plastic transparent "poster"
- 1 big poster (the centerpiece of Moe Wall)

Yeah it's pretty pathetic, but all the same. You just need to look at her artwork to know her greatness.

Freaky Dolls and Moe Walls (note the rhyme!)

2005-02-24T00:18:00.000+11:00

More on VOLKS. If you noticed, Pireze (mentioned yesterday) is 27cm doll. So a normal doll size, maybe a bit bigger than a Barbie.

Why, then, does a Super Dollfie cost so much, around 70 000 yen? (That is around 700 USD). Because SD's in this instance do not stand for the anime-term "Super Deformed". They are literally "super" dollfies. Super-sized.

They are big. 63 cm tall. That's maybe 1/2 12-yr-old human child size. Whoa, think of the shipping costs. You must be some obsessed freak to buy such a large doll, when they don't even have any "functions". ... ... ...

Anyway, today I completed my Moe Wall in my room (wow, real life stuff!). It's a cheapo moe wall, of course, utilising 6 posters from various magazines, 1 Pre-CLANNAD poster which came with the book, 1 plastic poster for "The Report of Weather Spirits", 7 of the plastic CLANNAD trading cards (used to fill blank areas), and the masterpiece, which replaces the Ruri wallscroll -- a large-size Report of Weather Spirits poster, from some issue of Dragon Magazine a long time ago.

I loved the poster so much that I could not put it up for a long time. When you put posters up they tend to get all wrinkled, get moisture into them (depending on humidity), sag, and then fade eventually. I couldn't bear the thought of my only large poster of Aoi Nanase's art getting that treatment, so I looked to ideas for the preservation of said asset.

One of the ongoing crazes in ausleech is the framing of anime pictures. You regularly have people doing professional-quality prints of pictures, then framing them. But imagine, framing a poster with the dimensions 53 x 81 cm? Just transporting the frame would screw you up.

So I took the next best route: lamination. Lamination at least allows more mobility (can roll up the finished product), and provides nearly the same protection, without the need for complex mounting procedures. The first place I contacted was some place in Castle Hill (near-local area for me) asking for a quote. 65 dollars.

><;;

Then I looked around, most places only offered lamination for small/standard paper, nothing as big as a poster. To cut things short, I at last found THE place to do it. Graphic Art Mount, located in St. Peters, a very short walk from the train station. St. Peters is quite a weird place, located near Redfern (2 stations from Redfern) on the Bankstown line. So quite easy to get to from the City. But it is pretty quiet, though the neighbourhood is kinda dodgy (quite a lot of "street art").

Anyway, contacted them for a quote, and it came back: around 15 bucks for gloss lamination, 17 for matte. (Matte was my choice this time, because the Moe Wall is located near a window, and also because it was easier to take photos of without having light reflecting crazily off the thing).

Why was there such a difference in costs? I dunno, maybe the Castle Hill one was trying to rip me off, maybe they don't get a lot of these big jobs, etc. (The GAM people seem to deal with large works on a regular basis, you can see them in the workshop at the back working on framing art-gallery-size pieces). Or maybe I didn't specify the correct lamination type. There are two types of lamination: cold or hot. Cold, basically uses sticky plastic, put the poster between the two sheets, apply pressure, and it sticks to become laminated. I think this method has thicker laminate or something.

Hot, uses plastic sheets, again the poster is encapsulated, but this time the whole thing is passed through a hot roller or something similar, causing the plastic to seal onto the poster. This was the one I took. The resulting laminate (for me at least) was quite thin, but nothing to complain about: it did the job.

Turnover time was around 4 business days. Considering the costs, location and the extremely good job they did on that (I was afraid that the folding seams would make air bubbles, but they somehow made it so they didn't, and now I can't even notice the seams unless I look closely), plus the great service (they must have quite a bit of experience, not to even raise an eyebrow when I showed them the manga-related poster when they were more used to art), I highly recommend them as a poster-preservation service.

Today's Bookmarks

2005-02-23T04:05:00.000+11:00

OK, here are some cool links I just find today. heh.

insani (translation project for various games)
insani's T-shirt Store selling GAO GAO STEGOSAURUS shirt. (wtf. But then I ordered one anyway. They deserve a bit of income for their planetarian demo translation.)
haeleth (home to the KANON translation project, but the forum is just crazy KEY fans -- HF-KEY stands not a chance).
Crescent Shop (useful alternative deputy service for purchasing from Japan. They actually cover VOLKS and normal Japanese online stores. Seems a one-man-run business, but quite reliable. Might use it to get some NANONANO).

In other news

RADIANCE was released. Nipponsei already torrented it. whoa. Well, less work for the rest of us.
Watched Seoul Raiders. Nice girls in there. :P

The Continuation of the Long Introduction

2005-02-22T23:54:00.000+11:00

I don't know why I am writing this thing, I don't know what happens when I finish writing the intro posts, but I know this stuff must be imparted before I die. :P

\\ VOLKs Dolls //

A "merge between dolls and figurines", VOLKS dolls have highly articulated joints. For people obsessive enough about their dolls, VOLKs sells doll bodies, heads, wigs, arms, hands, legs, etc for people to custom create their own doll.

I supposed I could, if I wanted, to custom build my own version of Cossette. That might be fun. And a bit scary. No, too hard. Because firstly you need to know how to build them without breaking them (and also imbed the hair onto the head), and secondly, there is a lot of cost involved. Firstly, the parts, secondly the accessories for building, thirdly the clothes come separate. And finally there is the face detail. I am not too sure what this is about, but you gotta put in eyes yourself, and you have to make the doll up. I mean the face. As in blush, mascara, lipstick? Whoa, that's beyond my capacity, I don't even do human make up and they want me to do make up on a 1/6 doll. After you finish touching up the dolls I think you have to spray it with a sealer.

Anyway, one thing I don't really like about the dolls are that the joints are too noticeable. So I prefer long sleeve clothes and dresses which hide the joints in their limbs. So I got myself a Pireze Curotheel. According to the story (Lost Angels Story), Pireze is one of the "miko" who live on the two poles of the world.

...

Actually, think of it in terms of Kannaduki no Miko. There are two miko's and there is one "light" one and one "dark" one. Pireze is the "dark" one of course.

OK, here is the blurb from that page:

------

For the light which exists, so too does darkness exist in a certain place.
That is the one who exists on the opposite pole to Towa Setsuna, who is the shrine maiden of light.

"The Shrine Maiden of the Black Clothes", Pireze. She lays down the rules for GANGI (the bad guys, I think), being one of the members of the committee of ten people known as "Resu Zekusu Sosarii", with the power which has a will unto itself and that she was born with, a shrine maiden who received a fallen angel's prophecy.
She is thus the guide who indicates the future of GANGI.
Her right eye is emerald, and her blue left eye reflects the future.

Towa Setsuna gazes at the stellar future, and Pireze sends the opposite message. The shrine maidens of light and darkness tell the fate of the "earth" in which we live.

---------

Pireze Curotheel - Kuro Fuku no Miko

Anyway, Pireze was appealing because she had the gothic lolita type of look and the overall impression was that of gentle majesty. I wouldn't have minded getting the Towa Setsuna miko one either, but I could only get one.

During the time Pireze was released for sale online (before, being a limited edition Dolls Party item), which was 25 December 2004, the entire VOLKs site was swamped with connections and getting through was hard (took hours of frustration). When I returned the next day, there was still stock, but I found that she could not be internationally ordered.

So, I had to use my contacts on hf-network to find someone in Japan. Which I did (but the details of which I will not publish here). So I completed the order in Japanese to send the dolls to this guy's house in Japan. And it worked. So I picked it up when I went to Japan, and lugged it back here. Too bad the box was but a cardboard box. I would have preferred a black coffin. :P

An extension to this saga was that I entered the "lucky draw" to be an international customer who can order the dolls online and have them shipped to my address by the company. I don't know how it happened but I won. Maybe not many people took part, I dunno. But the stupid thing was that I had selected three dolls, and according to the results I had to take all three or none. I wasn't gonna spend 500 dollars on the dolls, so I just let it go.

Anyway, the world of VOLKs and of dolls is a fascinating, but extremely expensive one. You find VOLKs items pop up on ebay sometimes and they sell for quite a bit.

Quests continued.

2005-02-21T22:14:00.000+11:00

OK! Finished download of the CLANNAD remix MEMENTO album on S****. The I've Sound collection uploaded on hf at last finished download too, 6 Gigs of stuff.
The thing is, I am disappointed. What was listed as the prime pv - full ver - is actually the making-of video.

\\ I've Sound PRIME PV full //

The world of I've Sound is one with a lot of mysteries and rare stuff. It is quite hard to delve into. Anyway, I've Sound is...maybe it is a band, maybe a company which makes music. Anyway, it consists of the instrumental team, and vocal talents such as MOMO, KOTOKO, AKI, LIA (left for another company recently), etc.

Of them, KOTOKO is most popular amongst fans and in the past 2 years I've Sound with Pioneer (Geneon) has started to push her promotion in earnest with several album and single releases, Live concerts, radio show, etc.

I don't know exactly when I learnt of them, but it was relatively early, perhaps in the process of researching AZUREWINDS, I had delved into the world of bishoujo games, came across a page or two containing links to sample music, downloaded a whole lot of 1 minute samples, and found there was a consistent singer in some songs I really liked. Researching the singer (KOTOKO), I got linked into I've. So knowledge, the learning process and hyperlinks are actually pretty parallel as you can see.

Anyway, back then, I've Sound fanboyism was still pretty rare for the Western part of the Internet, though I did meet a few kindred souls here and there. I pride myself in being part of the push to make I've Sound much more recognised amongst the gaijin otaku community, joining and in turn using the HF-network connection to release a lot of their stuff onto the Bittorrent networks to allow more people to be exposed to their stuff. Eventually other groups followed us (or groups already doing releases got more famous and released more stuff). Now I've Sound fanboys are everywhere. :D

There are of course a lot of rare albums and songs, restricted releases, all that crap. In fact a lot of original I've Sound stuff is out of print and sell for quite a handsome sum. It is not surprising to find the Dear Feeling and Prime bundle selling around USD100.

PRIME was perhaps the first PV DVD released by I've. The full name is PRIME Prototype. It is not part of the I've Sound PV Collections DVDs. PRIME was sung by KOTOKO and AKI. It was released in Comiket59, I think. or 58...dunno. Anyway, the DVD contained two things: PRIME prototype - short ver -, and PRIME PV making of. The full version, according to I've Sound Explorer sit e (translated) is in existence but was not released publicly.

So this quest was basically to find this full version of the PV. Searches on all P2P networks revealed nothing, and this torrent didn't help either. So for now the quest is stalled.

\\ NANONANO //

I first heard of NANONANO from my friend who got one for his birthday. It was so cute, a robot with dangly arms and legs, and when I held it it was surprisingly heavy. Designed by Robot Artist KOUICHI MIYAJIMA, they are little robot-like mascots made from electronic components like resistors, capacitors, screws, etc. They are extremely cute and usually sold as mobile phone hangers.

Anyway, first of all, original NANONANO (designed and supposedly handmade by the artist) are sold exclusively in Japan. Not only that, the original online store for them is now no longer officially taking orders. The only place to get them is the 50th Floor shop in Tokyo CityView Tower in Roppongi Hills, Japan. To get into the Tower, you need to pay money, around 2000 yen!

So yeah on my recent trip to Japan, I managed to force my way and go there and get myself some NANONANO. Two of them. It was cool there, very arty place.

So now I am back here in Australia, wondering if there is a way to get NANONANO internationally. Yes, there is a way, I am told by Tadao Mutou, one of the people in ARTBOX. You can, however, only get the Mass Produced type (still designed by the same guy and looks nearly the same, but Made in China and cheaper). Hmmm, OK. Well, not really OK. You gotta transfer money by bank transfers, which can technically only be done in Japan unless you want to pay crazy fees. No credit card access at all.

Well we will see what happens.

Anyway, extra rare, supposedly are the King and Queen variants, but even rarer still is the ANGEL variant. I saw them in Japan, but they were quite expensive. I didn't buy them. I haven't started regretting it yet. ^^;;

More Quests

2005-02-20T23:06:00.000+11:00

Let's see, yesterday (this morning) we covered some of the "quests" currently on offer. Here are some more:

- Aoi Nanase's works
- Sakurazawa Izumi (Itumi)'s works
- Murakami Haruki's early works (including Pinball 1973 english translation [a recent auction sold at around 160 Sterling pounds] and Hear the Wind Sing). I have access to both texts in the university library though. :)
- Makoto Shinkai's works (currently "Kakomareta Sekai", an early demo work he did which is no longer available for download)
- Tenmon's albums and music

Also, one of the aims of this blog is to provide a guide to good places in Sydney, specifically those related with the Japanese culture. Another is to provide a place for me to indulge in planning mostly defunct projects which will not be realised.

So first things first, I will introduce one of the "quests" I am currently on, since the auction has been won and so the data is not as sensitive as it was last night.

\\ CLAMP's CLOVER Animated Music Video //

Any google search will give you enough information about this. There were 4 animated videos done by CLAMP (before the actual anime of various series came out):
- X (using manga art from the original manga)
- Miyuki-chan in Wonderland (cameo compilation of characters from many of their manga)
- Wish (initially released VHS on a special Wish Box set)
- Clover

At first, the quest was for all four videos, but I managed to obtain three of them. Now, Wish and Miyuki have also been fansubbed and are thus quite widely available. In addition, Wish is being re-released in the upcoming CLAMPAZAR set on DVD.

The last, obviously, and most problematic one is Clover. Heck, the manga itself is problematic. Consisting of 4 volumes, unfinished, the original manga magazine it was published in closed down before the manga was completed. So we have 4 volumes officially, and if you are lucky to find the last few volumes of that defunct magazine, a few more chapters. There are speculations that it was actually completed but locked up in some safe, but I think that most likely CLAMP discontinued working on it after the magazine closed. After all this was a serialisation work. There is still an undefined timeline of hope for fans who think CLAMP will continue the manga. So far no rustles have been heard.

Aside from the manga, the animated music video is most troubling. The circumstances surrounding it is troubling at best. According to rumour:

- it was aired before one of the Cardcaptor Sakura movies in Japanese theatres. Of course, this would mean no copies of the actual thing would exist. Unless we are talking cam, but even the most optimistic would have to die at finding that one.
- it was slated to be aired (as above) in theatres, but was pulled in the last minute. Even worse.
- there is a midi floating around that claims to be the background music for that vid. This is to be confirmed. There are of course weaknesses in this rumour: I have people tell me that the music is some old classical song. In addition, who would have been able to transcribe the song into midi? Think about the qualifications to be that transcriber.

BUT, all is not without hope. In a quest for knowledge, sometimes the Internet can only take you this far, and after going through quite a bit of old fansites and Japanese forums, it led me to the most recent development -- the existence of the proof of its existence. Tangible proof, not rumour, but tangible official proof that such a video was made. The booklet program/sheet introducing it. I am not sure how long it is, how many pages there are, but it is B4 in size. Within it, I hope (optimistically) to find:

- Pictures of the thing (screenshots)
- Information (albeit in Japanese, but I have my own methods of translation)
- MAYBE (just maybe) proof of the authenticity of that mystery midi -- yes, if fortunate (and if my guess is correct), a simple sheet music for the BGM.

So yes, I have won it and it is my hope of hopes that all will go smoothly, no problems with shipping, all that crap.

Today I got a person at work recommend to me a "hidden" Japanese restaurant. I will need to check it out some time. A fuller report may be pending.

Advent

2005-02-20T02:33:00.000+11:00

Disclaimer: I hereby announce my total lack of motivation to blog in any normal sense. No continuity, no commitment, nothing. Expect much interruption as I get about with my normal activities as I write.

Introduction:
I guess I can't say "refer to my previous blog" or something, those have been dead for a few years.
(ooooooh clover auction ends in 10 minutes!!)
However, my resume and story of life so far...
Born 1985 in Hong Kong
Went to England for a year around 1988
Went back to Hong Kong for a short time then ended up in Singapore, around 1990.
Finished Primary school education at Geylang Methodist Primary School, graduated in 1997, went on to Raffle Institution (yes, hate me!) for half a year as of 1998. (During my stay in Singapore I read a lot of books and developed my knowledge of the English language).
Moved to Australia in 1998, stayed on through High School at Cherrybrook Technology High School.
Graduated CTHS in (Oh piece of...I swear they must be using automatic bidders, they are such ANNOYING BASTARDS!!!) 2003, moved on to University of Sydney.
Currently (2005) waiting to start second year in USYD, Bachelor of Arts: Media and Communications.

Cyber Resume:
- First official normal moderator of the #CCU channel (retired)
- Multiple semi-independent releases (mostly mp3 rips for AOST)
- Member of ausleech
- Supermod and operator in hongfire.com | #hf-network

(This auction thing is getting a bit frustrating. Stupid last minute bidding software means that the ending time is extended [yahoo's effort to curb snipe bidding])

Anyway, I retired from being an operator in the CCU channel because the people in there have problems which I cannot reconcile.

This blog thingummy wasn't supposed to be made here. I wanted to go with a Japanese blogging service, but since the initiation mail isn't coming in, here it is. This blog is for documenting my absolute eliteness. (c'mon, at least I admitted it!) It documents my journey through the digital domain seeking the obscure and the rare.

To understand this urge is to understand my personal philosophy when it comes to the Internet. For me, the Internet is a vast pool of knowledge (to use the cliche). It has more information than normal humans can comprehend in a lifetime. The only limits which are in existence are those put in place by physical technology (e.g. the number of servers available worldwide) and the limits of the user. The physical technology limits usually will not be touched. The feeling that "the Internet is boring, there is nothing to do online" is not due to the lack of information, but by limits on the access to the information put in place by the user themselves.

(At this point, the auction is STILL going. Having outbid one of them automatic users, another one pops up. I think this is pretty suspicious, are the two users controlled by one person?)

These limits may be psychological or cultural. Psychological may mean not thinking enough, not realising all the potential links, or just being lazy. Cultural limits are harder: they might involve language. In perusing the Internet, one is mostly limited to the language(s) they are familiar with. In my case it is English. But if I was good at Chinese as well, another major portion of the net is opened to me. In my quest for information, it is often necessary for me to venture outside of the native sphere into parts of the net dominated by other languages, usually Chinese or Japanese.

This willingness to break language boundaries is one of the traits which make this quest so interesting and fulfilling, and is also a major factor for success.

Current projects (some of which are stuck):
- CLAMP's mysteries (pet project regarding the CLOVER animated video)
- I've Sound (currently researching PRIME PV Full version)
- NanoNano (regarding possible purchase of these accessories by the international market)
- VOLKS dolls
- Missing Evangelion Music (solved, but solution not released)