Back to work today.
:(
The weather was pretty miserable on the whole while I was on holiday, but then to be fair it is properly into Autumn now.
I didn't achieve half of the stuff I was hoping too. I mean, I did achieve some bits that were on my list, but I didn't get anywhere near doing some other stuff.
Mainly the 'sorty outy' stuff of packing away my aircon and tidying up my PCs was the type of things I ended up avoiding, but I also failed to do any scanning. I didn't even scan some DVD covers, which meant I also couldn't put together any more reviews for trismugistus.com.
I did watch some more Welcome to NHK, although I didn't finish the series.
I don't really have a proper excuse for failing to do these things - I even had a big chunk of spare time on the Tuesday when I could feasibly have done them. About as close as I can come to an excuse is that I was bloody knackered.
The reasons I was tired were multiple.
First off I've been finding work really tiring lately. I seem to be doing loads of extra hours without any benefit from it (I may blog about it later, but can't be arsed now). The upshot of this was that even though I wasn't driving down to Dad's until Friday afternoon I ended up doing very little in the morning as I was so tired.
This is also one of the big reasons I don't get much done at weekends generally - I feel really tired and so am a bit listless and un-enthusiastic. Indeed, for the last few weeks I've been going to bed really early at the weekends because I've been so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open.
I think this hasn't been helped by my general lack of holiday this year. Normally I try to take quite a few long-weekends, but with Monaco sucking up two full weeks of holiday so early in the year I've not managed to do that so much this year.
The other reason I was tired was that the drive to Devon and back was really knackering. The trip down was really busy, even though most of it was just ordinary Friday afternoon, not rush hour, although with it taking so long I did cop that too. The drive back on Sunday was better, although the traffic was surprisingly heavy again and I did get caught up at Stonehenge.
But the point is that, according to my trip computer thing, I spent nearly 8 hours driving to and from Devon - that's pretty tiring stuff by.
It also didn't help that I was basically having a bit of a "Busman's holiday". If you've not heard this expression before, it's when you go on holiday away from work somewhere and end up doing roughly what you would normally do at work.
In my case I had to fix Dad's PC (more on that tomorrow) which is something I have to do all the time. But the point here is that it's quite a tiring thing - certainly it's horribly long winded and involves having to concentrate a lot.
One of the sneakier parts though was that, with Friday, Saturday and Sunday all being written off by my visit to Devon, all the stuff I would usually do at the weekend wasn't done, so I had to do it Monday and Tuesday.
Now really, that was a big part of the reason I took Monday and Tuesday as well, but I always forget stuff like that, you see, so I add in more things and then end up getting annoyed with myself that I haven't done them all :/.
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Thursday, 1 October 2009
time off
Well, this will be the last blog post from me until Next Wednesday.
This weekend it's by Dad's Birthday. He's 65 and I'm going down to visit him.
Me and my sister actually both chipped in to buy him a digital camera earlier this year. That actually covers both his Birthday and Christmas, but it means I won't be giving him anything as such, but I though a visit would be a good idea.
I'm not actually going for all the time I'm on holiday, and I should be back on Monday. That then gives me two days to do... well, I'm not entirely sure what I'll do to be honest.
I'm hopping to get a lot of 'stuff' done. For example, when brought the cable for the broadband in they drilled a big whole and there's loads of debris left that I've still not got around to hoovering up (not least of all because it means unplugging all my PC gubbins.
It's also about time I put my aircon back into it's storage location, which is always a giant pain in the arse.
I should also do a load of archiving - fansubs need burning to DVD to make room for the upcoming season, for example.
So yeah, not exactly exciting, but very necessary.
I didn't manage to watch all of NHK, due mainly to some circumstances beyond my control, but I am about a third of the way through it.
I'd say that so far it's a lot better than the manga version, but not to the extent that it's brilliant. I'll talk more about it later, I guess.
This weekend it's by Dad's Birthday. He's 65 and I'm going down to visit him.
Me and my sister actually both chipped in to buy him a digital camera earlier this year. That actually covers both his Birthday and Christmas, but it means I won't be giving him anything as such, but I though a visit would be a good idea.
I'm not actually going for all the time I'm on holiday, and I should be back on Monday. That then gives me two days to do... well, I'm not entirely sure what I'll do to be honest.
I'm hopping to get a lot of 'stuff' done. For example, when brought the cable for the broadband in they drilled a big whole and there's loads of debris left that I've still not got around to hoovering up (not least of all because it means unplugging all my PC gubbins.
It's also about time I put my aircon back into it's storage location, which is always a giant pain in the arse.
I should also do a load of archiving - fansubs need burning to DVD to make room for the upcoming season, for example.
So yeah, not exactly exciting, but very necessary.
I didn't manage to watch all of NHK, due mainly to some circumstances beyond my control, but I am about a third of the way through it.
I'd say that so far it's a lot better than the manga version, but not to the extent that it's brilliant. I'll talk more about it later, I guess.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
quantum of solace
erm, whut?
The first outing for Daniel Craig's bond was something of a breath of fresh air.
Gone were the likes of Bond coolly dispatching the baddies without breaking a sweat and then delivering a witty one-liner. In came Bond getting nearly as beat up as the bad guy and not saying anything.
The Bond-girls remained, but they were sassy and feisty and Bond even fell in love with one of them. The flash car's also remained, but the weird gadgets were either gone altogether or massively toned down. Indeed, in an age where a phone can provide you with anything from e-mail to a GPS mapping tool, who really needs gadgets?
No, this was gritty, realistic (some may argue Jason Bourne inspired) Bond.
The second out for Craig as Bond is also something completely new - a direct sequel. This one follows on from the first film by perhaps as little as ten minutes.
It also keeps going with the other stuff - beat-up Bond, more realistic, no daft gadgets, feisty Bond girls.
Only that's where it kinda starts to crack. There are two Bond girls. The first is not really a new-mould Bond girl in that she doesn't really kick arse - she's a bit more ditsy and dainty. Bond also beds her in no seconds flat. But he doesn't care for her - she's bumped off and he hardly bats an eyelid.
So back to old-skool Bond then? Well, no. I mean, she doesn't have a double-entendre for a name for example. She also serves very little purpose - he doesn't bed her to get info like he used to bed Bond girls.
The second Bond girl is much more feisty. But she's also kinda incidental again. Plus he doesn't bed her and again, no silly name.
It's a very good example of what's wrong with the film - it's like they've tried to slip in a little flavour of old-skool Bond, but not got it right.
What makes this worse is that they've tried to also keep some of the new stuff that just doesn't mesh well with the old stuff. So, for example, you get new-style realistic fist-fights, but then there's a bit with a plane dog-fight that's right out of old Bond and is very unrealistic.
What compounds all of this is the film is very confusing. I'm still not 100% sure quite what was going on.
The only real plot seems to be that Bond is seeking revenge. The trouble is that he could have had revenge very quickly, but instead waits for no apparent reason. I guess it was because he was trying to uncover... I dunno, something about this big conspiratorial network of bad guys thing.
But they're so ephemeral and without substance it's impossible to get your teeth into. Even at the end you realise that the bad guy who Bond's been after clearly isn't the head of the organisation. So does that mean we're going to get another sequel?
In a way it just felt like an excuse to hang a bunch of cool action sequences off of.
That could have worked, but what made it less satisfying was how it was shot - the camera was all over the place and it tended to get really confusing really quickly.
I dunno - it was like they were tying to have their cake and eat it. Only the cake was half chocolate and half baked Alaska, so it gave a funny sort of texture in the mouth.
The first outing for Daniel Craig's bond was something of a breath of fresh air.
Gone were the likes of Bond coolly dispatching the baddies without breaking a sweat and then delivering a witty one-liner. In came Bond getting nearly as beat up as the bad guy and not saying anything.
The Bond-girls remained, but they were sassy and feisty and Bond even fell in love with one of them. The flash car's also remained, but the weird gadgets were either gone altogether or massively toned down. Indeed, in an age where a phone can provide you with anything from e-mail to a GPS mapping tool, who really needs gadgets?
No, this was gritty, realistic (some may argue Jason Bourne inspired) Bond.
The second out for Craig as Bond is also something completely new - a direct sequel. This one follows on from the first film by perhaps as little as ten minutes.
It also keeps going with the other stuff - beat-up Bond, more realistic, no daft gadgets, feisty Bond girls.
Only that's where it kinda starts to crack. There are two Bond girls. The first is not really a new-mould Bond girl in that she doesn't really kick arse - she's a bit more ditsy and dainty. Bond also beds her in no seconds flat. But he doesn't care for her - she's bumped off and he hardly bats an eyelid.
So back to old-skool Bond then? Well, no. I mean, she doesn't have a double-entendre for a name for example. She also serves very little purpose - he doesn't bed her to get info like he used to bed Bond girls.
The second Bond girl is much more feisty. But she's also kinda incidental again. Plus he doesn't bed her and again, no silly name.
It's a very good example of what's wrong with the film - it's like they've tried to slip in a little flavour of old-skool Bond, but not got it right.
What makes this worse is that they've tried to also keep some of the new stuff that just doesn't mesh well with the old stuff. So, for example, you get new-style realistic fist-fights, but then there's a bit with a plane dog-fight that's right out of old Bond and is very unrealistic.
What compounds all of this is the film is very confusing. I'm still not 100% sure quite what was going on.
The only real plot seems to be that Bond is seeking revenge. The trouble is that he could have had revenge very quickly, but instead waits for no apparent reason. I guess it was because he was trying to uncover... I dunno, something about this big conspiratorial network of bad guys thing.
But they're so ephemeral and without substance it's impossible to get your teeth into. Even at the end you realise that the bad guy who Bond's been after clearly isn't the head of the organisation. So does that mean we're going to get another sequel?
In a way it just felt like an excuse to hang a bunch of cool action sequences off of.
That could have worked, but what made it less satisfying was how it was shot - the camera was all over the place and it tended to get really confusing really quickly.
I dunno - it was like they were tying to have their cake and eat it. Only the cake was half chocolate and half baked Alaska, so it gave a funny sort of texture in the mouth.
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
die hard 4.0
I have to say I wasn't expecting much from Die Hard 4.0.
The first Die Hard movie is an absolute classic. Indeed, it's certainly one of the best action films ever.
A big part of what makes it so good is that Willis takes a real pounding. Sure he wins, but he only just wins. He always has to react to situations and improvise solutions, rarely going in with a proper plan.
It also featured a great bad guy and a great supporting cast - most notably in the form of the beat cop on the other end of a walkie-talkie.
The second film was not so good. They ramped up the action, but they also failed to deliver a truly worthwhile villain. And they made a really big mistake, crashing a plane full of innocent victims with Willis unable to stop them.
The third film was a lot better. The villain was good and his plan was pretty clever. There was a also great sidekick again (weirdly, in the form of Samuel L Jackson, but it works). They also ramped the action up again - unfortunately to the extent that some of the stuff was a little odd. I seem to recall something like a huge slide down a metal wire that would have shredded Willis's hands, for example.
But the point is that somehow it still worked - the plot and characters were strong enough.
The same is pretty much true of the fourth one.
There are some things that don't quite hang true action-wise, but still, overall, it hangs together.
The worst offender on the action sequence front is when Bruce is attacked by an F35 Jet Fighter. He's driving a big rig truck and the really implausible bit is that the arsenal carried by the F35 would just obliterate the truck with no survivors. I mean, this is gear designed to take out hardened military targets - a big rig is like a small paper cup by comparison.
Still, if you suspend your disbelief a bit then it's still a fun sequence. I think actually what helps here is how it's been shot - there's a bit of tendency to go hand-held style nowadays and while it helps in certain things, in big action films it often feels more like a hindrance than a help to me.
If shit's blowing up I want to see it blowing up properly, not be confused and distracted by the camera jerking all over the place.
Anyway, the key things that work in Die Hard 4.0 are the characters. With the possible exception of the main bad guy, all the characters are enjoyable. A particular nod of appreciation has to go to Kevin Smith, who seems to be developing into something of a fine actor by all accounts. Certainly he pumped out what was a horrible quantity of expositional dialogue in a way that was both believable and convincing - no easy task.
The side-kick role of a hacker nerd is also well realised, even if they do tend to fall into some of the old nerds on film traps I've often bemoaned. McClane's feisty arse-kicking daughter was also a very nice touch.
The weak-point was the main bad guy. Which isn't to say it was badly acted or anything, it just seemed a bit arch to me. For one thing there was an implication of some sort of moral ambiguity to the character, but this wasn't backed up by how he was written/depicted.
I'm trying to avoid spoilers, so let's just say in the background to the film there's a suggestion he may be doing what he's doing to 'prove a point'. But then his actions, how he behaves, how he deals with his own minions - all that comes across more like he's a typical boo-hiss style bad guy.
Also, when the twist comes it's not actually all that big a twist. Indeed, it's exactly the same twist that they always have, in that it's really all about the money. The problem there is that part of what the bad guy is doing is totally trashing the US economy, so what he steals would surely become worthless wouldn't it?
The first Die Hard movie is an absolute classic. Indeed, it's certainly one of the best action films ever.
A big part of what makes it so good is that Willis takes a real pounding. Sure he wins, but he only just wins. He always has to react to situations and improvise solutions, rarely going in with a proper plan.
It also featured a great bad guy and a great supporting cast - most notably in the form of the beat cop on the other end of a walkie-talkie.
The second film was not so good. They ramped up the action, but they also failed to deliver a truly worthwhile villain. And they made a really big mistake, crashing a plane full of innocent victims with Willis unable to stop them.
The third film was a lot better. The villain was good and his plan was pretty clever. There was a also great sidekick again (weirdly, in the form of Samuel L Jackson, but it works). They also ramped the action up again - unfortunately to the extent that some of the stuff was a little odd. I seem to recall something like a huge slide down a metal wire that would have shredded Willis's hands, for example.
But the point is that somehow it still worked - the plot and characters were strong enough.
The same is pretty much true of the fourth one.
There are some things that don't quite hang true action-wise, but still, overall, it hangs together.
The worst offender on the action sequence front is when Bruce is attacked by an F35 Jet Fighter. He's driving a big rig truck and the really implausible bit is that the arsenal carried by the F35 would just obliterate the truck with no survivors. I mean, this is gear designed to take out hardened military targets - a big rig is like a small paper cup by comparison.
Still, if you suspend your disbelief a bit then it's still a fun sequence. I think actually what helps here is how it's been shot - there's a bit of tendency to go hand-held style nowadays and while it helps in certain things, in big action films it often feels more like a hindrance than a help to me.
If shit's blowing up I want to see it blowing up properly, not be confused and distracted by the camera jerking all over the place.
Anyway, the key things that work in Die Hard 4.0 are the characters. With the possible exception of the main bad guy, all the characters are enjoyable. A particular nod of appreciation has to go to Kevin Smith, who seems to be developing into something of a fine actor by all accounts. Certainly he pumped out what was a horrible quantity of expositional dialogue in a way that was both believable and convincing - no easy task.
The side-kick role of a hacker nerd is also well realised, even if they do tend to fall into some of the old nerds on film traps I've often bemoaned. McClane's feisty arse-kicking daughter was also a very nice touch.
The weak-point was the main bad guy. Which isn't to say it was badly acted or anything, it just seemed a bit arch to me. For one thing there was an implication of some sort of moral ambiguity to the character, but this wasn't backed up by how he was written/depicted.
I'm trying to avoid spoilers, so let's just say in the background to the film there's a suggestion he may be doing what he's doing to 'prove a point'. But then his actions, how he behaves, how he deals with his own minions - all that comes across more like he's a typical boo-hiss style bad guy.
Also, when the twist comes it's not actually all that big a twist. Indeed, it's exactly the same twist that they always have, in that it's really all about the money. The problem there is that part of what the bad guy is doing is totally trashing the US economy, so what he steals would surely become worthless wouldn't it?
Monday, 28 September 2009
goals are good
It's my goal this week to watch Welcome to the NHK through to completion.
For some reason I started it several weeks ago with the full intention of watching it, but then never actually sat down and watched anything past the first episode. Well, I re-watched ep 1 last night and hopefully I'll get a chance to keep going.
Certainly I hit my goal of watching everything telly-wise from last week over the weekend, and this week my scheduled viewing hours drop off quite dramatically since loads of stuff has now ended. I was tempted to fill this blog with some thoughts on what I've been watching, but decided against it in the end.
What I would say is it's weird how things have worked out in this weeks schedule. Basically there are about 12 things my PVR is set to record (I set everything to be recorded, even if I end up watching it live) across the whole week. But on Tuesday and Wednesday there's absolutely nothing and most other days it's one or two things.
The real culprit seems to be Monday - there's loads of stuff on Mondays for some reason, which, given what I was saying the other week about how Monday's are a bit of mare for me time-wise, is actually a bit inconvenient.
One thing that does look interesting is this new show Flash Forward that starts on 5 tonight. I've not heard much about it other than that it's by the same (or some of them?) people who did Lost. Since I'm a big fan of Lost I'm intrigued to check it out.
And mentioning Lost, it seems bloody ages since I last got to watch any - the box-set of the latest 7th season seems to be taking ages to come out. I mean surely the 8th season is about to start in the US?
Yup, new season time rapidly approaches. I'm not doing too badly with my big anime catch-up. It's not been accompanied by quite the same scanning catch-up I was hoping for
Ah well, hopefully I'll get some time this next weekend, as I've got a bit of a holiday, but for now I'm gonna focus on watching NHK. I was distinctly unimpressed with the manga, but even from the first episode it seems quite different to the manga, so maybe I'll like it more.
For some reason I started it several weeks ago with the full intention of watching it, but then never actually sat down and watched anything past the first episode. Well, I re-watched ep 1 last night and hopefully I'll get a chance to keep going.
Certainly I hit my goal of watching everything telly-wise from last week over the weekend, and this week my scheduled viewing hours drop off quite dramatically since loads of stuff has now ended. I was tempted to fill this blog with some thoughts on what I've been watching, but decided against it in the end.
What I would say is it's weird how things have worked out in this weeks schedule. Basically there are about 12 things my PVR is set to record (I set everything to be recorded, even if I end up watching it live) across the whole week. But on Tuesday and Wednesday there's absolutely nothing and most other days it's one or two things.
The real culprit seems to be Monday - there's loads of stuff on Mondays for some reason, which, given what I was saying the other week about how Monday's are a bit of mare for me time-wise, is actually a bit inconvenient.
One thing that does look interesting is this new show Flash Forward that starts on 5 tonight. I've not heard much about it other than that it's by the same (or some of them?) people who did Lost. Since I'm a big fan of Lost I'm intrigued to check it out.
And mentioning Lost, it seems bloody ages since I last got to watch any - the box-set of the latest 7th season seems to be taking ages to come out. I mean surely the 8th season is about to start in the US?
Yup, new season time rapidly approaches. I'm not doing too badly with my big anime catch-up. It's not been accompanied by quite the same scanning catch-up I was hoping for
Ah well, hopefully I'll get some time this next weekend, as I've got a bit of a holiday, but for now I'm gonna focus on watching NHK. I was distinctly unimpressed with the manga, but even from the first episode it seems quite different to the manga, so maybe I'll like it more.
Friday, 25 September 2009
mr mop
God, I need a haircut.
My hair's got to the really annoying stage where it just looks shit however I wash or comb it. It's also acting as a massive heat blanket, making me hot and sweaty when it's not actually that warm.
I should have had it cut one the last few weekends, but I've mentioned before that I find having it cut really unpleasant. Plus it seems to cost more each time I go.
I've been doing some scanning through the week. I've actually been trying to stay on top of telly this week (loads of stuff I've been following ends this week so I'm kinda prepping for a spare-time boost to... well, I'm not sure - maybe I'll get on top of the scanning or watch some DVDs?), so it's perhaps not been as much as I could have done, but some is better than none.
I've also been watching anime independently as well as what I've watched while scanning, so here are the low-downs:
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
Wow.
I'm not really sure how to expand on that.
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is about an earthquake. Well, no, actually it's about people being impacted by a really big earthquake.
How can I put this? Where you might have expected all the money and effort to have gone into getting the earthquake right and animating it well, it's quite clear that just as much effort has gone into developing the characters and plot. The characters feel real - now admittedly they're not things you won't have seen done before, but they're done so well and portrayed so vividly they feel totally real.
Indeed, the realness is such that I almost found myself blubbing at a few points. Indeed, I'm struggling not to compare it to the masterworks of Miyazaki - there's a real flavour of what he manages to capture in films like Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service.
This is probably one of the best anime I've seen in ages.
Bakemonogatori
For some while now I've been bemoaning the current fad in anime to adapt "Light Novels".
My main issue with these light novels is that they seem to almost completely lack originality. I've tended to assume this was because of the nature of the beast - light novels are, as the name suggests "easy readers" and tend to rely on heavily worn ideas. To say they're quite a clichéd bunch is to hit the nail on the head.
However, Bakemonogatari - which is another of the same ilk if you hadn't guessed already - seems to be offering something a bit different. But there's a bit of a catch - it's being made by SHAFT and a lot of what makes Bakemonogatari interesting is the visual style and presentation.
Since Light Novels are textual in nature, it's hard to see how this is coming from the book and not the company making it. But that said, the plot seems fairly interesting from what I sampled. Well, I say the plot - it's a little difficult to be sure quite what the plot is if I'm honest. I'm sure it'd become clearer later, but at the moment I'm not really sure what's going on.
So I guess really it's the characters that carried my interest in what I sampled.
Canaan
Y'know, something odd sometimes happens when I run through fansubs like this.
For some reason, I tend to get runs of good and bad shows. Why this happens I don't know - I'm selecting what to watch on about as random a basis as I can, yet I'll still end up watching several rubbish shows in a row and then several good ones in a row.
The upshot of which is that this is the third good show in a row.
I have to admit, though, that I found Canaan nearly as confusing as Bakemonogatari. I say nearly because there's clearly a plot kicking about in Canaan, it's just they're hiding it away to give some mystery. Bakemonogatari I just wasn't really sure where it was going.
But also like Bakemonogatari, there's enough other good stuff to keep my interest despite the confusingness of the plot. For example, Canaan also seems to be packed full of interesting characters and, most surprisingly, humour. I really wasn't expecting it to have anything funny in it from what I've seen magazine wise, but it was actually quite funny in places.
Kuruneko
Well this is a bit of an oddity. Apparently it's an anime based on a blog - you don't get that every day!
As the title suggests - neko means cat - the blog is about cats. The anime is a series of very short episodes - maybe about 2mins each - which you'd expect from a blog and they're pretty much random, humorous anecdotes about cat ownership.
The animation is relatively crude, in a Rhubarb and Custard sort of way, and like that cartoon it has a lot of charm for it.
Overall it's sort of Chii-esque, but where that has a narrative because it's a fictional story, this is a bit more random (and a bit more 'realistic') and therefore didn't quite peak my interest in the same way. I guess if it was freely streamed somewhere it'd be worth a watch, especially as it's so short.
Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto~
Wasn't 100% sure about this one.
The first episode was kinda okay. Certainly the blonde underwater chick (I'm hesitating to use the word mermaid as it wasn't entirely clear that's what she was supposed to be) was totally hot and the land-dwelling girl was an interesting character. It was also quite funny and the story seemed to be okay.
But then in episode two things went spectacularly downhill.
First off, it suddenly became a magical girl show. This seemed to be a bit left-field to me. But worse than that, the story became a bit dodgy - both in terms of what it was and how it was being told.
The main crime was that a talking turtle appeared and proceeded to talk full advantage of his ability to talk in order to cram tonnes of relatively uninteresting exposition into our lugholes. To make it worse, he didn't seem to explain some stuff that then got used later in the story.
So I dunno - I'd probably keep watching, but I've a strong feeling the scales would slowly tip towards it not being a very good show.
Souten Kouro
I actually quite enjoyed this.
It's loosely inspired by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (they love a bit of Three Kingdoms in Japan) and it's probably fair to say that it's a bit on the melodramatic side.
It's also probably fair to say that the animation is of a fairly poor standard. If I was being kinda I'd go for highly stylised, but it's also fairly clear they were a bit strapped for cash.
Oh and it's all in the bloody dark again. Partly, I think to cover up the nasty and nudey bits for broadcast reasons, but also to hide the animation a bit. Plus of course, darkness = drama. I'm actually kinda surprised in didn't rain rose petals (or real rain even) during my sample, but then that is a bit girly and this is more melodrama for men in tone.
But setting those aside, I actually kinda liked it. Although I think I'd have to absorb it in small doses - I imagine watching this much melodrama in a short period of time might have a negative affect on your opinion of it.
AIKa ZERO
Let's do a short one: Basically if you've seen and liked the recent AIKa R16 then AIKa ZERO won't disappoint.
If you've not seen it you may like it if any of the following tickly your fancy: excessive fan-service, panty shots, hot young girls, panty shots, chick fights or panty shots. Plus, oddly for this sort of show, the story is okay too.
Oh, and there are quite a lot of panty-shots.
My hair's got to the really annoying stage where it just looks shit however I wash or comb it. It's also acting as a massive heat blanket, making me hot and sweaty when it's not actually that warm.
I should have had it cut one the last few weekends, but I've mentioned before that I find having it cut really unpleasant. Plus it seems to cost more each time I go.
I've been doing some scanning through the week. I've actually been trying to stay on top of telly this week (loads of stuff I've been following ends this week so I'm kinda prepping for a spare-time boost to... well, I'm not sure - maybe I'll get on top of the scanning or watch some DVDs?), so it's perhaps not been as much as I could have done, but some is better than none.
I've also been watching anime independently as well as what I've watched while scanning, so here are the low-downs:
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
Wow.
I'm not really sure how to expand on that.
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is about an earthquake. Well, no, actually it's about people being impacted by a really big earthquake.
How can I put this? Where you might have expected all the money and effort to have gone into getting the earthquake right and animating it well, it's quite clear that just as much effort has gone into developing the characters and plot. The characters feel real - now admittedly they're not things you won't have seen done before, but they're done so well and portrayed so vividly they feel totally real.
Indeed, the realness is such that I almost found myself blubbing at a few points. Indeed, I'm struggling not to compare it to the masterworks of Miyazaki - there's a real flavour of what he manages to capture in films like Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service.
This is probably one of the best anime I've seen in ages.
Bakemonogatori
For some while now I've been bemoaning the current fad in anime to adapt "Light Novels".
My main issue with these light novels is that they seem to almost completely lack originality. I've tended to assume this was because of the nature of the beast - light novels are, as the name suggests "easy readers" and tend to rely on heavily worn ideas. To say they're quite a clichéd bunch is to hit the nail on the head.
However, Bakemonogatari - which is another of the same ilk if you hadn't guessed already - seems to be offering something a bit different. But there's a bit of a catch - it's being made by SHAFT and a lot of what makes Bakemonogatari interesting is the visual style and presentation.
Since Light Novels are textual in nature, it's hard to see how this is coming from the book and not the company making it. But that said, the plot seems fairly interesting from what I sampled. Well, I say the plot - it's a little difficult to be sure quite what the plot is if I'm honest. I'm sure it'd become clearer later, but at the moment I'm not really sure what's going on.
So I guess really it's the characters that carried my interest in what I sampled.
Canaan
Y'know, something odd sometimes happens when I run through fansubs like this.
For some reason, I tend to get runs of good and bad shows. Why this happens I don't know - I'm selecting what to watch on about as random a basis as I can, yet I'll still end up watching several rubbish shows in a row and then several good ones in a row.
The upshot of which is that this is the third good show in a row.
I have to admit, though, that I found Canaan nearly as confusing as Bakemonogatari. I say nearly because there's clearly a plot kicking about in Canaan, it's just they're hiding it away to give some mystery. Bakemonogatari I just wasn't really sure where it was going.
But also like Bakemonogatari, there's enough other good stuff to keep my interest despite the confusingness of the plot. For example, Canaan also seems to be packed full of interesting characters and, most surprisingly, humour. I really wasn't expecting it to have anything funny in it from what I've seen magazine wise, but it was actually quite funny in places.
Kuruneko
Well this is a bit of an oddity. Apparently it's an anime based on a blog - you don't get that every day!
As the title suggests - neko means cat - the blog is about cats. The anime is a series of very short episodes - maybe about 2mins each - which you'd expect from a blog and they're pretty much random, humorous anecdotes about cat ownership.
The animation is relatively crude, in a Rhubarb and Custard sort of way, and like that cartoon it has a lot of charm for it.
Overall it's sort of Chii-esque, but where that has a narrative because it's a fictional story, this is a bit more random (and a bit more 'realistic') and therefore didn't quite peak my interest in the same way. I guess if it was freely streamed somewhere it'd be worth a watch, especially as it's so short.
Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto~
Wasn't 100% sure about this one.
The first episode was kinda okay. Certainly the blonde underwater chick (I'm hesitating to use the word mermaid as it wasn't entirely clear that's what she was supposed to be) was totally hot and the land-dwelling girl was an interesting character. It was also quite funny and the story seemed to be okay.
But then in episode two things went spectacularly downhill.
First off, it suddenly became a magical girl show. This seemed to be a bit left-field to me. But worse than that, the story became a bit dodgy - both in terms of what it was and how it was being told.
The main crime was that a talking turtle appeared and proceeded to talk full advantage of his ability to talk in order to cram tonnes of relatively uninteresting exposition into our lugholes. To make it worse, he didn't seem to explain some stuff that then got used later in the story.
So I dunno - I'd probably keep watching, but I've a strong feeling the scales would slowly tip towards it not being a very good show.
Souten Kouro
I actually quite enjoyed this.
It's loosely inspired by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (they love a bit of Three Kingdoms in Japan) and it's probably fair to say that it's a bit on the melodramatic side.
It's also probably fair to say that the animation is of a fairly poor standard. If I was being kinda I'd go for highly stylised, but it's also fairly clear they were a bit strapped for cash.
Oh and it's all in the bloody dark again. Partly, I think to cover up the nasty and nudey bits for broadcast reasons, but also to hide the animation a bit. Plus of course, darkness = drama. I'm actually kinda surprised in didn't rain rose petals (or real rain even) during my sample, but then that is a bit girly and this is more melodrama for men in tone.
But setting those aside, I actually kinda liked it. Although I think I'd have to absorb it in small doses - I imagine watching this much melodrama in a short period of time might have a negative affect on your opinion of it.
AIKa ZERO
Let's do a short one: Basically if you've seen and liked the recent AIKa R16 then AIKa ZERO won't disappoint.
If you've not seen it you may like it if any of the following tickly your fancy: excessive fan-service, panty shots, hot young girls, panty shots, chick fights or panty shots. Plus, oddly for this sort of show, the story is okay too.
Oh, and there are quite a lot of panty-shots.
Thursday, 24 September 2009
waking the dead
Waking the Dead has been running for quite a while now - something in the order of 10 years, maybe?
For those that are unaware, it's a mystery crime drama. The title comes from the fact that it's all about re-opening 'cold' cases - murders that were not solved at the time, mainly.
Generally speaking I enjoy it - the 'who done it?' aspect is usually quite strong and forms the main focus of the stories. Which isn't to say it's just about the cases - there's normally a fair bit of interpersonal stuff and character development kicking about.
Mainly the focus is on Boyd, the main in charge. Boyd is a bit of an odd character. He's very... loud I guess is the best word. He shouts at people a lot. It's also difficult to tell if he cares or not.
The reason he took the job was essentially because he was looking for his son, so there's a caring aspect there. But then he generally treats his work colleagues like shit. And he's not exactly kind to anyone he interviews - indeed, he's not above giving them a good slap now and again.
Which, for me, is where things start to go a bit wonky. How, in this day and age, has he kept his job? Some of the stuff he gets up to is way beyond legal, let alone acceptable, and yet he's never been fired.
The other week there was a storyline where he broke into someone's house to get evidence, for example. At the end the episode the internal investigation type people turned up and basically said "stop working on the case, we're investigating you."
Ah, I thought, next week will be about him being in trouble. But nope, it was apparently business as usual.
It's difficult to explain, but everything seems to be unravelling in a way. I mean, it's kinda supposed to be like that - the Boyd's son thing has actually been resolved, and I think he's meant to be spiralling out of control, and Spence, one of his team has left.
But the problem is they're not really being properly consistent and they're not really paying enough attention to the non-case story parts. For example, the girl on the team died in the first part.
Okay, fair enough, but it was done in such a random way - one minute she's okay, the next she's dead. And then there's basically no mention of her after that - Boyd treated her like shit, as per usual, but in these later episodes there's been no follow up to that. Grace, the psychologist, apparently hasn't even had a word with him or anything.
I dunno, it feels like while they're still doing interesting murders, the other aspects have gone a bit loose. Plus they're starting to interfere too much in the cases - it feels like none of the cases this year has been solved properly because of Boyd ballsing them up.
Which is fair enough, but where are the repercussions from that? He's not even gotten a bollocking from his boss.
It's difficult to explain, because it's always had that aspect of Boyd being a loose cannon, but this year it seems to have lost cohesion as an overall entity - the plot things running through the whole series seem to have gotten a bit mangled somewhere.
For those that are unaware, it's a mystery crime drama. The title comes from the fact that it's all about re-opening 'cold' cases - murders that were not solved at the time, mainly.
Generally speaking I enjoy it - the 'who done it?' aspect is usually quite strong and forms the main focus of the stories. Which isn't to say it's just about the cases - there's normally a fair bit of interpersonal stuff and character development kicking about.
Mainly the focus is on Boyd, the main in charge. Boyd is a bit of an odd character. He's very... loud I guess is the best word. He shouts at people a lot. It's also difficult to tell if he cares or not.
The reason he took the job was essentially because he was looking for his son, so there's a caring aspect there. But then he generally treats his work colleagues like shit. And he's not exactly kind to anyone he interviews - indeed, he's not above giving them a good slap now and again.
Which, for me, is where things start to go a bit wonky. How, in this day and age, has he kept his job? Some of the stuff he gets up to is way beyond legal, let alone acceptable, and yet he's never been fired.
The other week there was a storyline where he broke into someone's house to get evidence, for example. At the end the episode the internal investigation type people turned up and basically said "stop working on the case, we're investigating you."
Ah, I thought, next week will be about him being in trouble. But nope, it was apparently business as usual.
It's difficult to explain, but everything seems to be unravelling in a way. I mean, it's kinda supposed to be like that - the Boyd's son thing has actually been resolved, and I think he's meant to be spiralling out of control, and Spence, one of his team has left.
But the problem is they're not really being properly consistent and they're not really paying enough attention to the non-case story parts. For example, the girl on the team died in the first part.
Okay, fair enough, but it was done in such a random way - one minute she's okay, the next she's dead. And then there's basically no mention of her after that - Boyd treated her like shit, as per usual, but in these later episodes there's been no follow up to that. Grace, the psychologist, apparently hasn't even had a word with him or anything.
I dunno, it feels like while they're still doing interesting murders, the other aspects have gone a bit loose. Plus they're starting to interfere too much in the cases - it feels like none of the cases this year has been solved properly because of Boyd ballsing them up.
Which is fair enough, but where are the repercussions from that? He's not even gotten a bollocking from his boss.
It's difficult to explain, because it's always had that aspect of Boyd being a loose cannon, but this year it seems to have lost cohesion as an overall entity - the plot things running through the whole series seem to have gotten a bit mangled somewhere.
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
rambo
The name's Rambo. John Rambo.
I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about there. It makes no sense as a joke and offers absolutely no kind of commentary on the film itself.
So yeah, Rambo. Which, in complete disregard for the film's title is actually the fourth Rambo film.
But it's such a long distant sequel, it's kinda understandable why they didn't give it a more sequel arific name: Fourth Blood or something. But that isn't to say they've ignored the time gap.
Indeed, a key part of the film is how long Rambo has spent 'in the wilderness' as it were. If it had just been "here's more Rambo" it wouldn't have worked. But what they've done here means it does kinda work.
Which isn't to say the film entirely works, just that it's a good start. So what else about the film works?
A big success is the length. With credits it's only about 1hr25. This means that the pacing is really good - nothing drags here and also, nothing feels gratuitous. Well, okay, we'll get to the violence later, but I mean none of the scenes feel like they were unnecessary - it cuts right to the heart of the story.
Another success is Rambo himself - he feels real and understandable. It follows on logically from where he was in the previous films and makes sense.
And, perhaps surprisingly, one of the biggest successes is the depiction of a mercenary team in the film. Normally in this sort of film they would prove to be useless. Perhaps one of them would be good, but the rest would end up getting killed instantly and stupidly or need to be rescued by Rambo.
Well, even though one of those things does sort of happen, it happens in a way that you can believe and subsequently it shows the mercs doing a good job. These guys are just about as effectively as Rambo himself, which is really nice to see.
It's also pretty successful at portraying the absolute mess that is Burma. The story is fictional, but according to what the people they interview say and the research that was done it's not wholly unrealistic.
The last truly successful thing is the extras - a commentary from Sly himself and a veritable bucket load of extras make this a worthwhile disk from that standpoint.
A sort of successful thing is the way the violence is portrayed. It's... well, it works. On the commentary and interviews they keep talking about it being realistic. I'm not 100% sure on that myself.
For example, legs blown off by mortar rounds and grenades and people being shredded by 50 cal rounds I can believe. Similar levels of damage being inflicted by a handgun I'm not so sure about.
Also, it comes awfully close to being too much. The final sequence is quiet long and the violence and gore is at such a level it almost becomes too much. As pointed out in the extras, if it hadn't had a rousing, movie-style soundtrack behind it you'd have been vomiting in your popcorn. I mean, honestly it's worse than most horror movies.
But then there's the thing - that's sort of the point. War is horrible.
The main thing that didn't work so well for me was the bad guys. They were quite two dimensional bad guys - there was no suggestion of them being anything other than simply 'bad'. Also, the missionaries seemed a bit on the hyper-naive side to me. Especially since one of them claimed to have been into Burma 5 times before.
But overall those didn't really detract too much from the film itself, which I enjoyed. But I think you need a strong constitution to watch it!
I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about there. It makes no sense as a joke and offers absolutely no kind of commentary on the film itself.
So yeah, Rambo. Which, in complete disregard for the film's title is actually the fourth Rambo film.
But it's such a long distant sequel, it's kinda understandable why they didn't give it a more sequel arific name: Fourth Blood or something. But that isn't to say they've ignored the time gap.
Indeed, a key part of the film is how long Rambo has spent 'in the wilderness' as it were. If it had just been "here's more Rambo" it wouldn't have worked. But what they've done here means it does kinda work.
Which isn't to say the film entirely works, just that it's a good start. So what else about the film works?
A big success is the length. With credits it's only about 1hr25. This means that the pacing is really good - nothing drags here and also, nothing feels gratuitous. Well, okay, we'll get to the violence later, but I mean none of the scenes feel like they were unnecessary - it cuts right to the heart of the story.
Another success is Rambo himself - he feels real and understandable. It follows on logically from where he was in the previous films and makes sense.
And, perhaps surprisingly, one of the biggest successes is the depiction of a mercenary team in the film. Normally in this sort of film they would prove to be useless. Perhaps one of them would be good, but the rest would end up getting killed instantly and stupidly or need to be rescued by Rambo.
Well, even though one of those things does sort of happen, it happens in a way that you can believe and subsequently it shows the mercs doing a good job. These guys are just about as effectively as Rambo himself, which is really nice to see.
It's also pretty successful at portraying the absolute mess that is Burma. The story is fictional, but according to what the people they interview say and the research that was done it's not wholly unrealistic.
The last truly successful thing is the extras - a commentary from Sly himself and a veritable bucket load of extras make this a worthwhile disk from that standpoint.
A sort of successful thing is the way the violence is portrayed. It's... well, it works. On the commentary and interviews they keep talking about it being realistic. I'm not 100% sure on that myself.
For example, legs blown off by mortar rounds and grenades and people being shredded by 50 cal rounds I can believe. Similar levels of damage being inflicted by a handgun I'm not so sure about.
Also, it comes awfully close to being too much. The final sequence is quiet long and the violence and gore is at such a level it almost becomes too much. As pointed out in the extras, if it hadn't had a rousing, movie-style soundtrack behind it you'd have been vomiting in your popcorn. I mean, honestly it's worse than most horror movies.
But then there's the thing - that's sort of the point. War is horrible.
The main thing that didn't work so well for me was the bad guys. They were quite two dimensional bad guys - there was no suggestion of them being anything other than simply 'bad'. Also, the missionaries seemed a bit on the hyper-naive side to me. Especially since one of them claimed to have been into Burma 5 times before.
But overall those didn't really detract too much from the film itself, which I enjoyed. But I think you need a strong constitution to watch it!
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
erm
Y'know sometimes it's really difficult to think of anything to write in these blogs.
Sometimes on Monday I've got so much stuff to talk about that I actually rattle off three or four blog posts (writing them in word) that I then use until Wednesday, by which time I've got more to talk about.
But other times I can struggle to write the Monday and then don't have the time (or, sometimes, the inclination) to write any more.
It's one of the reasons I turned Wednesday into 'movie review' day. It gives me one day of guaranteed content, although sometimes I struggle there to if I'm unsure about a film or didn't watch one.
Anyway, the point is today I'm struggling quite a bit.
See, last night I did no more scanning and watched no more anime. I could talk about the manga I've been reading, but the majority of it has been continuing series, which I don't like to talk about as it's difficult to avoid spoilers. I have started several new series, but I've only read 1 volume and I like to give them more room for an opinion to form than that.
This is made worse by what happens on a Monday evening.
For some reason, Monday evenings always disappear in a flash. No sooner am I home than it's 8 or 9 'o'clock and I'm thinking about bed, not doing anything interesting.
There are several factors that contribute to this.
First off, I like to go shopping Monday lunch, so I have to put the shopping away. Also, all the prep I like to for the next day (I'm possibly the most anal person alive) is more complicated because it's all been 'paused' over the weekend. So that takes longer.
Also, over the weekend I don't dl any fansubs, so Sunday night I end up with an average of 20 fansubs to dl on Monday. So Monday evening, with these having dl'ed during the day, I've got to sort them out, putting them on external Hard Drives, etc.
Then there's telly.
Monday night is Gadget Show night, when it's on, and that's quite often - it seems to run almost continuously. That's no bad thing as I love the Gadget Show, but I like to watch it live.
Then, factor in things like making my dinner (being as Monday is shopping day I always have to make something proper - there's no possibility of just reheating yesterday's leftovers) and shaving (I shave at night) and you can see how before I know it, Monday evening is gone.
And that's why I've never anything interesting to talk about on Tuesdays.
Sometimes on Monday I've got so much stuff to talk about that I actually rattle off three or four blog posts (writing them in word) that I then use until Wednesday, by which time I've got more to talk about.
But other times I can struggle to write the Monday and then don't have the time (or, sometimes, the inclination) to write any more.
It's one of the reasons I turned Wednesday into 'movie review' day. It gives me one day of guaranteed content, although sometimes I struggle there to if I'm unsure about a film or didn't watch one.
Anyway, the point is today I'm struggling quite a bit.
See, last night I did no more scanning and watched no more anime. I could talk about the manga I've been reading, but the majority of it has been continuing series, which I don't like to talk about as it's difficult to avoid spoilers. I have started several new series, but I've only read 1 volume and I like to give them more room for an opinion to form than that.
This is made worse by what happens on a Monday evening.
For some reason, Monday evenings always disappear in a flash. No sooner am I home than it's 8 or 9 'o'clock and I'm thinking about bed, not doing anything interesting.
There are several factors that contribute to this.
First off, I like to go shopping Monday lunch, so I have to put the shopping away. Also, all the prep I like to for the next day (I'm possibly the most anal person alive) is more complicated because it's all been 'paused' over the weekend. So that takes longer.
Also, over the weekend I don't dl any fansubs, so Sunday night I end up with an average of 20 fansubs to dl on Monday. So Monday evening, with these having dl'ed during the day, I've got to sort them out, putting them on external Hard Drives, etc.
Then there's telly.
Monday night is Gadget Show night, when it's on, and that's quite often - it seems to run almost continuously. That's no bad thing as I love the Gadget Show, but I like to watch it live.
Then, factor in things like making my dinner (being as Monday is shopping day I always have to make something proper - there's no possibility of just reheating yesterday's leftovers) and shaving (I shave at night) and you can see how before I know it, Monday evening is gone.
And that's why I've never anything interesting to talk about on Tuesdays.
Monday, 21 September 2009
a start
Well I think I can say I've officially "made a start" on the scanning backlog.
Over this last weekend I spent many hours scanning away. I have to admit I didn't seem to achieve as much as I'd hoped - I basically only scanning one animedia and one newtype. With the megami I scanned during the week that means I actually haven't quite finished the first month of the backlog.
To be frank, though, I think this is in part because the mags I was scanning were all quite heavy with scans. Sometimes each of the mags can go up and down in the number of things that can be scanned, and in the month I'm scanning I think they all hit a high.
Plus I'm a bit rusty, so that can't have helped.
Anyway, while I scanned, I also watched some anime:
Pandora Hearts
This was a bit of an odd one, as I wasn't entirely sure if I liked it or disliked it.
My problem was that for everything that seems interesting or intriguing there was something I found annoying or tedious.
In the end I had to come down on the side of not really liking it, though it'd be a show I would probably be willing to give a second go.
07-Ghost
It's a bishounen (pretty boy) show. Basically it's an action adventure type series, but with few to no women and all the men are pretty. So if that sort of thing sounds like your cup of tea your mileage may be better than mine.
Phantom ~ Requiem for the phantom ~
Well now, going into this I wasn't expecting much. It's by the same people that did El Cazador de la Bruga, Noir and Madlax. I've never seen Madlax, but I hated Noir. Cazador seemed like Noir but set in a pseudo-wild west and I understand the plot of Madlax is similar too, so I was expecting Phantom would be more of the same.
Well it is, but it also isn't. In those other series the formula is always one sassy chick and a girl whose lost her memories (and her personality with it). As the show goes on the bland one usually starts remembering stuff and coming out of her shell.
Well in this show they've got two main protagonists again, but one of them's a guy. Plus they're both without memory and slightly impassive, though the impassiveness appears to be closer to 'breaking' from the start.
What I'm basically saying was I quite enjoyed the start of this and I'd want to watch more, but my optimism is cautious and tempered by the knowledge of the previous shows.
Taisho Yakyuu Musume
Okay, first I should categorically state that baseball, like most sports, doesn't really hold any appeal for me. However, for the second time in this last few seasons (Cross Game being the first time) I've found myself really liking a baseball-based series.
Of course the fundamental point of all story telling is that it's all about characters, so I'm going to use that as my excuse as to how come I like 2 baseball shows.
To be fair, Taisho is a lot less 'about' Baseball than it is the girls in the show - and it is all girls. Indeed, if I had my cynical hat on I'd be banding around words like "Moe" and how it's all been done before.
Well this is true (although it's actually set during the inter-war period and you don't' get too many shows set then) but the point is it charmed the pants off me (get your mind out of the gutter). Indeed, so much so that I would actually put this towards the top of a 'recommended' list for this last couple of seasons.
Element Hunters
I found this to be quite tedious.
I think the idea is it's meant to be educational. It certainly has lots of science (chemistry mainly) related stuff in it. The problem on this front is it's got loads of ridiculous non-science and stupidness in it too.
But also it falls roughly into a sort of boy's (shounen) pokemon-eskue battle-based type genre that always leaves me cold.
I just found it very boring.
Over this last weekend I spent many hours scanning away. I have to admit I didn't seem to achieve as much as I'd hoped - I basically only scanning one animedia and one newtype. With the megami I scanned during the week that means I actually haven't quite finished the first month of the backlog.
To be frank, though, I think this is in part because the mags I was scanning were all quite heavy with scans. Sometimes each of the mags can go up and down in the number of things that can be scanned, and in the month I'm scanning I think they all hit a high.
Plus I'm a bit rusty, so that can't have helped.
Anyway, while I scanned, I also watched some anime:
Pandora Hearts
This was a bit of an odd one, as I wasn't entirely sure if I liked it or disliked it.
My problem was that for everything that seems interesting or intriguing there was something I found annoying or tedious.
In the end I had to come down on the side of not really liking it, though it'd be a show I would probably be willing to give a second go.
07-Ghost
It's a bishounen (pretty boy) show. Basically it's an action adventure type series, but with few to no women and all the men are pretty. So if that sort of thing sounds like your cup of tea your mileage may be better than mine.
Phantom ~ Requiem for the phantom ~
Well now, going into this I wasn't expecting much. It's by the same people that did El Cazador de la Bruga, Noir and Madlax. I've never seen Madlax, but I hated Noir. Cazador seemed like Noir but set in a pseudo-wild west and I understand the plot of Madlax is similar too, so I was expecting Phantom would be more of the same.
Well it is, but it also isn't. In those other series the formula is always one sassy chick and a girl whose lost her memories (and her personality with it). As the show goes on the bland one usually starts remembering stuff and coming out of her shell.
Well in this show they've got two main protagonists again, but one of them's a guy. Plus they're both without memory and slightly impassive, though the impassiveness appears to be closer to 'breaking' from the start.
What I'm basically saying was I quite enjoyed the start of this and I'd want to watch more, but my optimism is cautious and tempered by the knowledge of the previous shows.
Taisho Yakyuu Musume
Okay, first I should categorically state that baseball, like most sports, doesn't really hold any appeal for me. However, for the second time in this last few seasons (Cross Game being the first time) I've found myself really liking a baseball-based series.
Of course the fundamental point of all story telling is that it's all about characters, so I'm going to use that as my excuse as to how come I like 2 baseball shows.
To be fair, Taisho is a lot less 'about' Baseball than it is the girls in the show - and it is all girls. Indeed, if I had my cynical hat on I'd be banding around words like "Moe" and how it's all been done before.
Well this is true (although it's actually set during the inter-war period and you don't' get too many shows set then) but the point is it charmed the pants off me (get your mind out of the gutter). Indeed, so much so that I would actually put this towards the top of a 'recommended' list for this last couple of seasons.
Element Hunters
I found this to be quite tedious.
I think the idea is it's meant to be educational. It certainly has lots of science (chemistry mainly) related stuff in it. The problem on this front is it's got loads of ridiculous non-science and stupidness in it too.
But also it falls roughly into a sort of boy's (shounen) pokemon-eskue battle-based type genre that always leaves me cold.
I just found it very boring.
Friday, 18 September 2009
weird night
Last night was a bit weird.
During the day I was feeling quite good, but then when I got home I dunno - it was like my blood sugar crashed or something, but that wouldn't make sense as I had quite a large dinner (too large, really as I made a bit of an error).
It was weird. All I really ended up doing was reading a few comics :/.
Plans for the weekend are pretty low key.
Hopefully what I'll do is actually continue with the start I made at scanning my magazine backlog. Also I'd like to watch some proper anime on DVD, but recently there's been a bit of an increase in the number of shows that I've been watching on telly and I'd rather keep them in line.
Someone in the office has had swine flu!
My malaise is unrelated, as they have been working off site, although he's in today so I'm sure I'll be imagining symptoms throughout the weekend!
It's slightly weird when you actually know someone who's had this thing that the media has been banging on about for so long.
By the sound of things he's not been having much fun, though - quite a nasty little disease by the sounds of things!
During the day I was feeling quite good, but then when I got home I dunno - it was like my blood sugar crashed or something, but that wouldn't make sense as I had quite a large dinner (too large, really as I made a bit of an error).
It was weird. All I really ended up doing was reading a few comics :/.
Plans for the weekend are pretty low key.
Hopefully what I'll do is actually continue with the start I made at scanning my magazine backlog. Also I'd like to watch some proper anime on DVD, but recently there's been a bit of an increase in the number of shows that I've been watching on telly and I'd rather keep them in line.
Someone in the office has had swine flu!
My malaise is unrelated, as they have been working off site, although he's in today so I'm sure I'll be imagining symptoms throughout the weekend!
It's slightly weird when you actually know someone who's had this thing that the media has been banging on about for so long.
By the sound of things he's not been having much fun, though - quite a nasty little disease by the sounds of things!
Thursday, 17 September 2009
almost unbelievable
I did some scanning!
Granted, not a lot of scanning, but "some" is, like, a million percent more than "none" isn't it?
I've also been continuing to watch anime fansubs. Some of this was while I scanned, but the majority was just randomly watched.
Guin Saga
Well I guess this show proves I haven't lost my disinterest in fantasy like I was afraid with Tear to Tiara. Guin Saga did very little for me.
It's a fantasy type story, in case you hadn't guessed, and, as far as I'm aware, it's another one based on an RPG and it again shows. But where Tiara had a bit of humour to lift it, this is played totally straight.
It's odd the parallels between the shows, actually - both involve royal siblings being saved/aided by people we're not quite sure about. In Tiara it was unclear if he was a good guy or bad guy, but in Guin it's more that it's unclear who and what he is.
Guin appears to have a leopard's head and has lost his memory. Unfortunately, the former makes him seem like some reject from a Mexican wresting match and the latter is a rather played out idea that isn't' given any real life here.
What I think I'm saying is that if fantasy is your bag then you might get more mileage, but it really wasn't for me. Oh, and whichever camp you're in, you need warning that the animation is pretty damn poor. It just about reached okay level during the fights, but otherwise it's really cheap stuff.
Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen
Now there's a title and a half to get your gob around!
I've honestly not got a lot to say about this.
I mean, it's a Go Nagai series, and if you like Go Nagai's giant mecha stuff I see absolutely no reason you wouldn't like this.
My own personal take is somewhat of a cool distance. I have no problems with Giant Mecha (indeed, many of the shows I'd put up the top in my personal rankings would be Giant Mecha shows) but I'm not such a big fan of these "original" style shows.
It's difficult to explain - I like shows like Godannar or Gurren Lagann that pay affectionate homage to these types of shows, and I like shows like Eva that bugger about with them, but the shows themselves don't quite work for me. I think it's because there too earnest.
A knowing wink and a some sort of acknowledgement within the show itself that the whole thing is bizarre/silly goes a long way for me. I've no problem with the things they get up to, so long as there's a flavour of the creators themselves knowing that what they're doing is daft.
Plus, often-times the writing leaves a lot to be desired. And if I'm brutally honest, Go Nagai's character and mecha designs leave me a bit cold.
But if you're good with all that stuff, then this should be right up your alley.
Slap Up Party - Arad Senki
And here's another one with a bizarre name.
Also, rather bizarrely, it's yet another one where it opens in the dark. All of the series I've sampled just recently have either had all of their opening episodes set in the dark, or they've certainly opened in the dark.
Tears to Tiara the first two eps were at night, Guin Saga, the first ep was at night, Darker than Black had loads of night-time stuff, Mazinger, about 80% of what I watched was at night. And this opens in the dark too... weird. Although, to be fair, it does then proceed to being in bright daytime.
Plus, to cap things off, I believe it's another show adapted from a fantasy RPG game. I could be utterly wrong on that, as I've done no research at all, but it certainly feels like it is.
And it also feels like a show that just isn't my cup of tea.
I've never really thought much about it, but I think it's the fact that they're all really similar these fantasy RPG things. They involve a group going on a quest, often with the group acquiring allies and enemies as it goes.
They're all just Lord of the Rings with a variety of different characters.
So I guess if that sort of thing works for you, you might like it, but for me, this was a non-starter.
Princess Lover
Now this shows was a turn-up for the books.
Obviously I've seen the pictures that have been in the magazines and they rather stuck in my mind, shall we say? I mean, how could they not, given the melons quotient?
What I wasn't expecting was that the show was really rather good.
Well, the other thing I wasn't expecting was that all the fan-service would be heavily censored. And I mean all the fan-service. In the first couple of episodes the fan-service doesn't run to much more than a few panty shots and they're totally obscured by heavy black shadows.
It's a little odd - especially as in the second ep the hero actually refers to the colour of three of the girls knickers and we can't actually see them, because they're in black shadow.
Now I'm sort of used to this, in that I've seen quite a few fansubs that obviously had stuff censored out in this fashion and then later seen the DVD versions with stuff on show. But it's usually more reasonable - censoring out nipples on the broadcast TV version is understandable, knickers isn't, given how much anime has them in.
Maybe it's something to do with the time of day the show is broadcast? Or perhaps it gets more extreme later on? Certainly the show is apparently adapted from a hentai game.
But anyway, the point is that the stories actually not half bad. Or at least, it's being done in a not half bad way - I'm not sure there's anything here that I haven't seen before, but it looks like some care and attention has been put into making the plot a bit more substantial than the usual rom-com fair.
Gokujou!! Mecha Mote Iinchou
I only watched the one episode of this as it was obvious it was a show very much aimed at young girls. Plus I've only seen 2 eps subbed on the listing site I use.
I guess if you're a young girl this might work for you, but for me it was way too much into that whole genre. It's sort of wrong for me to say it was bad, as it's just not even something that's even vaguely aimed at me.
Although, and not wanting to get too deep here, I must admit, I do wonder whether this sort of thing would be produced outside of Japan. The focus the girls have on being 'pretty' seems a little disturbing to me.
I mean, on one level it rejects it, but at the same time sort of re-affirms it. It's a little odd.
Also, the animation was weird - it looked like some sort of bastard love-child of CG cell-shading and traditional hand-drawn animation. It was very odd looking.
Granted, not a lot of scanning, but "some" is, like, a million percent more than "none" isn't it?
I've also been continuing to watch anime fansubs. Some of this was while I scanned, but the majority was just randomly watched.
Guin Saga
Well I guess this show proves I haven't lost my disinterest in fantasy like I was afraid with Tear to Tiara. Guin Saga did very little for me.
It's a fantasy type story, in case you hadn't guessed, and, as far as I'm aware, it's another one based on an RPG and it again shows. But where Tiara had a bit of humour to lift it, this is played totally straight.
It's odd the parallels between the shows, actually - both involve royal siblings being saved/aided by people we're not quite sure about. In Tiara it was unclear if he was a good guy or bad guy, but in Guin it's more that it's unclear who and what he is.
Guin appears to have a leopard's head and has lost his memory. Unfortunately, the former makes him seem like some reject from a Mexican wresting match and the latter is a rather played out idea that isn't' given any real life here.
What I think I'm saying is that if fantasy is your bag then you might get more mileage, but it really wasn't for me. Oh, and whichever camp you're in, you need warning that the animation is pretty damn poor. It just about reached okay level during the fights, but otherwise it's really cheap stuff.
Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen
Now there's a title and a half to get your gob around!
I've honestly not got a lot to say about this.
I mean, it's a Go Nagai series, and if you like Go Nagai's giant mecha stuff I see absolutely no reason you wouldn't like this.
My own personal take is somewhat of a cool distance. I have no problems with Giant Mecha (indeed, many of the shows I'd put up the top in my personal rankings would be Giant Mecha shows) but I'm not such a big fan of these "original" style shows.
It's difficult to explain - I like shows like Godannar or Gurren Lagann that pay affectionate homage to these types of shows, and I like shows like Eva that bugger about with them, but the shows themselves don't quite work for me. I think it's because there too earnest.
A knowing wink and a some sort of acknowledgement within the show itself that the whole thing is bizarre/silly goes a long way for me. I've no problem with the things they get up to, so long as there's a flavour of the creators themselves knowing that what they're doing is daft.
Plus, often-times the writing leaves a lot to be desired. And if I'm brutally honest, Go Nagai's character and mecha designs leave me a bit cold.
But if you're good with all that stuff, then this should be right up your alley.
Slap Up Party - Arad Senki
And here's another one with a bizarre name.
Also, rather bizarrely, it's yet another one where it opens in the dark. All of the series I've sampled just recently have either had all of their opening episodes set in the dark, or they've certainly opened in the dark.
Tears to Tiara the first two eps were at night, Guin Saga, the first ep was at night, Darker than Black had loads of night-time stuff, Mazinger, about 80% of what I watched was at night. And this opens in the dark too... weird. Although, to be fair, it does then proceed to being in bright daytime.
Plus, to cap things off, I believe it's another show adapted from a fantasy RPG game. I could be utterly wrong on that, as I've done no research at all, but it certainly feels like it is.
And it also feels like a show that just isn't my cup of tea.
I've never really thought much about it, but I think it's the fact that they're all really similar these fantasy RPG things. They involve a group going on a quest, often with the group acquiring allies and enemies as it goes.
They're all just Lord of the Rings with a variety of different characters.
So I guess if that sort of thing works for you, you might like it, but for me, this was a non-starter.
Princess Lover
Now this shows was a turn-up for the books.
Obviously I've seen the pictures that have been in the magazines and they rather stuck in my mind, shall we say? I mean, how could they not, given the melons quotient?
What I wasn't expecting was that the show was really rather good.
Well, the other thing I wasn't expecting was that all the fan-service would be heavily censored. And I mean all the fan-service. In the first couple of episodes the fan-service doesn't run to much more than a few panty shots and they're totally obscured by heavy black shadows.
It's a little odd - especially as in the second ep the hero actually refers to the colour of three of the girls knickers and we can't actually see them, because they're in black shadow.
Now I'm sort of used to this, in that I've seen quite a few fansubs that obviously had stuff censored out in this fashion and then later seen the DVD versions with stuff on show. But it's usually more reasonable - censoring out nipples on the broadcast TV version is understandable, knickers isn't, given how much anime has them in.
Maybe it's something to do with the time of day the show is broadcast? Or perhaps it gets more extreme later on? Certainly the show is apparently adapted from a hentai game.
But anyway, the point is that the stories actually not half bad. Or at least, it's being done in a not half bad way - I'm not sure there's anything here that I haven't seen before, but it looks like some care and attention has been put into making the plot a bit more substantial than the usual rom-com fair.
Gokujou!! Mecha Mote Iinchou
I only watched the one episode of this as it was obvious it was a show very much aimed at young girls. Plus I've only seen 2 eps subbed on the listing site I use.
I guess if you're a young girl this might work for you, but for me it was way too much into that whole genre. It's sort of wrong for me to say it was bad, as it's just not even something that's even vaguely aimed at me.
Although, and not wanting to get too deep here, I must admit, I do wonder whether this sort of thing would be produced outside of Japan. The focus the girls have on being 'pretty' seems a little disturbing to me.
I mean, on one level it rejects it, but at the same time sort of re-affirms it. It's a little odd.
Also, the animation was weird - it looked like some sort of bastard love-child of CG cell-shading and traditional hand-drawn animation. It was very odd looking.
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
shrek the third
If ever there was a series that accurately portrayed the law of diminishing returns it's Shrek.
The first one was brilliant - very funny, telling a heart-warming story and reaching a conclusion that managed to both have its cake and eat it.
The second one was okay. It had some funny high-points, a reasonable story that admittedly felt a bit like a re-tread of the first, but an okay conclusion. It was also a little hampered by a slightly too big scope and cast.
The third was distinctly average.
The jokes were rather thin on the ground, for starters. Not least of all because the central joke of having fantastical characters be real feels a little worn down now. I mean it's a good idea and all, but I do find myself picking holes in it.
I mean, why is the Arthur character depicted as an unpopular wimp? It doesn't really make a lot of sense, especially given he's quite handsome and reveals himself to be quite intelligent. Why would he be unpopular? It's never quite addressed.
Well, he's unpopular because it's high-school and it suits the theme of the Shrek films for self-discovery to be his arc.
And mentioning the high-school, man did it loose me during this section. First off - I'm not American, I never went to high-school, it's a frame of reference that means very little to me.
Plus the types of characters they had seemed like very old jokes. The nerds playing D&D, the popular girls speaking in valley girl speak. I mean it was hard to even tell they were jokes, to be honest.
And then you've got the idea about Prince Charming banding all the 'bad' fairytale characters together and taking over Never-never land. Okay, fair enough, but it was really badly executed.
I mean, they just seemed to sort of turn up, fly about on their brooms (where they heck they got them all from, I don't know) and then land and... they'd won. I don't recall seeing a single guard or military type, despite both of the previous films showing (and, to some extent, relying on) their respective cities having significant numbers of guards.
I dunno, it just didn't seem to make a whole lot of sense.
Also, the characters didn't really seem to grow or develop a great deal. I mean, Shrek kinda became a father, but then the idea that he was not keen on being a Dad got a bit lost somewhere along the line. I think part of the problem is because they were aware they were essentially retreading the same plot beats.
But also it's one thing for him to be screwing up his relationship with his girlfriend in 2, it's quite another for that same plot-thread to be properly played out with regards to un-born children. What could they do? Have him suggest abortion? Or doing a runner? In a family/kids film?
So yeah, I wouldn't recommend it.
I did actually watch another film this last weekend - Tropic Thunder. I'd probably recommend that one more, but it also wasn't the best. I won't talk about it here much, as I'll do a full review for trismugistus.com I think.
The first one was brilliant - very funny, telling a heart-warming story and reaching a conclusion that managed to both have its cake and eat it.
The second one was okay. It had some funny high-points, a reasonable story that admittedly felt a bit like a re-tread of the first, but an okay conclusion. It was also a little hampered by a slightly too big scope and cast.
The third was distinctly average.
The jokes were rather thin on the ground, for starters. Not least of all because the central joke of having fantastical characters be real feels a little worn down now. I mean it's a good idea and all, but I do find myself picking holes in it.
I mean, why is the Arthur character depicted as an unpopular wimp? It doesn't really make a lot of sense, especially given he's quite handsome and reveals himself to be quite intelligent. Why would he be unpopular? It's never quite addressed.
Well, he's unpopular because it's high-school and it suits the theme of the Shrek films for self-discovery to be his arc.
And mentioning the high-school, man did it loose me during this section. First off - I'm not American, I never went to high-school, it's a frame of reference that means very little to me.
Plus the types of characters they had seemed like very old jokes. The nerds playing D&D, the popular girls speaking in valley girl speak. I mean it was hard to even tell they were jokes, to be honest.
And then you've got the idea about Prince Charming banding all the 'bad' fairytale characters together and taking over Never-never land. Okay, fair enough, but it was really badly executed.
I mean, they just seemed to sort of turn up, fly about on their brooms (where they heck they got them all from, I don't know) and then land and... they'd won. I don't recall seeing a single guard or military type, despite both of the previous films showing (and, to some extent, relying on) their respective cities having significant numbers of guards.
I dunno, it just didn't seem to make a whole lot of sense.
Also, the characters didn't really seem to grow or develop a great deal. I mean, Shrek kinda became a father, but then the idea that he was not keen on being a Dad got a bit lost somewhere along the line. I think part of the problem is because they were aware they were essentially retreading the same plot beats.
But also it's one thing for him to be screwing up his relationship with his girlfriend in 2, it's quite another for that same plot-thread to be properly played out with regards to un-born children. What could they do? Have him suggest abortion? Or doing a runner? In a family/kids film?
So yeah, I wouldn't recommend it.
I did actually watch another film this last weekend - Tropic Thunder. I'd probably recommend that one more, but it also wasn't the best. I won't talk about it here much, as I'll do a full review for trismugistus.com I think.
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
eBay doesn't want me
I knew there was something I forgot yesterday! I had another figurine come from Japan, and as per usual it got hit with customs. I paid the customs and set the delivery date and it never showed up. So, in other words that made it a triumvirate of non-delivery things, hence the post.
Both animage and the figurine turned up yesterday, so I guess that's a tick in a couple of boxes at least. So now back to the scheduled post:
eBay has recently introduced a new policy that, by the looks of things, manages to top all of their previous idiocy by quite some considerable margin.
Last time I ranted on I hit the epoch of all swearing, describing them as a bunch of cunts. While this adequately and succinctly summed up my feeling at the time, it unfortunately leaves me with the situation that I have no higher level of swearitude to go to in order to express my displeasure.
I think what I'm going to do is use cunts^2 (or cunts squared - cunts multiplied by cunts) as I think it sums up the drastic increase in their cuntitude.
So what have they done?
Well, they've introduced a system used "DSR" which stands for "Detailed Seller Ratings" and are basically ratings out of 5 given by users on 4 elements:
And the idea is that if you get an average DSR in any of these below a particular threshold (4.3!) across either 12 months or 3 months, then you get 'punished'. Alternatively, they seem to have set some hard limits too, so that if you get 4 "low" DSRs (1s or 2s) you also get punished.
The punishments are that your item gets lowered in the search returns (don't really know how this works if your item is the only one or one of five in a search. Also, you can get suspended from e-bay - that is, they won't let you sell anything until your DSRs normalise.
If you've more than about 4 brain cells I reckon you can already pick about a million holes in this whole system, but let's focus on some particularly juicy points:
The scorecard is weighted. That is, you may think, like a normal, sensible and rational human being, that, on a scale of 5, 'average' is 3, 'good' is 4 and 'excellent' is 5. Well look at the number you're required to get - 4.3. That means that if all your customers rate your service as 'good' you get punished.
How in the name of fuck is that a sensible way to set your system up?
Unless you're a cunt^2, of course.
Then there's the punishments - my ratings get lowered or I get banned from e-bay because one or two douche bags give me low ratings?
Yeah, that's fair. Especially when I have absolutely no way to retaliate. For example, did you know it's actually now impossible for a seller to rate a buyer negatively?
What else?
Well, according to some postings around the web and on the support forums, your buyers don't actually even have to rate you low to fuck you over - if they don't leave any DSRs (so they just give you the normal rating) then that counts as a "0"!
So their laziness rapes me in the arse.
Also, reading around, everyone is getting low DSRs on postage and packaging. I've ranted on this before that people don't seem to have any idea of how much postage costs - they don't even go and look at the god-damn Royal Mail website and check, they just seem to think you're ripping them off automatically.
Well guess what - even people who have buckled to the previous shit-sandwich e-Bay served us sellers and started doing free postage are getting low DSRs for postage. I mean seriously, if you offer free postage, some people still won't give you a 5! Not that you need to be a genius to work that out, just a cunt^2 not to take it into account.
There's tonnes of other stuff and I could go on for ages, but the last thing I'd mention is what seems to be behind this.
There's a distinct air that what's motivating it is that e-bay wants to get rid of small-time sellers like me. By the sound of things they basically want to become a wholesalers outfit.
So they want to abandon their whole business model and shed the core customer base.
Bunch of cunts^2.
Both animage and the figurine turned up yesterday, so I guess that's a tick in a couple of boxes at least. So now back to the scheduled post:
eBay has recently introduced a new policy that, by the looks of things, manages to top all of their previous idiocy by quite some considerable margin.
Last time I ranted on I hit the epoch of all swearing, describing them as a bunch of cunts. While this adequately and succinctly summed up my feeling at the time, it unfortunately leaves me with the situation that I have no higher level of swearitude to go to in order to express my displeasure.
I think what I'm going to do is use cunts^2 (or cunts squared - cunts multiplied by cunts) as I think it sums up the drastic increase in their cuntitude.
So what have they done?
Well, they've introduced a system used "DSR" which stands for "Detailed Seller Ratings" and are basically ratings out of 5 given by users on 4 elements:
- Item as Described
- Communication
- Dispatch Time
- Postage and Packaging Charges
And the idea is that if you get an average DSR in any of these below a particular threshold (4.3!) across either 12 months or 3 months, then you get 'punished'. Alternatively, they seem to have set some hard limits too, so that if you get 4 "low" DSRs (1s or 2s) you also get punished.
The punishments are that your item gets lowered in the search returns (don't really know how this works if your item is the only one or one of five in a search. Also, you can get suspended from e-bay - that is, they won't let you sell anything until your DSRs normalise.
If you've more than about 4 brain cells I reckon you can already pick about a million holes in this whole system, but let's focus on some particularly juicy points:
The scorecard is weighted. That is, you may think, like a normal, sensible and rational human being, that, on a scale of 5, 'average' is 3, 'good' is 4 and 'excellent' is 5. Well look at the number you're required to get - 4.3. That means that if all your customers rate your service as 'good' you get punished.
How in the name of fuck is that a sensible way to set your system up?
Unless you're a cunt^2, of course.
Then there's the punishments - my ratings get lowered or I get banned from e-bay because one or two douche bags give me low ratings?
Yeah, that's fair. Especially when I have absolutely no way to retaliate. For example, did you know it's actually now impossible for a seller to rate a buyer negatively?
What else?
Well, according to some postings around the web and on the support forums, your buyers don't actually even have to rate you low to fuck you over - if they don't leave any DSRs (so they just give you the normal rating) then that counts as a "0"!
So their laziness rapes me in the arse.
Also, reading around, everyone is getting low DSRs on postage and packaging. I've ranted on this before that people don't seem to have any idea of how much postage costs - they don't even go and look at the god-damn Royal Mail website and check, they just seem to think you're ripping them off automatically.
Well guess what - even people who have buckled to the previous shit-sandwich e-Bay served us sellers and started doing free postage are getting low DSRs for postage. I mean seriously, if you offer free postage, some people still won't give you a 5! Not that you need to be a genius to work that out, just a cunt^2 not to take it into account.
There's tonnes of other stuff and I could go on for ages, but the last thing I'd mention is what seems to be behind this.
There's a distinct air that what's motivating it is that e-bay wants to get rid of small-time sellers like me. By the sound of things they basically want to become a wholesalers outfit.
So they want to abandon their whole business model and shed the core customer base.
Bunch of cunts^2.
Monday, 14 September 2009
missing
So on Friday I mentioned I'd gotten e-mails telling me newtype, animedia and animage had been sent.
Well, when I got home I was a bit surprised to find that only two of them were there - newtype and animedia. Animage was nowhere to be found :/.
Quite why this was I don't know - TNT are the couriers and one of the guys I happened to talk to specifically mentioned delivering 3 at once, so it's not like they're unaware of it.
I hope it turns up of its own accord. With it being sent from Japan and them not providing tracking numbers I don't really fancy trying to find out what's happened to it. Not least of all because they always have those "it could take 12 weeks to arrive" disclaimers on. If I try to contact them, I'm sure I'll get some sort of response like that.
I had a similar experience with the Royal Mail. A DVD I sent that someone bought off me on e-bay has not been delivered, so I've sent a claim form. However I couldn't send it straight away because they don't consider things lost "until 15 days after it was sent".
It didn't help matters that they wanted loads of evidence. It was a total pain in the arse.
And guess what the things worth? 10p. Yup, that's right, it was one of those DVDs that went for way below a sensible price (if you take off the final valuation fee and PayPal charges I'll have lost money) and now it looks like it'll be costing me even more money.
There didn't seem to be a way to reclaim the packaging cost for starters, and I wouldn't be surprised if the claim is rejected, so I'll end up refunding without the compensation :(.
Postally, I'm not having much luck lately.
Well, when I got home I was a bit surprised to find that only two of them were there - newtype and animedia. Animage was nowhere to be found :/.
Quite why this was I don't know - TNT are the couriers and one of the guys I happened to talk to specifically mentioned delivering 3 at once, so it's not like they're unaware of it.
I hope it turns up of its own accord. With it being sent from Japan and them not providing tracking numbers I don't really fancy trying to find out what's happened to it. Not least of all because they always have those "it could take 12 weeks to arrive" disclaimers on. If I try to contact them, I'm sure I'll get some sort of response like that.
I had a similar experience with the Royal Mail. A DVD I sent that someone bought off me on e-bay has not been delivered, so I've sent a claim form. However I couldn't send it straight away because they don't consider things lost "until 15 days after it was sent".
It didn't help matters that they wanted loads of evidence. It was a total pain in the arse.
And guess what the things worth? 10p. Yup, that's right, it was one of those DVDs that went for way below a sensible price (if you take off the final valuation fee and PayPal charges I'll have lost money) and now it looks like it'll be costing me even more money.
There didn't seem to be a way to reclaim the packaging cost for starters, and I wouldn't be surprised if the claim is rejected, so I'll end up refunding without the compensation :(.
Postally, I'm not having much luck lately.
Friday, 11 September 2009
scanning the future
I got an e-mail this Tuesday or Wednesday telling me the new issues of Newtype, Animage and Animedia were on their way.
I'm not sure if they'll be here for the weekend - there's a good chance, based on previous experience that they'll turn up on Monday - but when they do arrive that will mean I'll have three straight months worth of un-scanned Japanese mags.
Those anime I mentioned yesterday - normally I would have watched those while scanning. But I've gotten so far behind and I've still not summoned the energy to do any scanning, so I've just watched them like they were normal episodes.
To be fair, there have been a lot of contributing factors to why I've not done any scanning in ages. For example, I watched BSG over the summer - that was a lot of episodes and therefore sucked up a lot of time.
Also, I've been doing loads of e-baying, and that always eats away a lot more time than you think. And then there was Monaco. I know it was ages ago, but it took ages to get stuff sorted out afterwards, plus it used up two whole weeks of holiday, so I've not really had many spare days over the summer.
Then there's been work. This last few months I've been so busy it's been really sucking up both my time and energy. It's like I've lost count of how many days this year I've worked really late.
So yeah, there are reasons, but that doesn't get to the core of the issue.
This core problem is I no longer really have anything to do with my scans.
When I started scanning mags I was a waller and also I had AP to upload them too. Both of those things are now gone, so it's like, why bother? What difference does it really make whether I scan stuff or not?
And the thing is I really don't have any answer to that other than "none". So I really am wondering whether I shouldn't just give up scanning altogether. It would certainly ease this sense of pressure and guilt I feel.
But then another side of me like the idea of scanning the mags. I mean, I can't read the text, so it's kinda nice thing to do with them. Plus I may find a future outlet for them, so better not to stop.
I'm not sure if they'll be here for the weekend - there's a good chance, based on previous experience that they'll turn up on Monday - but when they do arrive that will mean I'll have three straight months worth of un-scanned Japanese mags.
Those anime I mentioned yesterday - normally I would have watched those while scanning. But I've gotten so far behind and I've still not summoned the energy to do any scanning, so I've just watched them like they were normal episodes.
To be fair, there have been a lot of contributing factors to why I've not done any scanning in ages. For example, I watched BSG over the summer - that was a lot of episodes and therefore sucked up a lot of time.
Also, I've been doing loads of e-baying, and that always eats away a lot more time than you think. And then there was Monaco. I know it was ages ago, but it took ages to get stuff sorted out afterwards, plus it used up two whole weeks of holiday, so I've not really had many spare days over the summer.
Then there's been work. This last few months I've been so busy it's been really sucking up both my time and energy. It's like I've lost count of how many days this year I've worked really late.
So yeah, there are reasons, but that doesn't get to the core of the issue.
This core problem is I no longer really have anything to do with my scans.
When I started scanning mags I was a waller and also I had AP to upload them too. Both of those things are now gone, so it's like, why bother? What difference does it really make whether I scan stuff or not?
And the thing is I really don't have any answer to that other than "none". So I really am wondering whether I shouldn't just give up scanning altogether. It would certainly ease this sense of pressure and guilt I feel.
But then another side of me like the idea of scanning the mags. I mean, I can't read the text, so it's kinda nice thing to do with them. Plus I may find a future outlet for them, so better not to stop.
Thursday, 10 September 2009
cock
Nearly forgot to post on here today!
Think I'll just give a round-up of the animu I've been watching - not done that in a long while!
Darker Than Black
I'll give it a proper review later over at trismugistus.com, but overall I've really been enjoying this show.
To be brutally honest it's not the most original show. But it does represent something of a breath of fresh air. I mean there's not one character in the show that could be said to be remotely moe, for example. How many shows a year are there where you can say that with genuine accuracy?
Which isn't to say the show doesn't feature a bevy of beauties, but these are beautiful women, not pretty girls. They also feel like genuine, real, grown-up characters, rather than caricatures.
Which is saying a lot when you consider it's one of those shows where characters die in their droves. It makes for a real sense of poignancy - you could easily do entire series about half the characters that killed off in Darker than Black and it's that strength of writing that really helps to carry the show.
They could easily have made them two-dimensional bit players, but they're not. Instead, they're (mostly) fleshed out people who feel like they could exist. Well, apart from the whole super-powers thing, obviously.
DOGS OAV
I actually started buying the DOGS manga recently. I've not read it yet, but I really liked the artwork, so I thought I'd give it a go.
I've therefore no idea how close these OAVs are to the original, but if they're anything like each other I'm thinking I'll enjoy the manga. However, I must admit the anime wasn't quite what I was expecting.
The thing that took me by surprise was the humour. The first episode was fairly serious, but the second was really quite amusing and I wasn't expecting that at all. I was also expecting more of a solid plot.
I guess with it only being four episodes (And four 15 minute episodes at that) that's a bit unfair, but I thought they'd try and include some kind of overarching plot across the four. Well, I say that - with my usual approach of watching only a sample of the episodes, maybe it turns out that there is more of a plot, but I certainly couldn't see any longer plot strand sin what I watched. It was more like a series of shorter stories involving the same characters, rather than an overall story.
Still, I enjoyed it, so let's hope the manga is as good and they pick this up for a full anime series.
Tears to Tiara
I had absolutely no idea what to expect from this. I'm guessing I have seen some pics from the anime mags, but I've gotten so far behind with watching stuff that I have basically completely forgotten what they were.
When it started I have to admit I rolled my eyes a bit. Straight fantasy is generally not my thing and animes that are based on RPGs can get a bit tedious. They're also easy to spot a mile off - I could tell this was one before I even checked.
But then a while back I watched a show called Druaga that was really rather good, and that was a fantasy RPG game adaptation type anime too.
Tear to Tiara was also surprisingly good. Perhaps I've gone soft on fantasy? Or maybe it's more to do with the strength of the writing. One clever thing it's doing is to give you all the standard RPG tropes but to bugger about with them.
It's not quite subversion, but they're definitely tweaked enough to make them interesting. So in the first episode a "Demon King" god is resurrected, but he turns out to not really be evil/the bad guy (or at least not yet, from what I'd watched). So you've got a fairly standard fantasy element, but treated in a different-from-the-norm way.
It also has quite a bit of humour, and humour always goes a long way.
Oh, and it's interesting how bloody/violent it is as well - gore splatters all over the place. Not sure why, but it seems to add something to the show. They can be quite tepid these sorts of fantasies and it makes it a bit more... I dunno, weighty, for the violence to be more graphic.
Think I'll just give a round-up of the animu I've been watching - not done that in a long while!
Darker Than Black
I'll give it a proper review later over at trismugistus.com, but overall I've really been enjoying this show.
To be brutally honest it's not the most original show. But it does represent something of a breath of fresh air. I mean there's not one character in the show that could be said to be remotely moe, for example. How many shows a year are there where you can say that with genuine accuracy?
Which isn't to say the show doesn't feature a bevy of beauties, but these are beautiful women, not pretty girls. They also feel like genuine, real, grown-up characters, rather than caricatures.
Which is saying a lot when you consider it's one of those shows where characters die in their droves. It makes for a real sense of poignancy - you could easily do entire series about half the characters that killed off in Darker than Black and it's that strength of writing that really helps to carry the show.
They could easily have made them two-dimensional bit players, but they're not. Instead, they're (mostly) fleshed out people who feel like they could exist. Well, apart from the whole super-powers thing, obviously.
DOGS OAV
I actually started buying the DOGS manga recently. I've not read it yet, but I really liked the artwork, so I thought I'd give it a go.
I've therefore no idea how close these OAVs are to the original, but if they're anything like each other I'm thinking I'll enjoy the manga. However, I must admit the anime wasn't quite what I was expecting.
The thing that took me by surprise was the humour. The first episode was fairly serious, but the second was really quite amusing and I wasn't expecting that at all. I was also expecting more of a solid plot.
I guess with it only being four episodes (And four 15 minute episodes at that) that's a bit unfair, but I thought they'd try and include some kind of overarching plot across the four. Well, I say that - with my usual approach of watching only a sample of the episodes, maybe it turns out that there is more of a plot, but I certainly couldn't see any longer plot strand sin what I watched. It was more like a series of shorter stories involving the same characters, rather than an overall story.
Still, I enjoyed it, so let's hope the manga is as good and they pick this up for a full anime series.
Tears to Tiara
I had absolutely no idea what to expect from this. I'm guessing I have seen some pics from the anime mags, but I've gotten so far behind with watching stuff that I have basically completely forgotten what they were.
When it started I have to admit I rolled my eyes a bit. Straight fantasy is generally not my thing and animes that are based on RPGs can get a bit tedious. They're also easy to spot a mile off - I could tell this was one before I even checked.
But then a while back I watched a show called Druaga that was really rather good, and that was a fantasy RPG game adaptation type anime too.
Tear to Tiara was also surprisingly good. Perhaps I've gone soft on fantasy? Or maybe it's more to do with the strength of the writing. One clever thing it's doing is to give you all the standard RPG tropes but to bugger about with them.
It's not quite subversion, but they're definitely tweaked enough to make them interesting. So in the first episode a "Demon King" god is resurrected, but he turns out to not really be evil/the bad guy (or at least not yet, from what I'd watched). So you've got a fairly standard fantasy element, but treated in a different-from-the-norm way.
It also has quite a bit of humour, and humour always goes a long way.
Oh, and it's interesting how bloody/violent it is as well - gore splatters all over the place. Not sure why, but it seems to add something to the show. They can be quite tepid these sorts of fantasies and it makes it a bit more... I dunno, weighty, for the violence to be more graphic.
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
the shock doctrine
This weeks film was...
Well, actually, this weeks film was going to be Domino, starring Keira Knightly, which I'd recorded off of Film4, but about half-way in it started breaking up and became unwatchable. Then I was going to watch Tales from Earthsea, which I'd also recorded off of Film4 (due to timings I've not had a rental DVD for the last two weekends), but that turned out to be a re-dub version and I didn't fancy it.
So I ended up deleting both of those and watching The Shock Doctrine (this actually meant that I yet again cleared my PVR down to empty, though I've a feeling that with the autumn and winter TV seasons approaching, this state of affairs won't last long).
I enjoyed The Shock Doctrine.
Though, to be fair , I'm both a bleeding heart liberal and socialist (maybe even communist) at heart.
If you're neither of those things then your mileage may vary.
However, I have to admit to some degree of confusion with the shock doctrine. The basic premise seems to be that some scientists did some work with electric shocks and/or sensory deprivation and this somehow lead to a bunch of economists deciding that the same thing would be a good idea for the economy.
Actually I don't think that's what it was saying at all, but that's kinda how one of its messages came across. What I actually think it was trying to do was draw a parallel - that a branch of economics called "shock economics" (Google it) can be seen to parallel this shock therapy.
The shock therapy was intended to use the electric shocks (not sure quite where the sensory deprivation came in, or, indeed, the CIA's torture bible came in) to blank out a person's personality, and in its place construct a new, better personality.
So it is with shock economics - some crisis allows a particular type of free market economics to be bullied through and forced upon a population while they're busy trying not to die in floods or be disappeared by a dodgy dictator or whatever.
Now here it made some good points and the evils that are totally free-market economies and unrestrained capitalism are things I too would whole-heartedly disagree with.
The problem was it got a bit confused. While it was making totally valid and good points, it also seemed to be joining the dots in a way that didn't quite make sense.
Which isn't to say I can see kinda what it was going for, it's just that I'm not sure that event a) could be quite so definitively proven to be the cause of event b). In other words, it seemed to be fining a big conspiracy where I'm not really sure there was one - not in the planned and organised way it was being suggested anyway.
What I think I'm going to do is buy the book it was based on and see if that makes more sense.
As for the film, I'd recommend it if you're already of a similar mind-frame as mentioned above, but if you're not, I don't think it would exactly convince you to change your mind.
Well, actually, this weeks film was going to be Domino, starring Keira Knightly, which I'd recorded off of Film4, but about half-way in it started breaking up and became unwatchable. Then I was going to watch Tales from Earthsea, which I'd also recorded off of Film4 (due to timings I've not had a rental DVD for the last two weekends), but that turned out to be a re-dub version and I didn't fancy it.
So I ended up deleting both of those and watching The Shock Doctrine (this actually meant that I yet again cleared my PVR down to empty, though I've a feeling that with the autumn and winter TV seasons approaching, this state of affairs won't last long).
I enjoyed The Shock Doctrine.
Though, to be fair , I'm both a bleeding heart liberal and socialist (maybe even communist) at heart.
If you're neither of those things then your mileage may vary.
However, I have to admit to some degree of confusion with the shock doctrine. The basic premise seems to be that some scientists did some work with electric shocks and/or sensory deprivation and this somehow lead to a bunch of economists deciding that the same thing would be a good idea for the economy.
Actually I don't think that's what it was saying at all, but that's kinda how one of its messages came across. What I actually think it was trying to do was draw a parallel - that a branch of economics called "shock economics" (Google it) can be seen to parallel this shock therapy.
The shock therapy was intended to use the electric shocks (not sure quite where the sensory deprivation came in, or, indeed, the CIA's torture bible came in) to blank out a person's personality, and in its place construct a new, better personality.
So it is with shock economics - some crisis allows a particular type of free market economics to be bullied through and forced upon a population while they're busy trying not to die in floods or be disappeared by a dodgy dictator or whatever.
Now here it made some good points and the evils that are totally free-market economies and unrestrained capitalism are things I too would whole-heartedly disagree with.
The problem was it got a bit confused. While it was making totally valid and good points, it also seemed to be joining the dots in a way that didn't quite make sense.
Which isn't to say I can see kinda what it was going for, it's just that I'm not sure that event a) could be quite so definitively proven to be the cause of event b). In other words, it seemed to be fining a big conspiracy where I'm not really sure there was one - not in the planned and organised way it was being suggested anyway.
What I think I'm going to do is buy the book it was based on and see if that makes more sense.
As for the film, I'd recommend it if you're already of a similar mind-frame as mentioned above, but if you're not, I don't think it would exactly convince you to change your mind.
Tuesday, 8 September 2009
payment... when?
Recently, I've been selling a fair old bit of stuff on e-bay.
Now, usually what happens with most auctions is that people pay really quickly. Even to the extent that perhaps two-thirds of my auctions the person pays on the day the auction ends - many within hours of it ending.
I guess people do this because they feel it's payment that seals the deal - I've paid you, so you can't go back on the deal. Which is fair enough, although technically it's the end of the auction when things become contractually binding.
However, it's always been the case that occasionally some people take a long time to pay.
This is a horrible pain in the arse.
I mean, it's okay if they take a while to pay because they're sending a cheque or postal orders. Indeed, I much prefer these payment methods because then paypal doesn't take an unreasonably large slice.
No, the problem ones are the people who clearly bid but don't actually have the money to-hand.
I've got one at the moment who even though the auction ended at the beginning of the month, couldn't pay me until the end of the month when he got paid. Why the hell is he even bidding if he can't afford to pay for it in a sensible timeframe?
What makes this one worse is that he also clearly hadn't factored in postage and when payment time came he couldn't actually pay anyway due to some problem or other.
I'll be seriously miffed if he ends up not paying at all.
But he's not the only one - I seem to have gotten a glut of them at the moment, to the extent that I'm owed well over £200. Considering a big motivator for me to sell is my need to realise capital, that's not a fun stat to have kicking about.
What I think isn't helping matters is my whole use of the "courier" option to get around the new (retarded) e-bay postage policy. For some reason, the system actually allows people to pay without the courier charge included.
Quite why it does this points to yet more retardedness on the part of e-bay, but has also flagged up to me that people aren't reading the item description.
I mean, I've gotten several messages asking me how much postage is for items when it's clearly stated down the bottom of the item description. So maybe it's not surprising some people who win are among those who've failed to read the description, but the point is I find that whole behaviour staggering.
Who bids on an item without reading the whole item description? It could literally say anything and you didn't bother reading it? Weird :/.
Now, usually what happens with most auctions is that people pay really quickly. Even to the extent that perhaps two-thirds of my auctions the person pays on the day the auction ends - many within hours of it ending.
I guess people do this because they feel it's payment that seals the deal - I've paid you, so you can't go back on the deal. Which is fair enough, although technically it's the end of the auction when things become contractually binding.
However, it's always been the case that occasionally some people take a long time to pay.
This is a horrible pain in the arse.
I mean, it's okay if they take a while to pay because they're sending a cheque or postal orders. Indeed, I much prefer these payment methods because then paypal doesn't take an unreasonably large slice.
No, the problem ones are the people who clearly bid but don't actually have the money to-hand.
I've got one at the moment who even though the auction ended at the beginning of the month, couldn't pay me until the end of the month when he got paid. Why the hell is he even bidding if he can't afford to pay for it in a sensible timeframe?
What makes this one worse is that he also clearly hadn't factored in postage and when payment time came he couldn't actually pay anyway due to some problem or other.
I'll be seriously miffed if he ends up not paying at all.
But he's not the only one - I seem to have gotten a glut of them at the moment, to the extent that I'm owed well over £200. Considering a big motivator for me to sell is my need to realise capital, that's not a fun stat to have kicking about.
What I think isn't helping matters is my whole use of the "courier" option to get around the new (retarded) e-bay postage policy. For some reason, the system actually allows people to pay without the courier charge included.
Quite why it does this points to yet more retardedness on the part of e-bay, but has also flagged up to me that people aren't reading the item description.
I mean, I've gotten several messages asking me how much postage is for items when it's clearly stated down the bottom of the item description. So maybe it's not surprising some people who win are among those who've failed to read the description, but the point is I find that whole behaviour staggering.
Who bids on an item without reading the whole item description? It could literally say anything and you didn't bother reading it? Weird :/.
Monday, 7 September 2009
dubs
I think I mentioned last week that I started Darker Than Black.
Well, this weekend I had a veritable mini-anime fest and have now watched about two-thirds of it. That isn't to say this is a lot of anime. In the past I've watched entire series across a weekend and I'm sure many people consume anime at a much faster rate than that.
The point is that it represents a return to watching anime where recently I've been horribly flagging.
But that's not really what I wanted to talk about in this blog. What I wanted to talk about was dubs. Or rather, re-dubs.
You see, as a rule I've always maintained that I prefer watching anime in subtitled form. That is, the original Japanese version with English subtitles, rather than the re-dubbing efforts of the American studios.
This was kinda my default position. I'd always at least sample the English re-dub, but it would tend to be a fairly quick thing. Maybe I'd watch one or two episodes, or flick over to see what the American Voice Actor sounded like compared to the Japanese ones.
I should make it clear that I'm not one of those people who hates all re-dubs on principle. Indeed, I've watched several dubs and found them to be better than the original Japanese and so continued watching the re-dub, rather than the original.
The one thing that has rankled me about re-dubs was when they change stuff. There's always a balancing act of course - the words spoken have to match the lip-flaps and, generally speaking, a literal translation of the Japanese won't do this.
I don't mind tweaks like that, to fit the lip flaps, but keeping the meaning and general jist. What I've had problems with is when lines are drastically changed or even added where they weren't there originally.
Two classic examples of these were the Generator Gawl dub and the dub for Kiki's Delivery Service. In Gen Gawl, right off the bat they complete change a piece of dialogue in the first scene to explain the entire plot, when part of the point of the show is that you don't really know what's going on until late on in the series. In Kiki's they add innumerable lines to try and "explain" things that, generally, don't need explaining.
I hate both of these things mainly because they treat the audience like they're simpletons.
Anyway, back to the point: I have a dirty confession to make.
I've basically been watching the re-dub of Darker than Black, rather than the original Japanese. Now it doesn't quite get up to the level of Gen Gawl and Kiki's with buggering about with stuff, but it has its moments. I spotted one definite example of an added line of dialogue that changed the meaning of a scene.
The dirty part is that I don't really care.
Maybe part of it's because DtB is one of those shows with quite dense/fast spoken dialogue that's difficult to read and maybe part of it is that the American VA performances are actually really rather good, but really I think it comes down to a degree of laziness on my part.
I guess I shouldn't beat myself up too much. After all, it's better that I'm watching some stuff, even in re-dub form, than not watching anything at all.
Well, this weekend I had a veritable mini-anime fest and have now watched about two-thirds of it. That isn't to say this is a lot of anime. In the past I've watched entire series across a weekend and I'm sure many people consume anime at a much faster rate than that.
The point is that it represents a return to watching anime where recently I've been horribly flagging.
But that's not really what I wanted to talk about in this blog. What I wanted to talk about was dubs. Or rather, re-dubs.
You see, as a rule I've always maintained that I prefer watching anime in subtitled form. That is, the original Japanese version with English subtitles, rather than the re-dubbing efforts of the American studios.
This was kinda my default position. I'd always at least sample the English re-dub, but it would tend to be a fairly quick thing. Maybe I'd watch one or two episodes, or flick over to see what the American Voice Actor sounded like compared to the Japanese ones.
I should make it clear that I'm not one of those people who hates all re-dubs on principle. Indeed, I've watched several dubs and found them to be better than the original Japanese and so continued watching the re-dub, rather than the original.
The one thing that has rankled me about re-dubs was when they change stuff. There's always a balancing act of course - the words spoken have to match the lip-flaps and, generally speaking, a literal translation of the Japanese won't do this.
I don't mind tweaks like that, to fit the lip flaps, but keeping the meaning and general jist. What I've had problems with is when lines are drastically changed or even added where they weren't there originally.
Two classic examples of these were the Generator Gawl dub and the dub for Kiki's Delivery Service. In Gen Gawl, right off the bat they complete change a piece of dialogue in the first scene to explain the entire plot, when part of the point of the show is that you don't really know what's going on until late on in the series. In Kiki's they add innumerable lines to try and "explain" things that, generally, don't need explaining.
I hate both of these things mainly because they treat the audience like they're simpletons.
Anyway, back to the point: I have a dirty confession to make.
I've basically been watching the re-dub of Darker than Black, rather than the original Japanese. Now it doesn't quite get up to the level of Gen Gawl and Kiki's with buggering about with stuff, but it has its moments. I spotted one definite example of an added line of dialogue that changed the meaning of a scene.
The dirty part is that I don't really care.
Maybe part of it's because DtB is one of those shows with quite dense/fast spoken dialogue that's difficult to read and maybe part of it is that the American VA performances are actually really rather good, but really I think it comes down to a degree of laziness on my part.
I guess I shouldn't beat myself up too much. After all, it's better that I'm watching some stuff, even in re-dub form, than not watching anything at all.
Friday, 4 September 2009
so where is it?
Well this is both interesting and unusual.
I do a lot of e-bay as I'm sure I've mentioned in the past and the other day someone who bought one of my DVDs contacted me to ask when it would arrive.
Well, it had actually been sent more than a week ago, so it was odd that it hadn't arrived.
Luckily, they'd taken up the 1st class recorded option, so I was able to use the tracking service to try to find out what had happened.
But weirdly the tracking service just says the item has "been accepted" at the Post Office. So what does that mean? Have they tried to deliver it and failed? Or is it just sat in a bag somewhere? How the heck would that happen if it was?
It's very odd.
I hope I don't have to go through the palaver of claiming for it. That would be an extraordinary pain in the arse, especially since the value of the DVD was a spectacular 10p :/.
So yeah, I'm going down the post office tomorrow anyway to send my next batch of stuff, so I'll talk to them then, but I don't really know what they can really do. It sounds like it's been lost in the post - which is something I never thought actually happened.
Other plans for the weekend are relatively non-spectacular.
I'm basically hoping that I'm going to keep going with the watching anime thing. I finished Doujin Works and started on Darker than Black, but I'm still not discounting the possibility of this whole thing being a bit of a blip.
I do a lot of e-bay as I'm sure I've mentioned in the past and the other day someone who bought one of my DVDs contacted me to ask when it would arrive.
Well, it had actually been sent more than a week ago, so it was odd that it hadn't arrived.
Luckily, they'd taken up the 1st class recorded option, so I was able to use the tracking service to try to find out what had happened.
But weirdly the tracking service just says the item has "been accepted" at the Post Office. So what does that mean? Have they tried to deliver it and failed? Or is it just sat in a bag somewhere? How the heck would that happen if it was?
It's very odd.
I hope I don't have to go through the palaver of claiming for it. That would be an extraordinary pain in the arse, especially since the value of the DVD was a spectacular 10p :/.
So yeah, I'm going down the post office tomorrow anyway to send my next batch of stuff, so I'll talk to them then, but I don't really know what they can really do. It sounds like it's been lost in the post - which is something I never thought actually happened.
Other plans for the weekend are relatively non-spectacular.
I'm basically hoping that I'm going to keep going with the watching anime thing. I finished Doujin Works and started on Darker than Black, but I'm still not discounting the possibility of this whole thing being a bit of a blip.
Thursday, 3 September 2009
lordy lord
Holy Mary, mother of Jebus H Chrimble - last night I actually watched some anime!
I know, I can barely believe it myself either.
And it was multiple episodes. To be fair, the episodes in question were only 10 minutes or so each, but then I watched 8 of them, so that's got to be the equivalent of, what? 3 or 4 normal length episodes.
If it wasn't that anime is supposed to be one of my main hobbies, and thousands of anime fans don't struggle at all to watch some anime every night, it'd almost be impressive.
When I think back it kinda makes sense that I've been struggling. This last weekend I managed to finish both BSG (I'd finished the series a while ago, but there were quite a few extras to get through) and 'as you do' - the Richard Hammond book. Both of these have eaten up a lot of my time - don't get me wrong, it was all highly enjoyable, but it does mean if I'm spending hours watching/reading them, then I could hardly have been watching anime, could I?
Plus of course, there's the Anno thing. I think I may have crested a bit of hump there - I think I'm happier to ration my playing a bit more, instead of being horribly obsessed like I was not so long ago. Plus there's another factor there too.
Since I've been playing Anno loads I've developed a very stiff right shoulder and neck. I've a strong feeling that this is due to the many, many hours I've spent playing the game and hence sitting in the same position.
I've experienced a similar thing before when I've had a game obsession on the go, but usually the pain is focused in my elbow. I did have some elbow twinges, which is why I think the shoulder pain is caused by excessive playing, but they weren't too bad.
So yeah, I think partly my decision to reduce play is to see if that improves the situation. And certainly having not played at all since Monday, this morning my shoulder seems a lot freer.
Anyway, now for the brief low-down on what I watched, though I'm sure a full review will follow on my site eventually.
What I've been watching is Doujin Work. You may recall I mentioned I was reading the manga on which it's based and I said I was a bit on the fence, although broadly came down on the side of liking it.
Well, I started reading the manga and picked up the anime because Doujin Work was one of the shows I discovered via fansubs. I would never in a million years have picked this up if it hadn't been for the fansubs, as it doesn't look like my kinda show and it doesn't sound like it either when you read the blurb.
However, I was also starting to get a bit worried by my fansub filtering process. The best example of this was a how called Koharu Biyori (Indian Summer), which I really found funny when I sampled via fansub, but then when I bought and watched the DVD it was, well, I won't say bad, but it was just okay.
Another example was Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei. I really loved the anime when I watched it on fansub and although no-one has released it in the west, so I can't check it out properly, they have released the manga, and I've found that to be awful. Well, awful's unfair, but for a comedy manga I haven't laughed once - indeed I can hardly even spot the jokes, let alone find them funny.
So what about Doujin works? Well it's very good.
Having now read some of the manga and watched two thirds of the anime I can see why I have differing opinions on them. The manga is in a four-panel gag-strip format and to mimic this, the anime is a series of shorts. But the shorts are far longer than just 4 panels worth, so the story has become a joined-up whole.
But what they've also done is tweak the story. They've kept all the important elements, and some stuff is actually identical to the manga, but where the manga was weak, they've improved it. Mostly this revolves around the narrative, which they've given a really good massage too, making it more consistent and following a proper measured story.
And the most important thing is it's genuinely very funny. I was laughing out loud on more than one occasion and even when it's not laugh-out-loud funny, I was grinning.
So I'm relieved - at least some of my fansub filtering works!
Which isn't to say Doujin Work is entirely rosy - it's only 12 x 13 minute episodes in length and they've split it across 3 disks, which makes it pretty poor value for money. To kinda compensate for this, they've included a live action segment (which I'm guessing was part of the Japanese DVD releases) that follows two of the Voice Actors as they try to make their own doujinshi.
This is bloody awful on so many levels it's difficult to know where to start. In fact, I'll probably leave my spleen venting for the full review, but let's just say it's not enjoyable viewing.
But now comes the really big test - can I keep going? Or is this just a small blip?
I know, I can barely believe it myself either.
And it was multiple episodes. To be fair, the episodes in question were only 10 minutes or so each, but then I watched 8 of them, so that's got to be the equivalent of, what? 3 or 4 normal length episodes.
If it wasn't that anime is supposed to be one of my main hobbies, and thousands of anime fans don't struggle at all to watch some anime every night, it'd almost be impressive.
When I think back it kinda makes sense that I've been struggling. This last weekend I managed to finish both BSG (I'd finished the series a while ago, but there were quite a few extras to get through) and 'as you do' - the Richard Hammond book. Both of these have eaten up a lot of my time - don't get me wrong, it was all highly enjoyable, but it does mean if I'm spending hours watching/reading them, then I could hardly have been watching anime, could I?
Plus of course, there's the Anno thing. I think I may have crested a bit of hump there - I think I'm happier to ration my playing a bit more, instead of being horribly obsessed like I was not so long ago. Plus there's another factor there too.
Since I've been playing Anno loads I've developed a very stiff right shoulder and neck. I've a strong feeling that this is due to the many, many hours I've spent playing the game and hence sitting in the same position.
I've experienced a similar thing before when I've had a game obsession on the go, but usually the pain is focused in my elbow. I did have some elbow twinges, which is why I think the shoulder pain is caused by excessive playing, but they weren't too bad.
So yeah, I think partly my decision to reduce play is to see if that improves the situation. And certainly having not played at all since Monday, this morning my shoulder seems a lot freer.
Anyway, now for the brief low-down on what I watched, though I'm sure a full review will follow on my site eventually.
What I've been watching is Doujin Work. You may recall I mentioned I was reading the manga on which it's based and I said I was a bit on the fence, although broadly came down on the side of liking it.
Well, I started reading the manga and picked up the anime because Doujin Work was one of the shows I discovered via fansubs. I would never in a million years have picked this up if it hadn't been for the fansubs, as it doesn't look like my kinda show and it doesn't sound like it either when you read the blurb.
However, I was also starting to get a bit worried by my fansub filtering process. The best example of this was a how called Koharu Biyori (Indian Summer), which I really found funny when I sampled via fansub, but then when I bought and watched the DVD it was, well, I won't say bad, but it was just okay.
Another example was Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei. I really loved the anime when I watched it on fansub and although no-one has released it in the west, so I can't check it out properly, they have released the manga, and I've found that to be awful. Well, awful's unfair, but for a comedy manga I haven't laughed once - indeed I can hardly even spot the jokes, let alone find them funny.
So what about Doujin works? Well it's very good.
Having now read some of the manga and watched two thirds of the anime I can see why I have differing opinions on them. The manga is in a four-panel gag-strip format and to mimic this, the anime is a series of shorts. But the shorts are far longer than just 4 panels worth, so the story has become a joined-up whole.
But what they've also done is tweak the story. They've kept all the important elements, and some stuff is actually identical to the manga, but where the manga was weak, they've improved it. Mostly this revolves around the narrative, which they've given a really good massage too, making it more consistent and following a proper measured story.
And the most important thing is it's genuinely very funny. I was laughing out loud on more than one occasion and even when it's not laugh-out-loud funny, I was grinning.
So I'm relieved - at least some of my fansub filtering works!
Which isn't to say Doujin Work is entirely rosy - it's only 12 x 13 minute episodes in length and they've split it across 3 disks, which makes it pretty poor value for money. To kinda compensate for this, they've included a live action segment (which I'm guessing was part of the Japanese DVD releases) that follows two of the Voice Actors as they try to make their own doujinshi.
This is bloody awful on so many levels it's difficult to know where to start. In fact, I'll probably leave my spleen venting for the full review, but let's just say it's not enjoyable viewing.
But now comes the really big test - can I keep going? Or is this just a small blip?
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
intermawebnets
So this last weekend we did some investigations regarding the interwebs.
I plugged my laptop into his router and was able to access the internet no problems. The only issue might be that my laptop is running Vista. As such it'll have the latest network stuff and could have something that "works out" the connection for you.
My desktop machines are running older versions of windows and so could potentially be more problematic. It's unlikely, though.
So the plan is to run a network cable from John's router right through and across into my flat. I think the preferred route is to come into my place through the door to the attic space.
I should then be able to plug in and go from there. There may be some difficulty over the cable length - John measured it at 20m, which was an over-estimate, so that shouldn't be a problem, but such a long cable could be subject to signal loss and interference, so it may affect the speed.
Still, his cable package I believe is 10megabits, which is some 6 or 7 times faster than my phone-line broadband, so even with it slowing down it should still be quicker. Of course, that slow down may apply to the whole network would be the other possibility and I wouldn't want to affect John's connection.
Speaking of which I looked up Virgin's fair-use policy. I was rather afraid they'd have a bandwidth cap, which wouldn't be good at all, as I use a heck of a lot of bandwidth, as I've discussed before.
However, it seems they use throttling instead. The basic thing seems to be they have a peak period and if you download too much during that peak period, then they throttle back your connection speed.
It seems the amount you're allowed during this time is only 1.5gb, but the good (ish) thing is that it seems the peak period is in the afternoon and early evening. My heavy torrenting is mainly scheduled for the morning, so this may mean I'm okay. It could restrict what I get up to in the evening, though.
The plan, therefore, is to do it on a trial basis. If we hook it all up and see how it goes and if it badly affects John (or me, of course) then we can always not bother.
I plugged my laptop into his router and was able to access the internet no problems. The only issue might be that my laptop is running Vista. As such it'll have the latest network stuff and could have something that "works out" the connection for you.
My desktop machines are running older versions of windows and so could potentially be more problematic. It's unlikely, though.
So the plan is to run a network cable from John's router right through and across into my flat. I think the preferred route is to come into my place through the door to the attic space.
I should then be able to plug in and go from there. There may be some difficulty over the cable length - John measured it at 20m, which was an over-estimate, so that shouldn't be a problem, but such a long cable could be subject to signal loss and interference, so it may affect the speed.
Still, his cable package I believe is 10megabits, which is some 6 or 7 times faster than my phone-line broadband, so even with it slowing down it should still be quicker. Of course, that slow down may apply to the whole network would be the other possibility and I wouldn't want to affect John's connection.
Speaking of which I looked up Virgin's fair-use policy. I was rather afraid they'd have a bandwidth cap, which wouldn't be good at all, as I use a heck of a lot of bandwidth, as I've discussed before.
However, it seems they use throttling instead. The basic thing seems to be they have a peak period and if you download too much during that peak period, then they throttle back your connection speed.
It seems the amount you're allowed during this time is only 1.5gb, but the good (ish) thing is that it seems the peak period is in the afternoon and early evening. My heavy torrenting is mainly scheduled for the morning, so this may mean I'm okay. It could restrict what I get up to in the evening, though.
The plan, therefore, is to do it on a trial basis. If we hook it all up and see how it goes and if it badly affects John (or me, of course) then we can always not bother.
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
miserable
I'm feeling really miserable today.
I don't mean I'm ill, and I'm not particularly tired or sleep-deprived.
Plus the weekend didn't go badly or anything like that - indeed, if you set aside my utter failure to do any scanning, the weekend went positively well.
I'm just not in the mood for anything to day.
It's like a general feeling of... I dunno, dislike.
It feels as if at any moment I could snap. Like there's a tension; an fierce anger bubbling away below the surface. Like one small thing will just puncture the taut, balloon surface of my ego and BANG I'll go snap and shout at someone.
I feel like the whole world is against me; that no matter what I do I'll never win.
It's like I want to stick my middle finger up to the world and tell it to just go and fuck itself. Me, I'm going back to bed and tomorrow it better have sorted out its problems, or there'll be hell to pay.
So yeah, I'm not feeling my bright and chipper normal self today.
Not that my normal self is ever bright and chipper, or course, but you get the point.
I don't mean I'm ill, and I'm not particularly tired or sleep-deprived.
Plus the weekend didn't go badly or anything like that - indeed, if you set aside my utter failure to do any scanning, the weekend went positively well.
I'm just not in the mood for anything to day.
It's like a general feeling of... I dunno, dislike.
It feels as if at any moment I could snap. Like there's a tension; an fierce anger bubbling away below the surface. Like one small thing will just puncture the taut, balloon surface of my ego and BANG I'll go snap and shout at someone.
I feel like the whole world is against me; that no matter what I do I'll never win.
It's like I want to stick my middle finger up to the world and tell it to just go and fuck itself. Me, I'm going back to bed and tomorrow it better have sorted out its problems, or there'll be hell to pay.
So yeah, I'm not feeling my bright and chipper normal self today.
Not that my normal self is ever bright and chipper, or course, but you get the point.
Friday, 28 August 2009
now that's quiet
Well I got my new power supply unit for my gaming PC and installed it.
I was a little afraid that perhaps it wasn't the PSU that was the problem, so I stood well back when I turned it on. But everything was okay, so the PSU was definitely the problem.
The only shock I had was the noise - this new PSU is virtually silent compared to the old PSU. I think it's a bit of double whammy - this new PSU is a quiet model, but also the old PSU was incredibly loud.
I'd always known my machine was loud - it sounded like a blooming Hoover! - but I'd never realised it was entirely because of the PSU. I've got one of those mega-powerful PCI-E graphics cards in it that's a got a big fan on it (it takes up two slots) and there's the CPU cooler and stuff so I'd assumed all of that was making a large contribution.
Turns out not at all - with the new PSU in and the covers on, it's almost silent :/.
Of course, having regained my PC, guess what I did? Yup, played Anno 1404.
I could have used this as an excellent opportunity to watch some DVDs or do some scanning, but unfortunately, I'm now realising, because I bought as you do (Richard Hammond's book I mentioned earlier in the week) I've been reading that pretty intensely instead.
Ah well - at least this weekend is a bank holiday so at this stage I can con myself into thinking that I'll be utilising the bonus time to do something I should do, like scanning or watching DVDs. I'm sure the reality will be a great big pile of Anno.
I don't think I discussed it on here, but my landlord inquire about me getting cable and basically, virgin said they won't allow two separate accounts at the same address. This seemed very bizarre to me - I mean, what difference does it make how many accounts you have at the same address? Surely it just means they're turning away perfectly good business?
So having go this bad news my landlord came up with the idea of running a cable from his router to my place. I dunno what's happened with this, though, as I've not seen him to ask. I don't like to be pushy with it, because he's basically offering to give it to me for free.
I must admit to also being slightly worried about the practicalities - I'm an extremely high bandwidth user and I wouldn't want to push him over any sort of fair use quota.
In the meantime I've been investigating different broad band deals and phone lines and stuff.
I pay a lot for my broadband, I've always known that. The thing is though, it seems to be you get what you pay for.
Where I am, distance from the exchange wise and line quality wise, I get about 1.5 meg tops. This is pretty much as I'm expecting and all I will ever get, so deals going on about 24 megs and even 8 megs are just no-goers. I will never achieve those sorts of speeds (cable not withstanding).
But also, the line I'm currently on is a business line. This means it has a low contention (25:1 or 30:1 I believe). My experience is that this makes a lot more difference to your speed than anything else.
All non-business broadband I've seen has had contention of 50:1 - so a heck of a lot worse, meaning the speed would be a lot lower during peak times. Peak times are during the day and evening, when I'm either using P2P or doing my general surfing.
Also, as mentioned, I'm a very high bandwidth user. I have a facility for checking how much I've used each month and I've never checked it and seen my monthly usage bellow 100gigs.
That's a lot of bandwidth and the vast majority of ISP's "fair use" policies would be triggered. Indeed, many have stated monthly caps that are way below 100gig.
Basically then, non-business accounts are out.
So what about other business accounts? Well, the ones I can find are essentially either identical to my other account, or, again, they don't offer quite as good a service.
The basic point then is that while I could get broadband a heck of a lot cheaper, I can't get broadband that meets my needs any cheaper.
Unless I get access to cable via John. I may see if I can get hold of him this weekend and see if he's still keen on the idea.
If I could do that I'd be very tempted to dump my landline entirely. I virtually only have it for broadband - certainly I could cope with all my calls being via my mobile phone.
And speaking of phones I may have mentioned my bill had suddenly shot up - it went from £11 a month to £19 a month: nearly double. So I was looking at non-BT deals, but while I was doing so I was also checking the BT site and everything on the site seemed to be saying that although line rental had gone up, it was only by about £1.
I therefore gave them a call and what it seems has happened is that my direct debit for £11 wasn't quite enough to cover the cost of the line. Therefore, some automatic system kicked in and decided that £19 was the value for it be.
This is utterly ridiculous - across 5 years of having the line (so 5 * 12 monthly payment), the entire total of the deficit was £20. And in the space of 4 months paying at £19 I've therefore built up about £16 of credit on the account.
So the woman re-ran the software and it came up with the much more reasonable £12 monthly charge and she also said I can claim back the over-payment, apparently.
Bizarre.
I was a little afraid that perhaps it wasn't the PSU that was the problem, so I stood well back when I turned it on. But everything was okay, so the PSU was definitely the problem.
The only shock I had was the noise - this new PSU is virtually silent compared to the old PSU. I think it's a bit of double whammy - this new PSU is a quiet model, but also the old PSU was incredibly loud.
I'd always known my machine was loud - it sounded like a blooming Hoover! - but I'd never realised it was entirely because of the PSU. I've got one of those mega-powerful PCI-E graphics cards in it that's a got a big fan on it (it takes up two slots) and there's the CPU cooler and stuff so I'd assumed all of that was making a large contribution.
Turns out not at all - with the new PSU in and the covers on, it's almost silent :/.
Of course, having regained my PC, guess what I did? Yup, played Anno 1404.
I could have used this as an excellent opportunity to watch some DVDs or do some scanning, but unfortunately, I'm now realising, because I bought as you do (Richard Hammond's book I mentioned earlier in the week) I've been reading that pretty intensely instead.
Ah well - at least this weekend is a bank holiday so at this stage I can con myself into thinking that I'll be utilising the bonus time to do something I should do, like scanning or watching DVDs. I'm sure the reality will be a great big pile of Anno.
I don't think I discussed it on here, but my landlord inquire about me getting cable and basically, virgin said they won't allow two separate accounts at the same address. This seemed very bizarre to me - I mean, what difference does it make how many accounts you have at the same address? Surely it just means they're turning away perfectly good business?
So having go this bad news my landlord came up with the idea of running a cable from his router to my place. I dunno what's happened with this, though, as I've not seen him to ask. I don't like to be pushy with it, because he's basically offering to give it to me for free.
I must admit to also being slightly worried about the practicalities - I'm an extremely high bandwidth user and I wouldn't want to push him over any sort of fair use quota.
In the meantime I've been investigating different broad band deals and phone lines and stuff.
I pay a lot for my broadband, I've always known that. The thing is though, it seems to be you get what you pay for.
Where I am, distance from the exchange wise and line quality wise, I get about 1.5 meg tops. This is pretty much as I'm expecting and all I will ever get, so deals going on about 24 megs and even 8 megs are just no-goers. I will never achieve those sorts of speeds (cable not withstanding).
But also, the line I'm currently on is a business line. This means it has a low contention (25:1 or 30:1 I believe). My experience is that this makes a lot more difference to your speed than anything else.
All non-business broadband I've seen has had contention of 50:1 - so a heck of a lot worse, meaning the speed would be a lot lower during peak times. Peak times are during the day and evening, when I'm either using P2P or doing my general surfing.
Also, as mentioned, I'm a very high bandwidth user. I have a facility for checking how much I've used each month and I've never checked it and seen my monthly usage bellow 100gigs.
That's a lot of bandwidth and the vast majority of ISP's "fair use" policies would be triggered. Indeed, many have stated monthly caps that are way below 100gig.
Basically then, non-business accounts are out.
So what about other business accounts? Well, the ones I can find are essentially either identical to my other account, or, again, they don't offer quite as good a service.
The basic point then is that while I could get broadband a heck of a lot cheaper, I can't get broadband that meets my needs any cheaper.
Unless I get access to cable via John. I may see if I can get hold of him this weekend and see if he's still keen on the idea.
If I could do that I'd be very tempted to dump my landline entirely. I virtually only have it for broadband - certainly I could cope with all my calls being via my mobile phone.
And speaking of phones I may have mentioned my bill had suddenly shot up - it went from £11 a month to £19 a month: nearly double. So I was looking at non-BT deals, but while I was doing so I was also checking the BT site and everything on the site seemed to be saying that although line rental had gone up, it was only by about £1.
I therefore gave them a call and what it seems has happened is that my direct debit for £11 wasn't quite enough to cover the cost of the line. Therefore, some automatic system kicked in and decided that £19 was the value for it be.
This is utterly ridiculous - across 5 years of having the line (so 5 * 12 monthly payment), the entire total of the deficit was £20. And in the space of 4 months paying at £19 I've therefore built up about £16 of credit on the account.
So the woman re-ran the software and it came up with the much more reasonable £12 monthly charge and she also said I can claim back the over-payment, apparently.
Bizarre.
Thursday, 27 August 2009
monaco pics - coach journey back
I thought what I'd do today was just finish off the Monaco trip pics.
One of the reasons I didn't take many non-race photos was because I wasn't' sure how long my camera batteries would last. As it turned out I didn't really have anything to worry about, but I thought it better to be safe than sorry.
As such, on the last day of the race, on the coach back, I decided I'd take a few snaps and these are the best ones. They're all very sunny and Mediterranean, and I don't have much more to really say about them than that, so here they are:
One of the reasons I didn't take many non-race photos was because I wasn't' sure how long my camera batteries would last. As it turned out I didn't really have anything to worry about, but I thought it better to be safe than sorry.
As such, on the last day of the race, on the coach back, I decided I'd take a few snaps and these are the best ones. They're all very sunny and Mediterranean, and I don't have much more to really say about them than that, so here they are:
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Wednesday, 26 August 2009
hellboy II - the golden army
I found the first hellboy to be enjoyable fair.
It had it's flaws, to be sure, but I thought as comic-book adaptations go, hellboy was entertaining enough.
Hellboy 2 is a direct sequel, made by the same director, Guillermo del Torro. Del Torro is probably one of the most imaginative and creative people working in film today. He has a simply amazing visual sense, but also manages to team this with a superb narrative style and strong story-telling ethic.
Proof of this abounds - Blade 2 is by far the best of the Blade films, both visually and from the story-telling point of view, for example. Then there's Pan's Labyrinth, a film I didn't quite see eye-to-eye with, but one that was dripping with gorgeous visuals.
Hellboy II therefore kinda shows-up the first film. Although I personally enjoyed it for what it was, this second film really emphasises what was missing from the first to make it truly great - del Torro himself.
I remember in the first film's commentary del Torro kept going on about how much of a Hellboy fan he was and how he'd strived to transfer Mike Mignola's characters to the big screen as faithfully as he could. And it worked - they're good characters - but what that therefore mean the first film was missing was a true del Torro-ness.
I'm struggling to explain this, to be frank, but in Hellboy II, del Torro really seems to have let himself go and infused the film with his style. But there's more - in the first he treated the Hellboy world with the utmost respect, whereas in the second it's more like he's expressing his love for the characters.
Does that make sense? So if the first film was reverential and slightly dry and stand-offish because of the respect, then this film is up-close and personal because we're getting a glimpse into the soul of its creator.
That's a bit over the top, but you get the idea.
The film is also staggeringly brave in places.
For example, there's a sequence where Hellboy has to fight an elemental. The elemental grows huge and is destroying the city in its attempts to kill Hellboy.
Hellboy fights back and shoots it and effectively has it on-the-ropes when the villain appears and explains that this is the last of its kind - if he kills it, he ends a race.
Even though this is a block-buster type movie there are shades of grey here. Protect the humans and the city (that is the humans who hate and fear Hellboy and his compatriots) by ending an entire race - it's an intelligent, thoughtful moment where traditionally you would not be presented with anything of the kind.
It had it's flaws, to be sure, but I thought as comic-book adaptations go, hellboy was entertaining enough.
Hellboy 2 is a direct sequel, made by the same director, Guillermo del Torro. Del Torro is probably one of the most imaginative and creative people working in film today. He has a simply amazing visual sense, but also manages to team this with a superb narrative style and strong story-telling ethic.
Proof of this abounds - Blade 2 is by far the best of the Blade films, both visually and from the story-telling point of view, for example. Then there's Pan's Labyrinth, a film I didn't quite see eye-to-eye with, but one that was dripping with gorgeous visuals.
Hellboy II therefore kinda shows-up the first film. Although I personally enjoyed it for what it was, this second film really emphasises what was missing from the first to make it truly great - del Torro himself.
I remember in the first film's commentary del Torro kept going on about how much of a Hellboy fan he was and how he'd strived to transfer Mike Mignola's characters to the big screen as faithfully as he could. And it worked - they're good characters - but what that therefore mean the first film was missing was a true del Torro-ness.
I'm struggling to explain this, to be frank, but in Hellboy II, del Torro really seems to have let himself go and infused the film with his style. But there's more - in the first he treated the Hellboy world with the utmost respect, whereas in the second it's more like he's expressing his love for the characters.
Does that make sense? So if the first film was reverential and slightly dry and stand-offish because of the respect, then this film is up-close and personal because we're getting a glimpse into the soul of its creator.
That's a bit over the top, but you get the idea.
The film is also staggeringly brave in places.
For example, there's a sequence where Hellboy has to fight an elemental. The elemental grows huge and is destroying the city in its attempts to kill Hellboy.
Hellboy fights back and shoots it and effectively has it on-the-ropes when the villain appears and explains that this is the last of its kind - if he kills it, he ends a race.
Even though this is a block-buster type movie there are shades of grey here. Protect the humans and the city (that is the humans who hate and fear Hellboy and his compatriots) by ending an entire race - it's an intelligent, thoughtful moment where traditionally you would not be presented with anything of the kind.
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
as you do
I've recently been reading Richard Hammond's new... I was going to say autobiography then, but it isn't really. It's more like a diary/journal thing, although there are some auto-biography elements.
The first part covers the race to the North Pole Top Gear did, where Hammond was racing Huskies and James & Jeremy went in a four-by-four. Later on - although I haven't got there yet - it seems to cover the Desert race they did, as well as Hammond's meeting with Evel Knievel in a documentary.
I remember those episodes and the documentary well and it's been interesting to read Richard's take on it and the behind-the-scenes stuff. I'd certainly recommend it, but probably only if you're a Top Gear watcher or interested in Hammond. It's not quite got the broader appeal of his autobiography, since it's a bit more focused on things you need to have watched Top Gear to get properly. But it's still an entertaining read.
And speaking of reading, although I've not been watching any anime (naughty Mark!) I have been plugging away with the old manga. So much so, in fact, that my pile of unread manga has almost halved. Indeed, where it actually consisted of two separate stacks, it's now down to 1 stack.
Okay - that's not quite true. Because I deliberately read all my manga twice, actually it's changed from 2 stacks of totally unread to 1 stack of read-once and 1 stack of unread. But that's a sufficiently good achievement for me to be happy.
Anyway, the point is I thought I'd do one of those summary-type list of my thoughts on some of the newer stuff I've tackled:
The Welcome to the NHK manga has been rather disappointing, if I'm honest. The main problem I'm having is that it doesn't seem to be very consistent, both in terms of plotting and tone.
I'm left puzzled as to quite what it's trying to say or to achieve. At some points it comes across as an all-out comedy, at others it seems to be trying to make more serious points about the hikikomori (shut-ins, basically, though this shut-in spends a remarkably large amount of time outside his apartment, which kinda exemplifies my issue with it). At others it seems be going for a more straight drama style.
It almost comes across as vaguely schizophrenic - switching from one idea to another as it suits the whims of the writer. Now this is either a clever representation of the psyche of the main character, or just plain bad writing. And unfortunately I've been erring towards the latter.
Samurai Harem: Asu No Yoichi is a series I picked up because I rather liked what I saw of the anime version. Whilst I wouldn't say I didn't like the manga, the anime is better. That's a raft of double negatives, isn't it?
Basically, what I mean is that the manga seems okay, where the anime seemed good. There's a lot of commonality between the two - all the same characters are featured and the set-up is the same - but the anime is slightly better written. Weirdly, this is because the anime is more happy to use already familiar harem-type devices.
Normally I'd have been rolling my eyes at this rolling out of clichés, but the thing with Harem was that the main character was actually quite likeable and not the usual loser/milquetoast they often feature. In the manga this is also true, but the writer has tried to be innovative about lost of other stuff too, and it doesn't quite work.
In other words, for the anime, they seem to have picked the best aspects and used those. Plus the tweaks to the chara designs make them a bit better in the anime, if I'm honest.
Two series I think I've mentioned before but I've now read a bit more of are Doujin Works and Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei.
Doujin Work I was a bit on-the-fence over, due mainly to the format, I think. Well I've decided I pretty much like it now. Weirdly, it actually reminds me of Garfield.
Not in the sense of sharing any plot elements, obviously, but Garfield was formatted in a rigid panel format that was designed mainly for short, gag-based strips. However, occasionally it would veer into longer stories across more strips.
Doujin works is very much like that and it suffers the same problem. Long-form comics almost demand the use of varying panel sizes. Kept in fixed formats they feel oddly contained; broken up somehow.
But the point is, when you get past that, it works as a series. It also helps that I'm now used to the weirdness of it all.
However, another series I was a bit on-the-fence about has proven to be less of goer. Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei is really leaving me cold.
And I just can't understand why - when I watched the anime I really loved it, but the manga. I dunno, I just can't explain it.
My only theory is that the manga is confusing me. A lot of the characters look very similar and the panels are riddled with obscure, Japan-centric visual jokes that I don't get.
But in the anime, these jokes are either ignorable, or they are better explained by being animated. For the characters of course, you have colour to help distinguish them and different sounding voice actors.
It's a pretty flimsy theory, but it's all I can think of.
The first part covers the race to the North Pole Top Gear did, where Hammond was racing Huskies and James & Jeremy went in a four-by-four. Later on - although I haven't got there yet - it seems to cover the Desert race they did, as well as Hammond's meeting with Evel Knievel in a documentary.
I remember those episodes and the documentary well and it's been interesting to read Richard's take on it and the behind-the-scenes stuff. I'd certainly recommend it, but probably only if you're a Top Gear watcher or interested in Hammond. It's not quite got the broader appeal of his autobiography, since it's a bit more focused on things you need to have watched Top Gear to get properly. But it's still an entertaining read.
And speaking of reading, although I've not been watching any anime (naughty Mark!) I have been plugging away with the old manga. So much so, in fact, that my pile of unread manga has almost halved. Indeed, where it actually consisted of two separate stacks, it's now down to 1 stack.
Okay - that's not quite true. Because I deliberately read all my manga twice, actually it's changed from 2 stacks of totally unread to 1 stack of read-once and 1 stack of unread. But that's a sufficiently good achievement for me to be happy.
Anyway, the point is I thought I'd do one of those summary-type list of my thoughts on some of the newer stuff I've tackled:
The Welcome to the NHK manga has been rather disappointing, if I'm honest. The main problem I'm having is that it doesn't seem to be very consistent, both in terms of plotting and tone.
I'm left puzzled as to quite what it's trying to say or to achieve. At some points it comes across as an all-out comedy, at others it seems to be trying to make more serious points about the hikikomori (shut-ins, basically, though this shut-in spends a remarkably large amount of time outside his apartment, which kinda exemplifies my issue with it). At others it seems be going for a more straight drama style.
It almost comes across as vaguely schizophrenic - switching from one idea to another as it suits the whims of the writer. Now this is either a clever representation of the psyche of the main character, or just plain bad writing. And unfortunately I've been erring towards the latter.
Samurai Harem: Asu No Yoichi is a series I picked up because I rather liked what I saw of the anime version. Whilst I wouldn't say I didn't like the manga, the anime is better. That's a raft of double negatives, isn't it?
Basically, what I mean is that the manga seems okay, where the anime seemed good. There's a lot of commonality between the two - all the same characters are featured and the set-up is the same - but the anime is slightly better written. Weirdly, this is because the anime is more happy to use already familiar harem-type devices.
Normally I'd have been rolling my eyes at this rolling out of clichés, but the thing with Harem was that the main character was actually quite likeable and not the usual loser/milquetoast they often feature. In the manga this is also true, but the writer has tried to be innovative about lost of other stuff too, and it doesn't quite work.
In other words, for the anime, they seem to have picked the best aspects and used those. Plus the tweaks to the chara designs make them a bit better in the anime, if I'm honest.
Two series I think I've mentioned before but I've now read a bit more of are Doujin Works and Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei.
Doujin Work I was a bit on-the-fence over, due mainly to the format, I think. Well I've decided I pretty much like it now. Weirdly, it actually reminds me of Garfield.
Not in the sense of sharing any plot elements, obviously, but Garfield was formatted in a rigid panel format that was designed mainly for short, gag-based strips. However, occasionally it would veer into longer stories across more strips.
Doujin works is very much like that and it suffers the same problem. Long-form comics almost demand the use of varying panel sizes. Kept in fixed formats they feel oddly contained; broken up somehow.
But the point is, when you get past that, it works as a series. It also helps that I'm now used to the weirdness of it all.
However, another series I was a bit on-the-fence about has proven to be less of goer. Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei is really leaving me cold.
And I just can't understand why - when I watched the anime I really loved it, but the manga. I dunno, I just can't explain it.
My only theory is that the manga is confusing me. A lot of the characters look very similar and the panels are riddled with obscure, Japan-centric visual jokes that I don't get.
But in the anime, these jokes are either ignorable, or they are better explained by being animated. For the characters of course, you have colour to help distinguish them and different sounding voice actors.
It's a pretty flimsy theory, but it's all I can think of.
Monday, 24 August 2009
kaboom!
My computer exploded.
Well, exploded is a bit of an exaggeration, but the power supply for my gaming rig shorted out. It made quite a bang, I can tell you, and I expleted quite loudly as a result.
At the time I wasn't sure what had gone so after the shock had warn off a little I reset the power for my bedsit and re-tried the power for my PCs and it shorted again with another loud bang. This time there was also a strong whiff of burning stuff.
I therefore decided to take my games rig apart and the smell was definitely coming from the power supply.
I've heard that power supplies actually store quite a lot of charge in capacitors, so I decided not to actually open the supply up. Pretty sure I wouldn't be able to fix it any way so I ordered a new supply.
So that was £50 I wasn't planning on spending :/.
In a way, it was a bit of a godsend, though. If the rig had been working I'm pretty sure I would have blown the entire weekend playing Anno. I would have enjoyed it, I'm sure, but the point is by not being able to play at all it meant I could do a load of stuff, and it turned out there was way more for me to do than I'd thought.
For example, I've prepared loads of updates for trismugistus.com - 8 weeks worth, in fact. This takes me up to the middle of October, I believe, which will be nice.
Also, I had a bunch of e-bay auctions on the go and there was quite a lot of effort with that. I always forget how much effort there is with e-bay stuff.
And then there was a surprisingly large amount of telly to clear. That was an odd one - at the start of last week I'd managed to totally clear my PVR and I was watching shows too, so I was keeping it clear. But then on Saturday/Sunday there were loads of unwatched things.
I think what happened was a conflagration of stuff - a few shows were coming to the end, some with double-episode things, while other shows were starting. And then there's the Thursday effect. For some reason loads of shows I watch are scheduled for Thursday, but by the time Thursday rolls around I'm often fed-up of watching telly or absorbed in the middle of something else and so I leave it to my PVR. I therefore end up with a big list of stuff being added on one night.
Plus it didn't help that this week's rental DVD had two commentary tracks on it, so that took way longer to watch than I had anticipated.
Still, the point is I cleared it all, which I'm sure I wouldn't have if I'd had a working games rig.
Unfortunately, I still didn't do any scanning, though. I did prep last months mags for scanning (taking out the staples and un-glueing them) but never quite worked up the desire to sit and start scanning. This is silly for two reasons - it builds up a barrier because the number of hours needed to scan it all is daunting, but also because I don't watch any of the fansubs I've got.
And there are a lot of unwatched fansubs. I mean, we're reapidly approaching the winter season and things will get bonkers if those shows start without me finishing most of the past two seasons :/.
Well, exploded is a bit of an exaggeration, but the power supply for my gaming rig shorted out. It made quite a bang, I can tell you, and I expleted quite loudly as a result.
At the time I wasn't sure what had gone so after the shock had warn off a little I reset the power for my bedsit and re-tried the power for my PCs and it shorted again with another loud bang. This time there was also a strong whiff of burning stuff.
I therefore decided to take my games rig apart and the smell was definitely coming from the power supply.
I've heard that power supplies actually store quite a lot of charge in capacitors, so I decided not to actually open the supply up. Pretty sure I wouldn't be able to fix it any way so I ordered a new supply.
So that was £50 I wasn't planning on spending :/.
In a way, it was a bit of a godsend, though. If the rig had been working I'm pretty sure I would have blown the entire weekend playing Anno. I would have enjoyed it, I'm sure, but the point is by not being able to play at all it meant I could do a load of stuff, and it turned out there was way more for me to do than I'd thought.
For example, I've prepared loads of updates for trismugistus.com - 8 weeks worth, in fact. This takes me up to the middle of October, I believe, which will be nice.
Also, I had a bunch of e-bay auctions on the go and there was quite a lot of effort with that. I always forget how much effort there is with e-bay stuff.
And then there was a surprisingly large amount of telly to clear. That was an odd one - at the start of last week I'd managed to totally clear my PVR and I was watching shows too, so I was keeping it clear. But then on Saturday/Sunday there were loads of unwatched things.
I think what happened was a conflagration of stuff - a few shows were coming to the end, some with double-episode things, while other shows were starting. And then there's the Thursday effect. For some reason loads of shows I watch are scheduled for Thursday, but by the time Thursday rolls around I'm often fed-up of watching telly or absorbed in the middle of something else and so I leave it to my PVR. I therefore end up with a big list of stuff being added on one night.
Plus it didn't help that this week's rental DVD had two commentary tracks on it, so that took way longer to watch than I had anticipated.
Still, the point is I cleared it all, which I'm sure I wouldn't have if I'd had a working games rig.
Unfortunately, I still didn't do any scanning, though. I did prep last months mags for scanning (taking out the staples and un-glueing them) but never quite worked up the desire to sit and start scanning. This is silly for two reasons - it builds up a barrier because the number of hours needed to scan it all is daunting, but also because I don't watch any of the fansubs I've got.
And there are a lot of unwatched fansubs. I mean, we're reapidly approaching the winter season and things will get bonkers if those shows start without me finishing most of the past two seasons :/.
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