One of those days when you feel kinda terrible

April 26, 2006 – 10:45 am

Was it the sake made from space yeast that I had last night? 1 year’s worth of lack of sleep and exercise? Poor nutrition? Lack of veggies in my meals? That really shit dream where my house got renovated into some dark, narrow corridored monstrosity, my dad has a useless butler, and I walk into one of the rooms to find my boss under the covers with someone I like?

Makes me think that sometimes your mind is just fucked up and there’s not much to be done, except live a little healthier and smarter.

One week till Golden Week. Ho-hum.

Shiina Hekiru Tour 2006 – Zepp Osaka 4/16

April 20, 2006 – 12:49 pm

This was a great live. I was pretty lukewarm about Tokyo, because the song list was too heavy on major songs, the pacing was awkward, and the performance energetic but not otherwise inspired. I hate to say it, but for the first time, I was bored to tears at a Hekiru concert. For Osaka, the song list didn’t change, the pacing still sucks, the guitars were quite a mess… and yet, it felt so different. The crowd really communicated its pleasure to Hekiru, and Hekiru herself came out full-force right from the start. In fact, she put so much effort into moving and dancing that I was afraid she’d run out of steam and collapse halfway!

Well, she didn’t, although she did pull back a bit from Akai Hana onwards. Still, it was kinda cute. One of the highlights of the night was the talk during the MC sections. Unlike Tokyo, which was IMHO a spectacular failure at winging the thing, Hekiru came prepared with topics and boke jokes for the crowd, who were very responsive (nicely, not annoyingly).

For instance, when she talked about how she wondered about Kirins and their scratching habits (dude, don’t look at me, I’m not making this up I swear), and told the crowd the theory she had heard, we went, “Eh? O_o??” and she looked at us and said, “It’s true!”.

Later she spoke about some places she had visited in her youth, like “Shinosaki” (to which about 10 people yelled, “Kinosaki!” and “Ama no Iwato” and how she visited them together, we all made O_o?? faces again, and she asked, “Eh? Eh? Why do you have that look on your faces?”

To which a guy spoke up saying, “Um, that’s because those place are actually pretty dang far apart!”

Hekiru went, “Oh… It was like 13 years ago, I guess I don’t remember. Well, that’s my little ‘Watashi no atama no keshigomu’!”, a really bad joke based on a movie of the name that’s about fading memory or something.

Aside from that, I noticed that Hekiru’s outfits looked really different close up (I was in the first row, far left). The coat outfit is cool, the next one with the open shoulders is actually a shawl over a spaghetti strap corset-like top (looking less sexy since the material isn’t silky smooth but closer to wool), and the third frilly thing looked completely different. Ugh. Still looked awful. The encore outfit was red pants but they weren’t very flattering. I know they are the fashion-range last year and this year, but I consider them of the things to most avoid unless you have a figure like a guy :P And if you did, I’d still argue against them.

Overall, I had a lot of fun even though the problems with the song list remained. I have to be honest, I seriously didn’t need 1/3 of the songs in the set, and if it were me in charge I’d never put invisible after Zutto… – that’s just too much of slam-bang in your face thing after a really good ballad. But this time around, I guess resigning yourself to making the best of a rather iffy setlist helps, and undeniably being in front and getting a nice glance or two from Hekiru would set anybody’s spirits soaring. Hell, I know I was on Cloud 9 after she strolled on stage, looked right towards my seat for a couple secs while smiling… So high that I jumped at the chorus for Graduater, forgetting that I had promised myself to rest my badly sprained ankle!

Another major Good Thing was the band finally putting some effort into entertaining the audience. During the encore, Dog Ken and Jake put on a parody of that now-famous video where two K1 fighters are doing the staredown and one of ‘em kisses the other by mistake, earning a whallop of a punch. You need these little details. They help lift the crowd mood. Assuming of course that the crowd isn’t cold and dead. In which case you would feel like a fool.

The Want You!! at the end was also the longest I’ve remembered in a while. I ran out of breath halfway and Hekiru was still going and going… Now when was the last time that happened?

The next day, I was still high and couldn’t wait for Hekiru’s mail message, and the two weeks till Nagoya feel like forever…

Fate/stay night 14 (SPOILERS)

April 14, 2006 – 7:52 pm

Um, SPOILERS.

If you haven’t seen, don’t read.

NOOOOOOOOOO! Archer! Archer bit the dust!

Dammit! I don’t rave much about anime anymore, especially not with male characters, but I have to make an exception for Archer.

The guy was cool. The guy was awesome. The guy was frickin’ amazing!!! Best male anime character ever! He didn’t even need to be androgynous to take the prize! Loved his hair, his outfit, his coat, the way he looks from the back, his voice (although he could stand some work on his Engrish), the way he kicked ass… And now he’s dead. *sigh*

Dear Archer, we will miss you.

In fact, Rin is so upset by your departure she’s wasted no time revving up the hawt girl-on-girl action with Saber :P

Shiina Hekiru at Hibiya Yagai Ongakudou 4/9

April 11, 2006 – 12:47 pm

As a member the new duet combo Hidawari (Kine Naoto & Shiina Hekiru), Hekiru made an appearance at a music festival in Hibiya Yagai Ongakudou on 4/9. It featured a lot of upcoming and newly debuted bands in 20 min rotations across 2 stages in an outdoor amphi.

Hidawari was scheduled for 16:40 and appeared a bit after 17pm. They performed 3 songs, with Kine on acoustic guitar and Hekiru on vocals.

Song List
1) Arashi nochi hare (Shiina Hekiru)
2) One (Shiina Hekiru)
3) Size Up (Hidamari)

Hekiru wore a long green patterned skirt, a blue jeans jacket, and knee-high white boots. It was quite cold by evening so Hekiru must have been suffering quite a bit!

There was also some talk, but I couldn’t really hear Kine’s voice. Hekiru seemed to be her usual boke self. I think they felt somewhat out of place amidst the new budding artists… although some of the other bands have been in the amateur circuit for 10 years.

The crowd had a mix of Kine fans and Hekiru fans in addition to the regular audience.

Shiina Hekiru Tour 2006 – Song List

March 20, 2006 – 2:22 pm

Shiina Hekiru Tour 2006 (Japanese)
01.Graduater
02.抱きしめて
03.風が吹く丘
04.熱風
05.MOTTO スイーツ
~MC~
06.Color
07.RESET
08.believe
~衣装替え~
09.赤い華
10.BLACK MONEY
11.SNOW fall
12.幻想の雪
~MC~
13.あなたの名前
~ひとこと~
14.ずっと…
~ソロ、衣装替え~
15.invisible
16.Sadistic Pink
17.ラヴ・ジェット・コースター
18.One
19.スタンバイ!
20.Jungle Life

ENCORE
21.Jumping Slash
22.ロックンロール・ラブレター
23.電撃ジャップ

Shiina Hekiru Tour 2006 (English)
01. Graduater
02. Dakishimete
03. Kaze ga huku oka
04. Neppu
05. MOTTO Sweets
~MC~
06. Color
07. RESET
08. believe
~Costume Change~
09. Akai hana
10. BLACK MONEY
11. SNOW fall
12. Gensou no yuki
~MC~
13. Anata no namae
~short talk~
14. Zutto…
~Band solo, costume change ~
15. invisible
16. Sadistic Pink
17. Love Jet Coaster
18. One
19. Stand by!
20. Jungle Life

ENCORE
21. Jumping Slash
22. Rock ‘n’ Roll Love Letter
23. Dengeki Jap

Costumes
Hair was long, past waist, very layered, colored light brown
1)
- Knee-length white coat, fastened at the chest, open from waist down, glimpse of spandex shorts and black see through lace skirt
- Knee-high cloth boots, black
2)
- Took of coat to reveal silver top with partial black sleeves, top fastened only at the neck.
- Sleeves open from shoulder to forearm, attached to top at the underarm
- Top was silver in front, with a silver belt low at the waist
3)
- Some really layered dress, yellow orangish… sorry, was too much in ????!! to observe ^^;;
4)
- Don’t remember the encore outfit at all! OMG… Must’ve been zoned…

Shiina Hekiru Tour 2006

March 20, 2006 – 12:56 am

Hekiru 11th year fanclub event and Tour 2006 opening day.

It’s been half a year since Hekiru’s made an appearance. Too long…

I am ambivalent about today. On the one hand, I was so simply happy to her again, when she first stepped on stage at the FC event. I was taken by surprise at what I felt, to be honest. The content of the event – Rock ‘n’ Roll Love Letter by Tairaku and Hetare Band, question time with Hekiru and Tairaku, Hekiru de Pon pop quiz, and present time – weren’t terribly inventive. It was pretty much a repeat of last year. But, Hekiru had a edge this time, a kind of hardness, flippancy to her responses, that I found incredibly appealing. I hate it when I see her all nervous and and defensive in front of the fans. This is a good change, perhaps closer to her normal self. More tangible. I like it, very much.

And on the other hand, I felt she was cold for the concert. There is a great distance now, between Hekiru and her audience during the concert. I do not know if it is a defensive mechanism, or real contempt, and weariness. But it feels cold and I feel a nameless entity in a one-sided act. What a change from the warmth and joy of being the same space with someone you care about and who cares about you.

The lineup of the concert was comprised of fan favourites. Starting with the older staples like Graduater, we ended with the upbeat songs from the Kine era. The audience jumped and pumped, I found it incredibly, unbelievable boring for a setlist that demands so much energy.

There was one bright spot though. In the middle, Hekiru sang a full band acoustic version of Anata no Namae, followed by a keyboard only version of Zutto. This… this was an amazing rendition. I had tears rolling down my cheeks, both for the sheer beauty of the piece and in happiness that Hekiru had given us something so wonderful. Zutto made this a worth everything.

Ah, one more thing of mention is Hekiru’s outfit. She came out in a white coat, opened so you could see a see-through lace skirt over very short spandex shorts, and knee-high cloth boots (the usual ones). The skirt was already quite, ahem, daring, but when she came back out without the coat… Oh my god, that outfit should be banned. No, it wasn’t that sheer. It was just a silver top, cinched at the neck, with sleeves that left her shoulders and upper arms bare. The guys didn’t think it was a big deal. I thought it took a leapfrog over “sexy” and hovered over “pornographic”. But hey, that’s just me. In any case, when she came out, I utterly short-circuited. Stock still. Couldn’t believe my eyes.

In other news, Hekiru has teamed up with Kine Naoto as an acoustic duet called “Hidamari”. They will be releasing a single from SME, “Size Up”. Hekiru says, think of that soft bit hanging over your belt. I couldn’t help but take it a far less innocent way. Perhaps age has corrupted me.

Suddenly, a nagging feeling that I should be heading home

March 16, 2006 – 6:28 pm

Phone call from my mom sparks a sudden reconsideration of my life here in Japan. The idea that I should be returning to the homestead, something that’s been curling away in the back of my mind for most of my life, is hit with a full blast of oxygen.

My dad runs some businesses, and he’s not young anymore. He’s damn good though, and he’s done very well. I studied econ, worked in M&A, picked up an MBA from a top school, and here I am, in Japan, trying to get massive websites up and loving it. It’s a massive waste, people say, that I’m not home helping my dad wheeling and dealing and making headlines and landmark takeovers or whatnot crap.

I know what I enjoy, and it’s not wheeling and dealing. But I also believe it is a waste that I’m not doing more with my dad. Hey, blaze of glory and all, I’m not immune, yeah?

This morning huge deal went through, and I can’t help but think, it’ll probably take me 10 years to pick up a fifth of what my dad knows, and I should go home and get started.

But, I know that I like it here too. Is it cowardice? But here, I’ve learned what it’s like to be in a permanent community, where every year friends go skiing together, where they throw b-day bashes every month for the people who were born that month, where people work so they can play, and play so they are sane for work, and nothing more.

God, what the hell should I do? I think if I had someone I loved, who loved me, I could go home, and do anything. In the end, is that all that matters?

Update time – life sucks without BT

February 28, 2006 – 1:24 am

Last week the network dudes in my company suddenly decided weird traffic wasn’t a good thing, and shut down all irregular ports. Ugh, I no longer have BT or Skype. This is a tragedy.

At least it’s harem time at Fate/stay night, makes it more palatable to not-watch. Otherwise, I would be far more depressed. As it is, I am denied my weekly fix of Rin, and the strain must be devastating because I almost lost it at work last week, too pissed with stress and whatnot.

On the bright side, I went boarding in brilliant weather and nice snow. I love my new gear, I can pull all kinds of half-assed shitty turns and still wind up breezy.

I think I should get out a bit more. Yeah.

Less than 3 weeks to Hekiru’s tour.

Winter, whimsical

February 17, 2006 – 2:14 am

Faint as the pale glow on a frozen morning
Fine wisps of cloud
Breathe the cold air, unwilling
To stir silence, so rare
Remember, it’s only one life
Find it
Make it worth living
Where? Is it fear or frustration
Or pity that brings tears
Sometimes we forget that we run so we don’t have to accept that we’re not getting anywhere.

And that’s that.

Random conversation with my brother

February 12, 2006 – 1:37 pm

He’s at the University of Michigan, does research in software. I’m in Tokyo, I design web systems. We were talking about snowboarding…

12:55:48 PM: it started snowing again here, but I don’t have time off.. had to work today :(
12:58:36 PM: too bad…
12:58:55 PM: I feel like playing hooky in the middle of the week and doing a day trip :P
1:05:54 PM: I wanna go >:(
all this snow gonna melt by the time I can take time off
1:12:13 PM: can’t you take a day off?
1:28:57 PM: nah, not for the next two weeks
got site visits from the army and secret service coming up.. need to get our junk into gear
1:33:36 PM: geh… dude,.. you realize how bad that looks in writing :P
1:35:53 PM: heheh

Strange strange world…
What the heck should I do with my life?

In other news, was surfing the anime blogging world when I came across this. The post itself was great (for obvious reasons…), but I think the true gem was the comment below >:D

Shizuru and Natsuki – over too soon!

February 9, 2006 – 12:55 am

For some reason, domestication perhaps, these two weren’t terribly exciting in Mai Otome. Natsuki, the somber Headmaster of Garderobe, and Shizuru, her loyal second-in-command.

Then came ep 17, when the brown stuff hit the fan, we incur much destruction and, yes, death, betrayal, angst, fury, tragedy… blah blah… But you know, I only had eyes for Shizuru and Natsuki :D

Shizuru – cool and collected and competent as ever, she’s apparently an excellent fighter even without her robes. And dang, they stuck the good artist on her for this ep, she looked awesome oozing ultra kyoto style as she tells Natsuki to beat it while she handles the riffraff.

Natsuki – much talk, no action for 16 eps, and sadly not much here either (it’s hilarious to hear her complaining in the voice over for the ep 18 preview!). All the same, I really like this Natsuki a lot. Probably has to do with the fact that she’s no longer a 16-year-old kid with some messed up emotional baggage and attitude to match, heh.

In any case, these two rule, and have waaaaay too little screen time.

On a plot-related note, I guess the writers are trying to match the emotional whammy of Mai-HiME, but it’s not doing much for me. I was shocked when Kazu-kun bit the dust, flabberghasted when Mai’s Child went ballistic, and completely, completely postal when Shizuru pulled the nasty. I have no idea what it would take to equal that in Mai Otome. It’s just not quite serious enough, even when it’s being serious, if you know what I mean.

Enough, just give me more of Shizuru and Natsuki being cool.

Not too excited by Natsuki’s transformation, Shizuru’s “Materialize!” was much cooler :D


I want a poster of Shizuru…

Shopping is the path to happiness

January 29, 2006 – 10:16 pm

Who says money can’t buy happiness? Ever since I bought a gas heater (23,800yen) and humidifier (7,980yen) a few weeks ago, life in my icebox room has been positively cozy. Today I also got around to fixing up some new shelves, DIY style again, and re-rearranging my room. Most of my manga now has a proper home as opposed to a heap on the floor, and Peter Drucker and Blue Ocean Strategy sit next to Yuri Hime and BIRZ, not because I take perverse joy in mixing genres but because they are the same height (25-26cm). I like how everything is turning out, especially with my cardboard cutout of Saber sitting on top of my stereo :D

06-01-29_13-55.jpg

It was overall a very productive day. In addition to the shelves, I also bought boots, binding and board, woohoo! Spent a crapload of money, but dang these boots are the most comfortable I’ve ever had. 20 of us are going boarding this weekend, can’t wait! Snow and riding in the day, hot bath, alcohol and people I like at night. Hm, work’s gonna be a bugger this week :P

In other news, I sorted my iTunes library in order of playcount, and grabbed everyone over 6 times and ran it on random all day. It’s pretty funky. I don’t think my playcount for my iPod is reflected though, which is kinda a pity.

Doing nothing, efficiently

January 18, 2006 – 1:50 pm

My passport is expiring in April, and so I spent all morning at the Thai Consulate in Tokyo waiting and waiting and waiting. It was crowded as hell with what seemed like all the Thai people in Tokyo and more, all wanting to do something or another at the exact section I needed to go to.

Or course, there’s only one section for Thai people, the other being for Japanese people who want to spend the retirement years on a beach in Phuket. That was far less packed, which is saying a lot.

So I wait forever, and I have to get them to fill out the form for me in Thai, because while I can read and write Thai, I pretty dismal at it and it’s not worth additional stress to save a 200yen form-filling fee. At least they didn’t stare at me with one eyebrow raised and go, “How can you be Thai and not speak Thai?” It doesn’t piss me off, it just makes me deeply embarassed. I was born and grew up in a different country, okay? But then when I go back home I have to explain why I’m not really Malaysian. Headache. Blaim the Thai father and Indonesian mother for meeting and getting married in Penang :P

So I gotta wait all day. Bleh! I thought this would take one hour, tops! Not to mention, yah gotta wait outside. It’s 5C outside. It’s cold. There isn’t enough time during their lunch hour for me to go back to the office, so instead I’m sitting on a bench in the fancy Meguro Station building, and I’ve checked out foodcourt and the import grocery and cafe and bakery… goddammit, don’t they have anything other than food stores?! Oh yes, found bookstore. Bought 3 manga on a whim. Would wander HMV but I’m too sleepy. Maybe I’ll hunt for a shelve at MUJI. Gee, I should be working, but not working is actually too much fun.

I did make a long phone call to the office asking the engineering guys to carry on with their work. So there.

PS, Mai Otome is seriously starting to suck. I’m talking about Arika’s little, um, conflict of interest. Bleh. More Fate! More Rin! More Archer! Saber! Saber! Rin!

Winter 2006 Anime – first impressions

January 15, 2006 – 9:01 pm

A new year, a new anime season. Having nothing better to do while waiting for my GitS SAC 2nd GIG (doncha love abbreviations?) DVDs to arrive from Amazon, I decided to abuse^H^H^H^H^H test my office’s bandwidth with some questionable – but having minute potential to be mildly entertaining in a mindless sort of way – new series.

Of the bunch, this is what I got:-

Fate/stay night
This was very hyped, and although I didn’t have much expectation at first, eps 1&2 lead me to believe this could be THE show for me to watch over the next 4 months.
- High production values (even if I find the characters generic looking, they are nicely generic, and the art and animation is top-rank TV)
- Very attractive female characters (well, to be honest only Rin for me, as Saber looks a bit too cute for my tastes, but she’s got plate mail and a big sword and is really powerful, so 3 out of 4 ain’t bad)
- A male lead that isn’t annoying (whom I am in fact cheering on… the guy is the best anime male protaganist for this sort of series as far as I can remember)
- Nice detail on the characterizations, such as Rin’s reactions to Archer, and Archer’s corresponding manipulations of her ego
- Music by Kawai Kenji who sounds like he’s trying to pull a Kajiura Yuki, heh.
Not hot on the story, or the weird interspersed SD humour, but the series is looking very good. Now, if only Rin would start hitting on Saber!!! :D~~~~~

Kagihime Monogatari Eikyu Alice Rondo
*phew* what a mouthful. Grabbed it because I was bored and desperate and this was the only anime out at the time that looked like it might fall in my line (didn’t want to watch no weeper about some dude with hepatitis falling in love with some girl with a terminal disease, and babes on battleships, puhlease, that’s so 80′s…). Thought maybe since it was a Kaishaku anime it’d be whacked but have some redeeming factor for us ancient otaku. Hmm… now I can say (to quote a friend) that whatever made Kannaduki great, it wasn’t Kaishaku. Toss, don’t touch this with a 10 foot pole. Too bad, since the animation quality is nice and the voice acting, while annoying as hell, is actually good. Someone grab Miki and stuff him back into Utena. Or replace him with Kozue and we can talk.

Lemon Angel Project
Ugh, I remember some hentai anime from the 80′s called this… or something similar. That’s not why I bt’ed this. Okay, I have to admit the word “yuri” somewhere in the middle of the bt listing page caught my eye. But honestly, I checked it out for the premise of an idol group and j-pop songs, and the character designs looked nice, okay? Unfortunately, the music was shit, the voice acting was really subpar (I liked the voice, and I thought the flatness was refreshing, until I realized it was a 14-year old who really didn’t know how to inject a modicum of variation into script-reading), and the execution is sadly sadly mediocre. What a waste, if Avex had hit this with any level of enthusiasm and inspiration, instead of tossing a budget and what was obviously some clueless exec’s idea of cashing in on the moe/idol boom, it might have been something I would follow. Hmm, then again I didn’t get past ep 2 of Fancy Lala, and that was much better overall. Ah well.

Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~
You think with a title like that, and the setup of a 3 girl (or to be more exact, 2 girls and 1 guy-turned-girl) I’d be jumping over this right? Wrong. I knew about this from before, and the manga just never caught my imagination even after flipping through a chapter. I think it’s the overly cute chara designs. Nice and pretty, but not really my thing. Or perhaps it’s that love triangles don’t sound terribly appealing when you don’t like how any of the characters look. Gee I sound so shallow right. So to rectify, and to find out why every anime blogger worth his mpeg decoders was hyping this, or really just to hear exactly what it was that was making every english speaker howl in laughter, I grab ep 1.
- On the plus side, it’s really pretty looking, it’s got a 3 girl triangle (@_@), the VAing is decent (ahem), and Hazumu looks cute as a girl, and goddamn that was the funniest thing I’ve heard in years, since, “You, the master of unlocking…”
- On the minus side, everyone looks cute enough to rot my teeth, it’s really love-triangly, and… I dunno, too nice and fluffy and feelly and … ugh … teeth … rotting…
So I may watch more, I may not.

More (dubious?) stuff to look forward to, coming soon:
Ergo Proxy which just looks cool dudes
Strawberry Panic! with brilliant slapstick Yuri Humour by … not, wait, that’s the Strawberry Shake manga, which changed it’s name to Strawberry Panic!, which is not this anime! No! This is the team that brought out such travesties as Futakoi (a bunch of moe cute twins pining after some loser sap), and Futakoi Alternative, the brilliant sequel that spawned that term, “twincest” *shudders*.
For a good roundup, read anime on my mind’s post. Then again, with this title splash, I may have to bt one ep, just to, um, validate my disdain, yeah…

No, honestly, that last anime was there because I had really thought it was said manga adaptation, and it was only halfway through writing my post and hunting for a synopsis that I realized my mistake.

Hey is it just me or has this season turned into some massive moe fest? I swear 90% of the shows feature an almost female cast in various incarnations of cuteness. I need my GitS DVDs quick, or I may succumb to the hawt yuri twincest of Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid. Yeah, Kurogane is hilarious, and he’s a fellow Malaysian! If I am forced to go back home, at least I have the comfort of knowing there’s one more hawt yuri fan in the vicinity.

Okay dudes, enough fun. Love Sundays, time to watch Mai-Otome 14.

Fate/stay night

December 24, 2005 – 8:33 pm

Everyone’s talking about this. It’s originally a game made by TYPE MOON, a doujin group who made it massively big with what many are saying is one of the most magnificently crafted games of its genre, Tsukihime.

I’m not into visual storybook games, they take time to play and reading takes a ton of concentration. You also have to identify with the main character, who, as far as most visual storybooks go, solves the story and gets the girl (well, one of ‘em anyway). Anyway I’m too lazy… still haven’t gotten far with Akai Ito.

Fate/stay night is getting made into an anime, and it’s highly anticipated within the “in the know” anime circles. Honestly I wouldn’t have had a clue if I wasn’t trawling blogs for Mai Otome analyses. What I’ve seen doesn’t terribly excite me, so I guess the actual game plot and execution must be subliminary.

What I do like, however, is Tohsaka Rin, one of the secondary characters. Damn, this girl is hot! Must be the long black hair and bad ass attitude. I played the demo and she was the main character in that. If the anime doesn’t satisfy my fix for 2006, I may have to start doing games.