Man, this show is awesome. I got it wayyyy back when Senpai was doing all the J-drama reviews and it sounded interesting, but I hadn't touched it since then. Now that I'm watching it I wonder why I didn't watch it sooner. It's really good. I really like the music too, I wonder if theres someplace I can grab that too :P It's a really entertaining show, I wonder why American dramas can't be that good. Plus, it's nice in the respect that I can hear how conversational Japanese actually goes. It's kind of interesting, as it seems there are very few words that I still don't know for what passes by half of the dialog... which happens to be a lot of yes, no, sorry, etc. phrases. :) I'll get back to watching, I'm on episode 7. I really dig the psychiatrist character, he's funny. Plus he always seems to have a new chihuaha every time you see him.

Adion is currently listening to: dialog

So I've been in the process of watching this anime for a while now. I've been thinking about getting it for about a year maybe, and only recently decided to finally go ahead and get it. KAA has a decent sub for it. Not up to the usual standards, but it was made at least two years ago, maybe more, so I can cut slack in that regard.

Unfortunately, thats about where the slack ends. I suppose I've been due up for a horrible, terrible, pathetic anime from the good luck that I've been having, and this is it. There is nothing positive I can really comment about the show. Animation is par. Music is old fashioned, unoriginal, not really inspired, and honestly reminds me of .hack//SIGN far too much. It doesn't match the show 95% of the time. SFX are fine, except for some reason, all the bad guys seem to be using the same gun, and it's always some weak ass pistol, like a .22 or something. Meanwhile the main characters switch between that weak ass pistol, and then a giant .45, at least by the SFX. Plot isn't interesting at all. Character development is worse than Dr. Suess.

The animation is fine. I honestly think they probably have the same team that .hack//SIGN did, because the style is pretty similiar, and the characters are basically of the same builds that were in SIGN. Without the MMO getup, of course. I wish that KAA didn't do a WMV encode, but that's not Noir's fault.

I swear there are only 6 songs that are played in Noir, and two of them are the intro/outro. Are there that few moods for the show? I really noticed the music far too much. The thing about music in video is that you don't want it to be noticable, you want it to match the mood and theme so well that you sorta bounce your head to it and then realize that you're bobbing your head to the music because it is so good. You are not supposed to realize that they played this song already 40 seconds ago, and then at the beginning of the next scene, they play it again. As a sidenote that really shouldn't be part of a review, I hate the intro and the outro.

As a note on the SFX, I'm not sure what it is with anime and their obscession with gasps. Just because there's a character on scene doesn't mean they have to be making SOME noise, especially when their mouth is closed! I'm sure this isn't just a problem with Noir, but it's the first time I've really noticed it enough to be angry about it.

The plot is pathetic, and only around episode 13 does it start to seem interesting. Until they mention the name Soldat about 600 times and it sounds less and less imposing every time. Apparently, the "Soldats"--a group with seemingly endless ties around the world, as well as a large supply of what I call "ensign redshirts"--are the main antagonists. They're not very good antagonists. The scary people in the Soldats seem weak, and you eventually learn that basically everybody is a member of the Soldats. A little exclusivity would be cool. An "evil" group where everybody is a member isn't very scary at all. Unfortunately, the plot is really predictable, too. Annoyingly so. Sidenote: whats with this strange ability for bullets to shoot knives in half? Also for the main characters to be able to do that from 50 yards with a pistol? Yeah, yeah, suspension of disbelief fine, but there is a line that you're not supposed to cross.

Character development is terrible. They have this thing about showing Mireille's parents' deaths over and over and over again, as if you didn't catch it the first 10 times they played it for you. Fine, she walked in to the lobby of her house to see her parents and brother dead. Traumatic, I'm sure. But I don't need to see it twice an episode (and sometimes more), thanks. Every time I saw it I wonder how much money they saved not animating anything new. Sadly, that's about the end of the background of any of the characters as you'll ever get. Spoiler: by roughly episode 19 (of a horrid 26, why did I watch the entire show!) you find out that Kirika, the second and last major character, killed them. When she was just a KID, and could somehow hold a large (by the SFX at least) .45 steady enough to hit from probably 10 yards.

In summary, alright animation, music is decent at best but generally doesn't work, plot could have been rewritten by a 9 year old and it would have been better, and the characters were bland and boring.

Bleh. What a waste of 10 and a half hours, and 7GB of space.

Adion is currently listening to: Dieselboy - The Descent (Phunckateck VIP) [6:46]

I spent the better part of an hour just now trying to format the code used in the template of my blog so that I could understand it and hopefully fix some of the bugs that were starting to bother me (they've been there for forever, I've really just been too lazy to fix it). I don't think I managed to fix any, but maybe later I'll spend some more time on it.

You may notice that I added one of the widgets provided by last.fm that shows what I've been listening to recently. I saw that they had them and thought I'd check it out. I dunno. If I spent some more time trying to understand the formatting of all the freaking tables on my blog I'd probably be able to fix it a little better. The widget itself is pretty cool though, I think. If you have the Japanese language pack installed, it'll even show the artists' names in Romanji/Kanji. Pretty cool stuff.

I'm gonna be going out to Lake Tampier (sp?) tomorrow apparently. I'm not really sure who all is going to be there yet, but apparently we'll be playing random outdoors-y sports. And grilling food. Then I go to work. :( But should be fun until then.

Adion is currently listening to: James Holden - Solstice (on Pandora)

So... I bought that TV. :)

I almost feel guilty spending money now. I bought it with the condition that I'm basically not spending any more money for a long long time, though... It should be here Tuesday, which is a day earlier than I predicted. I'm already envisioning watching anime on a 23" TV instead of my 17" monitor. Exciting! :P

I've been reading around on forums and stuff for Tabula Rasa... You probably know that they've started open beta already, and that I didn't get in. (if I was in, I either wouldn't be posting or I would have posted that I got in... which I technically can't do according to an NDA but...) But, according to forum legend, tomorrow (today) more invites are going to be sent out. I'm crossing all my fingers, and trying to get my toes to stay crossed. We'll see, I suppose :P If I suddenly don't post for like, 4 months, am never on AIM, and that sort of thing, you know what happened to me. :P

Adion is currently listening to: DJ Tiesto - Flight 643 (Paul B & Subwave Remix) [4:51]

I can't decide if I want to buy a television for my room or not. I figured out that Newegg is still the cheapest for electronics, even after the large shipping fee. Cheap prices + no tax = amazing! I'm thinking of this TV in particular. I'm not entirely sure if I should buy a wall mount with it or not. It would fit on my desk, but it wouldn't fit well on my desk. Then I thought maybe I could wall mount it to the other side of my room because I do have a power outlet over there that could fit a TV + one console on it without using a power strip on a power strip. On the other hand entirely, I don't really need a TV. I just want one so I can sit here in front of my computer while playing console games that I hardly play.

Another option is to buy a laptop, but since I'm so picky that's not a favorable alternative. This is because I'd like to have certain hardware in it that I can't really pick. For example, it's pretty common to have laptops with DDR2 memory now, but not so common for them to have DDR2 800. What would be great is if I wasn't paying for Windows, too. Especially not Vista which I want to steer very clear from. Since that's not likely to happen, though, if I do end up buying something, it'll probably be a TV. Plus, the TV will last me a while, unlike a laptop which will get horribly obsolete fast if I get a cheap one. Meanwhile getting a cheap LCD TV still means HD, and a moderate size, too.

Of course my last alternative is just to hold onto my money. Money is good to have and so forth. I should probably look into putting some into a CD or something.

Adion is currently listening to: Dieselboy - Invid [7:46]

Lets see... My birthday was last Thursday. I was working that day, and my brother was planning on coming in on Friday, so instead I called off Friday and opened presents then. Every year I get less and less excited about my birthday, and this year is no exception. I was surprised though, as my coworkers bought me cupcakes & an ice cream cake, and as far as I know everybody else only gets cupcakes usually. Maybe they really like me? :P Present wise, I mostly got stuff for my Wii. A second nunchuck, the classic controller, and the Sonic game. A gift certificate to Target, and a check from my grandmother all work out to a short but enjoyable birthday.

I've watched most of the Code Geass that's released, and I really like the show. I just wish the rest of it was out so that I could finish it up. I started downloading a show called Noein. I've only seen the first episode, and it's very confusing right now for me. Maybe after a few more episodes I'll understand what's going on. I read the part of the wikipedia entry that wasn't supposed to be a spoiler and all I know about it is that some of the seiyuu's sound very familiar (but I suppose at some point, if you watch enough anime that's going to happen) and that it has something to do with quantum physics. And a dragon torc. Still seems interesting though. And it has a unique but still well done drawing style.

I bought Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 on Sunday, because I have been having the hardest time finding the first and finally saw it advertised. I've been playing that to the detriment of my 10 page essay due Friday (that I now have little time to do). I figure now that I only have three days to do it, and probably roughly 10 or so hours to actually do it in, I may be motivated enough to do it...

It's starting to actually warm up around here finally. Considering we had snow in April, though, I'm not sure how long it will last. Which is good, because warm weather always brings my allergies to... something. I think it's allegies, at least. Plus, then I have to mow the yard, and my room will be hot from my PC... Winter is just a better season.

Adion is currently listening to: Dieselboy - Supreme '95 (Side A) [44:53]