Category: Anime

Blood+ Episode 7 – I have to

I’ve finally been able to catch up on anime this Thanksgiving break. This episode was an intermediatary story that seems to be going to lead to bigger things.

Spoilers:

This episode was basically had 3 objectives, reunite the broken family, crack the data stolen from the labs, and continue the side story of the journalist. As you know, Rick was having a hard time dealing with the lost of his father. He wouldn’t eat and locked himself inside his room. Kai tried to convince him to come out and talked about what father used to say about welcoming tomorrow with a smile. The sun may set everyday, but you can always expect it to rise in the east the following day. Saya was also confused, but she determined that she’d like to find out about her past and requested help from her servant Haji. Kai then went on to asking Rick to imagine what Saya was feeling if Rick was already feeling this bad. It was Saya’s blood that killed father. Rick finally slowly accepted the fact and came out and all 3 kids were happily reuinted.

On the other hand, the cracking of the data and the journalist occured simultaneously. Both leads ended up with some school in Vietnam where there was a package delivered from there. What they don’t know but people who’ve seen Blood – The Las Vampire know that’s the school Saya was at when she went off in a killing spree of vampires. It’s interesting now to see what’s going to happen next!

Saber Marionette J to X Episode 6 – Phase 06: Two Otarus!? The Tightrope of Love

Another filler episode, but Bloodberry actually starts falling for a different guy other than Otaru!

Spoilers:

In this episodes, Bloodberry has a date with Otaru. She even went into the kitchen and made 2 bento boxes, one for herself and one for Otaru. As Azumanga Daioh calls it, it’s the bento box of love. You have to understand, Bloodberry never does the kitchen work. That’s always been Cherry’s job. She’s the muscle and the hotty. The kitchen was in total ruins after she was done with it. However, when Otaru showed up, he brought Lime along. Lime had insisted to come see the circus too. Bloodberry was so pissed and dashed off. While wandering around, she ended up at the circus and met the star, a tightrope walker named Akashi. At first she mistakened him to be Otaru cause it was basically Otaru with green long hair. Akashi’s and Otaru’s personality was completely different. Akashi would hold her hand, hug her, laugh with her, be only with her, and her maiden circuit was going crazy and she wasn’t sure if she was starting to have feelings for him. Somehow Bloodberry ended up in the act and Otaru saw her. He came to apologize, but Bloodberry didn’t really give him a chance to before Akashi to her to join the after party. That night, Bloodberry had many many things on her mind and began comparing Otaru with Akashi. A moment afterwards, she couldn’t believe she was actually comparing someone against Otaru. When she was about to leave, Akashi comes from behind and hugs her and says, “Tomorrow’s our last showing in this town, and I would very much like it if you were to come with me. I don’t need you to make up your mind right now, but I hope to hear good news from you tomorrow.” The next day during practice, Bloodberry suddenly stops during the act and leaves the tent. Akashi chases after her and finds Bloodberry kneeling on the floor crying. She apologizes and says she was only confusing him with her master and was really sorry for causing so much trouble. Akashi shrugs it off like nothing and said that he already knew she had someone else in mind because her eyes always seem to look through him. That night, Otaru dropped by again because Bloodberry didn’t come home. Akashi runs out and punches him and says, “Don’t let me know that you ever hurt Bloodberry’s feelings again.” He then rushes back in. Bloodberry comes out and Otaru tries to apologize again, but Bloodberry’s already crying and says, “I’m so terrible. I really hurt hsi feelings.” Otaru hugs her while she cries.

I was watching Detective Conan today and the validity of the dying message was denied because “obviously” someone shot through the heart would no longer be able to move or attempt to write the letter ‘S’ using her blood. Despite the gun used was a double barrel shotgun, I still have my doubts about the “obvioustisity” of the claim that the cops in Detective Conan were stating.

So I asked around some bio people:
If you were shot through the heart, would you still be able to move? Would it basically be like suffocating or a heart attack? Or are you dead instantaneously, sort of like if I shot you through the brain? Feel free to replace “you” with anyone you don’t like.

I think I may have scared some people when I instant messaged them with that question. No, I do not believe in using guns to kill people, but slicing off people’s head is another story.

It turns out, many agree you won’t die instantaneously, like the second after you’re shot, but you will very soon after if the shot was fatal.

Unusually low mortality of penetrating wounds of the chest. Twelve years’ experience (from hkenshin):

Within a 12-year period ending in March 1984, 1109 patients with penetrating thoracic injuries were treated at King-Drew Medical Center located in south central Los Angeles. The average age of the patients was 28.1 years. There were 607 stab wounds and 502 gunshot wounds. Antibiotic prophylaxis was prescribed only for the 428 patients who had laparotomy, thoracotomy, and pulmonary contusion with hemoptysis. Of the 1109 patients, 105 had cardiac injuries. All patients with cardiac trauma underwent thoracotomy, and the mortality rate was 18.1%. Specifically, the mortality rate of gunshot wound of the heart 24.5% and that of stab wound of the heart, 11.5%. In contrast, of the 1004 patients without cardiac injuries, only 115 required thoracotomy and the mortality rate in this group was 0.8% (8/1004). The mortality rate was 69.6% in patients who had a thoracotomy in the emergency room but only 2.8% in patients who had a thoracotomy in the operating room within the first 24 hours after admission. In the 242 patients who had associated abdominal injuries, the mortality rate was 2.1% (5/242), as compared with 2.5% (22/867) for those who had isolated chest injuries. In the entire group, the incidence of complications was 5.1%, of which 1.8% were infectious complications. The presence of associated abdominal injuries did not influence the outcome. The mortality rate in noncardiac thoracic injuries is very low compared with that of cardiac injury. Because of the complexity of the injury, gunshot wound of the heart has the highest mortality rate.

I would attempt a guess that a gunshot wound, even a very big bullet hole through your heart, would be something like a cardiac arrest (heart attack), but the big difference, is that you’re going to have blood spilling out as hkenshin noted. I would say I’d still be able to move or twitch around a bit after a shot through the heart.

Decathanerd believes I need to conduct some studies and gather empirical evidence to validate my claim. I think the funnest part would be selecting my “volunteers”. Anyone that knows I don’t like you, please e-mail me. I’ve got a fun task that you’d die to know about!

Bleach Episode 58

This episode was just amazing! Tons of really cool fights were drawn and we finally got to see Ichigo’s sword in BANKAI form. A bit disappointing though, but still so radically cool!

Spoilers:

I was totally expecting Ichigo’s bankai to be some gigantic sword, but it turns out the sword has shrunk into super cool black sword. I mentioned it was a bit disappoint, but probably that’s because I haven’t seen what his BANKAI can do yet. So far all he’s done is fast movement, slashes, and defending against the sakura petals of Byakuya’s bankai. Ooooooh! I can’t wait for the next episode. How he activates his bankai is really cool too! And apparently his bankai changes his clothing, which I guess is normal since the same thing happened during Renji’s bankai.

I just finished watching this anime series today and it sure has brought back many happy memories and created many new cute and funny memories for me. The series is called Azumanga Daioh (あずまんが大王). If you’re a fan of kittens and uber-cuteness, this is a must watch. In short, the series is about 6 (or 7) high school female students and 2 high school female teachers and their little journeys together through high school. As I told my buddies online, the series was so cute, I couldn’t stand any more cuteness after 2 episodes and have to give it some time out. It’s licensed in USA by ADVFilms, so you can probably find the entire series at your local anime store.

Memories it brought back:

• Sideways Stories from Wayside School
  
  Oh My God! I loved the Wayside School series. Louis Sachar was a genius for making such fun books. Haha, remember the floor that didn’t exist or the three Erics? And how Louis (the author) was the yard teacher in charge of distributing the balls during recess? Anyway, there was a boy named Paul in the class room and he sat behind a girl named Leslie that had 2 pigtails (or was it 1?). And he could never concentrate on what the teacher was saying because Leslie’s pigtails would be swinging in front of him and he would always be yearning to pull it. And finally one day, he got enough courage to pull it. Looks like Osaka is in the same situation as Paul and Chiyo-chan is in the same situation as Leslie.
• High School Graduation
  The last few episodes of Azumanga was a bit nostalgic since it reminded me of high school graduation and everyone was so sad that they were all going in seperate directions. But these memories were also precious and sweet because it reminded me of the good times. Haha, which reminds me of yesterday when stanman and I were talking about Science Olympiad. Some of my most memorable times of Science Olympiad was when mechy and I built that airplane and how it would always work in the regionals but always fail at state (for BOTH years) and the time when crabyaple, kalekkos, and I pulled that all-nighter before the competition to “attempt” to finish building Mission Possible.
• Fear of the darkness
  
  Sure brings back memories of when I’ll run from room to room at night and running toward the light switch to turn it on. hehe.
• It also brought back a lot more, but it’s been several months since I started watching the series. Maybe I’ll add to this when I think of more.

New memories it created:

• The new wild kitten (iriomote): Maya

• Chiyo-chan in the penguin costume

• Maybe I’ll post more uber cuteness later.

This thought was going through my head when I was reading an article about Singapore and the heavy fines and restrictions they have against any unorderly conduct. It’s pretty common knowledge that they don’t allow chewing gum and I think you can be fined and jailed when caught, but did you know pornography was illegal. A man caught with pornographic dvds at the airport was arrested and detained I believe and later fined.

This reminded me of a country in 12 Kingdoms (Juuni Kokki – 十二国記), another anime classic for me. Really loved the storyline. The country Singapore reminded me of was Hou (芳極国), where the King was really pure and innocent but got detached from reality. He wanted everyone in his country to be pure and innocent too, and started increasing punishment for the smallest crime. If you were late to work, you were executed. If you didn’t pay your bill on time, you were executed. You have to remember, the Kings of the countries in 12 Kingdoms are selected by a Kirin (麒麟 – a mythical creature), and their rule is absolute and once selected, you have immortality unless your Kirin dies or you get killed. So, one of the King’s most trusted official could no longer stand the massive killing decided to revolt, killing the King and the Kirin. Though after the revolt, he did not want to ascend as the temporary King and would only help with governmental matters aside. He wanted everyone to know that he did not kill the King to obtain power. In fact, the King and him were extremely close friends, but because he lost sight of reality, this was something he had to do.

I’m not sure if Singapore is headed in the same direction, but I’d sure hope not. Though there is good news. There was recent news they allowed the first sex exposition to run in Singapore. It was called Sexpo 2005, but there were many restrictions such as no homosexuality, S&M, or beastality were allowed. There were many police and security officers all over the expo to enforce this.

Wow! It’s been a really really long time since I’ve read Berserk.

I first watched the anime back in High School. The anime was awesome! Gory, tons of action, swords, human vs monsters, hot girls getting naked, everything a guy could ever want in an anime. When I finally got to the ending, I found it a bit disappointing, only to find out the manga hasn’t finished. The ending the anime directors chose was actually a good stopping point. Now over 7 years later, the manga is still not complete. According to Wikipedia: Miura first began work on what was to become Berserk in 1988 with a 48-page prototype, which won a prize at the Comi Manga School where he was enrolled at the time. The following year, the first volume of the manga was released. Three more volumes appeared until Berserk was serialized by Young Animal in 1992, and new episodes are still being released in the semi-monthly (every second and fourth Friday of the month) magazine. Volumes are released biannually in Japan by Jets Comics, and contain 8-11 episodes depending on the release. That’s 17 years already and it’s still one of the most popular mangas in Japan. However, they only release about 1 volume per year. I remember reaching chapter 23 back in college some time and had to WAIT an entire year for 24 to come out and another entire year for 25. Though I had stopped at 24 because I got lazy, though I still collected the mangas.

Today, while driving home, I was reminiscing over the anime and manga, I finally busted out volumes 25-29 and read all of them tonight. The story’s finally starting to get interesting again. After the anime, the story was basically about Gattz (aka Guts or Gatsu) fighting off demons and trying to find Caska (the woman he loved). But now that he got his Demon Armor Nemesis, things are looking pretty sweet! Though it seems all the woman in his party likes him including the little witch and Farnese, but if you watched the anime or earlier chapters of the manga, you’d know that Gattz only loves one woman, and that woman is Caska.

Things are starting to boil now that Griffith has entered the picture. There was a flash of Gattz old comrades and memories started pouring in like crazy:

Spoilers:

I really didn’t want to spoil this for anyone, but I sorted to get this off my chest cause it’s been boiling like crazy inside me. Griffith was the leader of the Band of the Hawk. Gattz was an orphan I believe, but that doesn’t really matter anymore. He was alone, but a strong young boy. Griffith saw that and took him and trained him. Griffith was the leader of a mercenary band, but he loved his soldiers and treated him with respected and valued their lifes highly. Gattz was so strong, he became the raiding commander and led the Band of Hawk to many victories. If you say Griffith is the brain, the Gattz is the muscle. He can take on 100s and 1000s of men with his sword. Later on, he even took on the demons (huge monsters) themselves and fought evenly with them.

Remember Final Fantasy VII Cloud’s sword? I’m pretty sure the idea was probably somehow related to Gattz sword. I believe Gattz was the first anime to deal with such a big sword for a swordsman. Sasuke from Rurouni Kenshin also had a big sword. I used to be part of this Kenshin mailing list and one of the topics I clearly remembered was if the best fighters from all the different aniems were put to fight against one another, who would be the top 10 ranking? Vash the Stampede from Trigun was somewhere in there, but Kenshin and Gattz were both ranked #1. People started discussing who would win based on the “physics” of the anime realm. Before, as a major fan of Kenshin, I could undeniably say that Kenshin would win no matter who the opponent is. But with the 2nd OAV (Reflection) and the recent chapters of Berserk and the introduction of the Nemesis and actually thinking it thoroughly, I’m no longer too sure Kenshin would win. I’m actually wavering and leaning toward Gattz now.

Anyway to continue with the spoilers, somehow later Griffith got injured and became paralyzed or severly burned. This wasn’t the life he wanted. He had already been recognized by the King of Midland and the princess was madly in love with him. Being paralyzed would ruin his dream. Gattz and Caska were both loyal servants of Griffith and it pained them to see him like this. This is the point where the story goe completely haywired and where the anime actually ends. Griffith had a charm, a Behelit which represents the Egg of a King. I think it might’ve been a necklace, but my memory is a little fuzzy. Anyway, Griffith attempts to suicide and somehow the Behelit got activated and asks him if he would want this all to change and make him beautiful and strong again. He could become an Apostle (Hand of God) himself, but it required a major sacrifice, his entire army. In return, he would become a God, a being so powerful, and lead the ethereal beings as his own army. Griffith agrees to sacrifice his entire army. At first the army didn’t understand what was going on, but when only the strongest remained, they knew exactly was going on. Gattz had many loyal teammates and they held back the demons by sacrificing their lives while telling their captain Gattz to escape. It was a very touching scene. On the other hand, Gattz is fighting furiously back trying to save them. If I recall correctly, there were teammates that were actually dragging Gattz away while the others tried to hold the demons back. But there was nothing they could do, the entire army was marked. Gattz and Caska managed to escape somehow, but because of the cursed mark on their body, they were hunted day and night by demons.

Zooming back to the current time, Gattz finally puts his trusts into other people, feeling as he’s finally part of a team again and when the flashed the picture of Gattz old teammates, it was reminscing because it was very touching how his companions sacrificed their lives to protect their captain.

If you want to give this manga a try, visit The Hawks. The torrents can be found in the downloads. However, it seems they’re missing Chapter 1-3. The manga is actually licensed in America by Dark Horse. You can also check out the anime which has been licensed in the USA by Media Blasters, the same company that licensed Rurouni Kenshin the TV Series. I do have to warn you, there comic should be rated NC17. The amount of voilence, gore, and nudity exceeds anything I’ve ever seen.

Noticed a lot of people were visiting my sight looking for these images which were no longer available since they were on my old site.

The originals can still be found here: moonless night. Click on fanart followed by the heart below キャラ絵。ぽたに憑いてゴォ/ character’s illustrations.

Can’t wait to see the The Goblet of Fire. Hopefully, I’ll be able to recognize more of characters here. hehe.

Gun X Sword Episode 10 – Ocean, thank you!

Gun X Sword Episode 11 – The place where “goodbye” lies

For some reason Gun X Sword just didn’t have the spark it had before, but since I started watching it, might as well finish it.

Spoliers:

In the latest 2 episodes, a lot more has happened, well mostly in episode 11.

In episode 10, Van was hired to protect a bunch of dock workers from pirates (the pirate captain was quite feminine and nothing like a real pirate if I may add) while they try to lift up a rather large load that has been sitting in the ocean. Van agreed to help because they were going to provide him with train tickets to his destination along with money compensative. The pirates had weird techniques such as freezing the water and shooting out punches with homing devices. But in the end, Van beat the pulp outta their submarine and the dock workers were able to secure their item.

However, little did Van know, that item was being delivered to the man with claw group. At the train station of their destination, Wendy sees her brother Michael and was shocked to hear that Michael no longer wants to come home and is helping the guy with the claw hands. Wendy couldn’t believe her ears when Michael told her to return to Evergreen and never come looking for him. It was quite a sad little incident, but it lacked the emotional punch. Later on, when Wendy tells Van about this, Van gets extremely upset for not probing deeper for more info. Wendy was really sad and shocked and Joshua came to her aid. When Wendy asks Van what she should do, Van replies with, “Isn’t it obvious? You should go home.” And the episode ends with Wendy crying and walking away with her luggage. I actually felt really sad for her.

In the middle of the 2nd episode, they introduce the group of 7, which included Van for some reason. Seems like we’ll have to wait for the next episode to see what connection they have.

Saber Marionette J to X Episode 4 – Phase 04: The Saberdoll’s Journey

Saber Marionette J to X Episode 5 – Phase 05: Shirataki Shines Forever

Spoilers:

Both of these episodes were dedicated to showing people trying to steal the clones / information regarding how to clone females. Episode 4 was a bit sad. Faust’s saberdolls decided to return to Ganterland because they have been summoned back. But they fear they will not reach Faust’s expectations which is why they’re training in Japoness. They have become especially close with Otaru and his saberdolls, even though they were mortal enemies before. Lime was really sad to see them leave.

In the next episode, it was mostly flashback to SMJ. It was about a tour around Japoness and they were talking about the history of the shogun and how Otaru found the 3 saberdolls and the battles that went on. It even included the saddest part of the first season, the part where I actually cried. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD: It was the scene when Otaru and the 3 Marionettes were in space. They had tricked Otaru into an escape pod and shot him back to earth while they went on to deal with the spaceship themselves which was to trade their Maiden Circuits for the real female. It was a sad scene. Otaru was begging them not to do it and how he saw them as real people. Lime’s only response was, “Never forget about us, Otaru.” *sniff*

The episode then changes to where the tourists were actually imposters of people trying to steal information. However, they seem to have miscalculated the old man the left behind. The ending showed him stealing some information. The next epsiode will probably talk more about him.