Archive for October, 2011

intermissions: november, the month of many worries

9
October 31, 2011
by Seinime in

Alright, maybe not the N1 after all.

Although I’d like to just cut down on posting for a bit, I noticed that I haven’t been following much anime lately in terms of blogging, watching, and commentating.  Heck, I’ve been rushed in terms of blogging that I even forgot to categorize some posts and add tags. Not good. I cringe at the fact that I have to make a post like this again, but it had to be done.

Posting quite late as I am (since I try to follow a three post a week rule), it feels like I’m still going for editorials at the episodical schedule. Along with November being the month before finals, I am inclined to postpone this altogether. However, it isn’t just this. I usually find the time to study a bit per day anyways and maintain blogging.

tl;dr I feel the need to slow down (mind you, I don’t plan on kicking the bucket for at least a few years to come) this month due to:

  • again, point form (what a smarty)
  • The freaking JLPT. I realized that I am not learning enough from what I learn in class to save me a passing mark in the JLPT N3. In retrospect, I should have just paid and prepared for N2 next year, but I already paid, darn it. Long story short, I need the time to get back from school late and start studying for it. Exam is in next month, yikes, and the materials I have are supposed to be studied over the course of three months. Double yikes. My speech sucks, my writing sucks, I need to improve fast.
  • Not school. School’s fine. Exams are fine. It’s the writing. I started up this blog to keep me writing English so I don’t lose out on grammar or spelling mistakes, since Japanese is starting to mess up those a bit. And especially after writing a few Japanese essays in an attempt to get scholarships/chances to study abroad in Japan, my mind’s messed up. I also have to write another long essay on political science in a few weeks, so for now my English is covered and I’m brain dead.
  • All this will just give me writer’s block -> worrying/panicking -> crappy posts -> more worry -> negative cycle
  • Also to be honest, not much interest in this season, which might affect the negative cycle more. Maybe the last season set my standard or something, but I’m not finding the sparkle in this season. I’ll finish Benn-Toh in due time. Maybe some posts if I spot anything eye catching. Guilty Crown doesn’t count.
  • Also I hate writing up these posts because the time spent to write a post like this could be used to write a better post.

tl;dr I need a break again and I only got enough time now to study like crazy/watch a bit here and there/maybe some posts once in a while this month.

So yeah, sorry. Call me a quitter(s never win) and unsubscribe and do whatever. I’ll leave popularity/stats to the better bloggers. See you guys more in December, with 159% better posts. I plan on taking a creative writing course next term, wooooooooooooo

…and uh, Happy Halloween?

P.S. It’s not even November yet, I feel like such a quitter. No, I’m not quitting, it’s only been like, a month or two?

P.S.S. This computer’s qqqq key is stuck qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq

tl;dr ignore this blog until december

intermissions: take flight

6
October 28, 2011
by Seinime in

Source: http://konachan.net/post/show/14641/clouds-flowers-grass-hermes-kino-kino_no_tabi-kuro

“The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who…looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space…on the infinite highway of the air.” – Wilbur Wright

I always took the gift of flight for granted. As with many other inventions. However, in retrospect, I really should be thinking about it more. Although I have not been keeping that well with the current fall line-up, I want to give a special mention to Kino no Tabi, a series that I’ve followed for a bit in SCCSAV, an anime watching group. One episode that really caught my attention is episode 8.

A long story short, it’s about a girl who takes flight.

Long before the invention of the airplane, people always dreamt of the dream of flying through the air. No one thought it could be done. Except for a girl and two men. In the episode, it is a girl with a dream. In real life, it is a dream shared between two brothers. Regardless, both were shunned or laughed upon for even trying to attempt the impossible.

Further humiliated is the girl who dreams, as the contraption she has worked so hard for many years is forced to be taken down. Even her boyfriend urges her not to endanger her life for such a reckless dream. However, Kino, the protagonist, urges her to realize her dream to the very end.

In the end, she flies. She fulfils her dream. The people of the town call her a “mage”, a modern day miracle maker. However, what isn’t important is that “she flew”. It’s that “she flies”. She realized her dream to the very end, very ganbatte-like. In the end, the airplane wasn’t what took flight; it was herself. If she hadn’t pushed until the very end, nothing would have soared above the sky. The same could possibly be said for the Wright brothers.

Kino herself, when asked why she helped her, simply replies with: “I didn’t know it could fly. [I didn't have any particular] reason. But, it flies“, which makes me ponder as well “the range of human potential”.

So, just try things. As they say, you never know until you try. Take flight. Ganbatte.

Also a shoutout to this beautiful background. Didn’t know it was from Kino no Tabi until recently. I’ve had it as my wallpaper for quite a while now.

My Day at the Supermarket – 04

8
October 26, 2011
by Seinime in

Another day at school. I got my midterms back today. Surprisingly, I had aced them, having only gotten one or two wrong answers.

(more…)

intermissions: on deja vu

8
October 21, 2011
by Seinime in

A lot of the shows I’m following for this season have a bad feeling of deja vu to them. Usually, it’s happy news to see the manga you love get green-lit for an anime adaptation, but I’m not feeling the love this season.

Before this season started, I took a look at what all the sources was. Obviously, Persona 4 came from the game, and the others were a mix of light novel/manga/you-name-it turned into anime.

I jumped when they announced Persona 4 was going to have an anime adaptation. I could see all the action packed into episodes that jumped straight into the point? Great. But when it actually aired, combined with studio problems, all the interactivity seemed to drain from the game when all I would see is what I’ve done being animated. With the fights become shorter and less spectacular as well. Before you flame me for not being thankful for an anime adaptation, let’s move to exhibit #2.

Mirai Nikki and Tomodachi ga Sukunai were also fairly good candidates to become anime. I was really looking forward to Mirai Nikki in particular, since there are some scenes that would look really good animated. Tomodachi is going well as of now, but Mirai Nikki seems to lose the sparkle it had in the manga when transitioning into the animated aspect. This might seem like a huge “manga > anime” post, so I’ll withhold any further negative opinions for now. We’ve only just begun, anyways.

But sometimes I wonder how much experiencing anime in its original forms can enhance our viewing experience (either through watching the epic scene you’ve read over and over again come to fruition) or if it were better to experience it fresh from scratch.

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