Speed Grapher (anime review)

The title Speed Grapher sounds catchy for me, catchy enough to grab my attention and made me watch the whole series. Simply by its name, this anime has nothing to do with speed or even plotting graphs. What is remarkable from my point of view is the dubious reality that is foretold in this story. The anime has a social background of human greed for money and sinful lust of the flesh. Yes, all the deepest evil desires are portrayed in this anime. Oh did I mentioned lust? It was clearly portrayed alright. Those sexually explicit scenes are all over the anime. So pay attention all of you perverted minds. This anime might suit you as well.

Not for kids…

Alright, sex aside and back to the storyboard. Setting at what appears to be the current modern Japan, the country is described as a nation corrupted with money, power, and sex (as if such similar nation does not exist anyway). At the pinnacle of Japan’s mighty economy, lies the most powerful corporation that controls each aspect of the society – Tennouzu Group. This is not ordinary company, not your typical Microsoft Corporation either. Tennouzu Group has a vast investment that includes the backbone of Japan’s economy, Bank of Japan. As mentioned at the last episodes (there goes the ridiculous wishful thoughts), Tennouzu Group has a total asset of 800 trillion yen. Convert that to US dollars, you get approximately 90 trillion dollars. And at the end of the story, there is an interesting turn of events regarding that amount of money.

I Will Follow You

I know that I am posting twice for today’s blog but this is something you’ve got to read.Remember that crazy Digi ad, where there is a group of Tellytubbies-like midgets in yellow? And it goes by the nauseating “I will follow you” song. The ad is definitely crazy alright, it can actually give you nightmares. But come on, people! There has to be a limit to all of these! I mean you don’t go send those retards on the streets. No offense to the people in those stupid-looking suit, it’s just that the company’s think-tank department had gone nuts.Read here for more. You must read it to believe.

Anime That I’m Currently Watching

Ergo Proxy
It only takes you five minutes for you to love this anime, in the sense of the animation details. By far, Ergo Proxy has the best animation that I have ever watched. Screw those computer-generated animations like that not-so-final-and-endless Final Fantasy. Ergo Proxy promises good animation and great artworks. And this is also the first time for me to be ever captivated by a single character. There are so many animes that I have watched so far, all of the antagonists and protagonists just come and go for me. Except for Himura Kenshin of Rurouni Kenshin (otherwise known as Samurai X), there had been no other character that had captured my attention until Real Mayer of Ergo Proxy. I am not sure whether I am just exaggerating on this matter or what but this ass-spanking lady had that bitchiness factor unlike other typical ones. I can’t really describe it but she’s one lady worth watching for. By this, you can say the overall character development for Ergo Proxy is very good. In fact each character, either a protagonist or antagonist, is perceived as neither good or bad. Though the villain of this story appears apparent, the intervention of several character rendered a second thought to it. The depicted future of Ergo Proxy is also astonishing as it is familiar. Somehow, to me, it looks similar to the future as pictured in Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report. Well I’ve just started watching this anime, so I won’t be able to further elaborate more about this series.

Ergo Proxy

Jigoku Shoujo
Alright, I know that this is a rather backdated anime for me to watch but it’s too bad that I did not watch the whole series. Previously aired at Animax (and I am referring to Animax Asia as shown at ASTRO), everyone should be able to watch it but not me. I’m away from home and there is no chance in hell I can get to watch TV at campus. Okay now, Girl From Hell as translated to English, is about a girl who is cursed (or rather made a contract) to send people to Hell. She does this only by request, of course. All you need to do is to summon her on her very own webpage (even those in Hell are technology savvy) and she will appear to you. You’d be given a straw doll and the only thing left for you to do is to pull the red string that is tied on that doll. Only then, she will deliver vengeance for you. Sounds easy, huh? The catch is you too are making a contract with this Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl) that you will be sent to Hell as well when you die. Hefty price to pay for revenge. This anime won’t keep you bored as every episode has a different story to tell and most of them are rather interesting. I’m still watching it anyway, although I did actually managed to watch a few before this. Sorry to say that I won’t be reviewing this one. Instead I will review the sequel, Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori which probably turned out to be a lot better than its predecessor. I can’t wait.

Jigoku Shoujo

Speed Grapher
I am almost done with this anime series. I won’t be describing much about this anime as I will make a full review on Speed Grapher as soon as I’m done watching it.

Speed Grapher

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (anime review)

With English translation as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, this anime title is simply superb. It has the most unique storytelling and probably the most original anime I have ever watched. So I gave a shot on this anime on the first episode. The first one is total chaos. You began to wonder of how good (or how terrible) this anime can be. Yes, it look exactly like those B-rated shows with cheap puns and lousy casting. You really felt like giving up on the first episode already. Never judge a book by its cover. And so I watched the second one. Apparently the second episode felt more like the first episode where all the main characters are introduced. Actually the first episode is the low cost movie created by the SOS Brigade as to fulfill Haruhi’s desire. And so, obviously the central persona of this story is introduced. Suzumiya Haruhi is one eccentric girl. Of course there is nothing strange in believing extraterrestrial beings, paranormals, and ESP but Haruhi’s case is a whack job. She has no interest in human and rather go on pursuing those out of this world phenomenon.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

This story of her is presented or rather narrated by the only person who can actually make casual contact with this crazy girl (she’s crazy alright but at least, she’s cute). Kyon (apparently no full name of this guy is given throughout the story) used to share a common interest with Haruhi and that was when he was still a kid. As he grows up, he stopped believing in all of those (naturally) as he became more self-aware and mature to distinguish the reality from fiction. Somehow he was compelled to get to know Haruhi better. Well who won’t when you have one cute girl saying she has no interest in ordinary human. Indeed her superior complex personality that seemed godlike made her seemed rather selfish and self-centred. So what made this way? Don’t you think it’s rather twisted to have someone who actually had that kind of thought? Nevertheless this attitude of hers had actually brought out some bizarre events later in the story.

Celebrating 50 Years of WTF-hood

Malaysia. Truly Asia. A country full of splendour. Full of various ethnicity. Full of fat-laden food. Full of mat-rempits (do mind those mind mat-rempits, the nation’s future is on their hand – sigh!). Loads of crap – no thanks to the foolish achievements that they are proud of. Indeed, I am a Malaysian. I am proud to be a Malaysian but not proud enough for the lesser known achievements.If you are wondering of what is this country is famous of, one word is suffice for an answer – copycat. Undoubtedly this country is known for its piracy – not at sea but on intellectual properties and copyrights. The country kick start the 50th year of its manhood nationhood with the completion of ‘The Eye on Malaysia’. Okay now, isn’t that sounds very familiar? Is it that gigantic eye sculpture place in the middle of KL? Oh silly me, there is no such thing anyway. Then it must the eye of the former prime minister, the great Tun Dr Mahathir. That must be it. Oh silly me again. He’s not dead yet, just having recurring heart attack each time he sees Rafidah Aziz offer big discounts on the APs current premier, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, on the paper announcing another cancellation of Dr M’s ambitious future megaprojects. Just to let you know, I respect both prime ministers for their ability to govern this pathetic country that is running low of its natural resources. Both of them are not without flaw, of course but their flaw are just unbearable for the people. This makes the people bicker. Now back to the real topic, what is this ‘Eye on Malaysia’ anyway? Its official opening was celebrated with a big bang. They even canceled big New Year parties for this event. So what is it already? A giant ferris wheel. Now that does ring the bell, doesn’t it? Tokyo is famous of those huge ferris wheel but the copy was not made there since Japan itself have a bunch of them. Could ‘Eye on Malaysia’ be any similar to ‘London Eye’? The name is the same, to begin with. Then both are ferris wheel. The obvious difference is the size though. Malaysia’s version is huge but the one in London is colossal. Super huge. Well they did ‘Eye on Malaysia’ on a rush anyway. Just in time for the new year.Visit Malaysia Year 2007 is a great plan to promote Malaysia, no doubt about that. In fact, I like that idea since it does coincide with the country’s 50th year of independence. But there are always those certain people trying to find rhetoric ways to celebrate it. They always come up with organizing events under the patron theme of Visit Malaysia Year or the 50th Year of Nationhood. However there is one that really caught my attention. Lets say you were given a gang of useless, bullshitting of mat-rempits remorseful former mat-rempits (yeah, right!) and you are asked to make good use of them. There is no way you are going to put them back to school, they just might pick up back their old habit. Neither do you let them educate or motivate the youth, lets say to tell them their life-changing story. A no-no because they might as well teach more people how to ride the motorbike while stand on the bike and take a wee. I know, lets send them to North Pole. Parachuting their way there some more. Oh jolly! The UMNO party-backed event is going to extort waste more money from the Federal bank account and throw those adopted mat-rempits (yes, there are people who actually adopt mat-rempits) to the North Pole. These people are inseparable from the beloved motorbikes and probably they might bring those in their attempt. Hooray to the mat-rempit because they jump their way to the North Pole. So much for an achievement, especially when they make an excuse of commemorating the 50th year of independence out of it. The next thing you know is that these mat-rempits are given the title ‘Datuk’ for their “astounding” success. Go ahead and give them those, there’s even an application form for it if you want to.Unrelated but note-worthy is when Alain Robert dubbed Spiderman. Now a brief profile on this lesser known superhero, if he happens to turn out to be one. When he is not frying French fries from native France (pun intended), he goes around scaling those tall towers and risking arrest for doing it. Sorry to say, this guy can’t spin webs to his safety nor having those very sticky hands like the real Spidey do (but Spiderman of course, is not real). All he ever got is his very strong hands to get a very strong grip. It only takes a slip to fall down to his grave. Fear not, he had not fail any attempts yet. Exception for those halted attempts by the local authorities, he managed to climb his way up on all the tall building that he had tried on. So what does this have to do with celebrating the nation’s golden jubilee? Answer? None. Since it does happen by coincidence with the celebration, why not put it that way? Besides that is good enough to put Malaysia on the headlines (for the wrong reasons apparently). Spidey here had a thought on how to celebrate the 50th year of Malaysia’s independence and he got an idea – by attempting to climb up the tallest twin tower in the world, the Petronas Twin Towers. He is smart enough to bring along the Malaysia flag with him to appease the crowd and lift that “Merdeka” spirit (Merdeka means indepencence). Nice try but a bummer. Again the police stopped him halfway. Oh did I said again? Yes, again – this was his second attempt on the towers already. He did that before but failed by the police. The same fate happened again. I guess he was not happy for not able to conquer the tallest twin towers. Could he be back for Spiderman 3? Pun intended, again.Speaking of which, Spiderman 3 will be showing on Malaysia cinemas on 3rd May 2007 before premiering worldwide on 4th of May. This movie will worth the anticipation. Trust me on that.

The Future Beckons

I had my hands all tied up these days, no thanks to the ongoing assignments and endless examinations. This will persist throughout the week and also next week. Oh boy, I really need a break from all of these.Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access or WiMax is set to make a debut in Malaysia. This has been one of the government’s effort to improve internet penetration to the mass at a very reasonable price. The project is a definite boost to propel the country towards the blurry Vision 2020. As much as I love to elaborate more on that, I wish to retain it. Otherwise I might need a pair of spectacles on that. Screw that aside, let’s talk about the players in this WiMax game (WiMax is plausible as a name of a game). Telecommunication giants were the first ones to place their bid on the limited four WiMax licenses. However the big guns were gunned down by smaller fishes. Behold Bizsurf (M) Sdn Bhd, MIB Comm Sdn Bhd, Asiaspace Dotcom Sdn Bhd and Redtone-CNX Broadband Sdn Bhd. These pioneers will have the privilege to introduce WiMax to Malaysia. Three cheers for them! This move is deemed timely as county is trying to follow suit with other developed countries. For example, WiMax had benefited San Francisco by offering city-wide wireless internet coverage – comparable to cellular communication.So what is the big boon of WiMax? To begin with, WiMax is wireless internet, similar to the Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) that we are having now. The only differences are it’s faster and the range is farther. But what makes WiMax a better alternative is that it provides cheaper internet. It only requires one wireless router to cover a very wide area of population and this brings to lower maintenance cost. Recently the government also revealed the National Broadband Plan, aiming to promote broadband usage and higher internet penetration. Under the plan, a survey was conducted to collect the rough figures of broadband users nationwide. Another incentive under this plan was the allegation of providing free internet to the cities with large number of broadband users. Thanks to this, my hometown of Miri was ambitious enough to declare itself as a cyber city as they publicize the use of broadband to the residents, in hopes of getting free internet. Everyone just love to get free stuff, don’t they? Nevertheless, once WiMax is ready to go, the conventional WiFi will be easily displaced and the future of the mobile technology is set to divert its course to a better path as the newly coveted 3G technology is sought to lose ground against WiMax.

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Correction to my SPM Galore post the other day. The news about Nor Amalina being kicked out from college is nothing but a rumour. At least, I get to have all my facts checked. Thanks for mar shmar for the notice.

The Pursuit of Happyness (movie review)

When I first heard of this movie, I ignored the fact that “Happyness” which was spelled wrongly was meant to be that way. I searched for this movie with the assumption of the spelling error and made self-correction to it as The Pursuit of Happiness. I was wrong. It is “Happyness”. I gave another thought of the intended spelling was served the purpose of being catchy. Again I was wrong. In the movie, I came to know that Chris Gardner (Will Smith) was trying to correct the owner of the backstreet Chinese daycare centre that was attended by his son. It was one of those murals painted on the wall and that includes the text “Happyness”. Somehow the film title was based on that event, which was the introduction to the movie.

A man with a dream of happiness

The Pursuit of Happyness is all about the life of Chris Gardner, whereby he came to rise as a successful stockbroker and eventually making millions. And it is based on a true story. Nothing makes a moviegoer happier other than having to witness someone else’s feat of achievement in their life. Yay… (in a sarcastic tone). Yes, everyone is curious how millionaires (and billionaires) become as who they are now but that does not make a solid factor to make a good movie out of it. The question is what is so different about this movie? The producers were up to challenge and delivered. This is no epic movie of a rich man’s rags to riches kind of story. They infuse a different flavour to it, something totally different – a father’s love. The American dream of wealth is portrayed as a father and son relationship. Okay now, this movie has a rather odd theme for the given plot but it’s a good one. Otherwise, it won’t be contended in the Oscars.

SPM Galore

The yesteryears: “Mom! I got 12A1s for my SPM!”This is what we have now: “Oh Mom! I only got 17A1s, short by two only…”This world has gotten crazier by the year. During my time, the most As a student managed to score was only 17 A1s. Unfortunately even today, that number still remains the same. None can break themselves for the stigma of having horrendous 17 subjects for your examinations. It seems impossible to take all of those, especially when those undertaking subjects are mainstream and requires countless hours of studying. Unless you are taking those silly subjects of such as ‘Bread Baking’, ‘Shirt Seaming’, and ‘Origami’ (I am not sure about the existence of ‘Origami’ subject though but it might be in the list), you might get a shot in getting those huge bulk of good grades in your result slip. Just for the record, SPM is a Malaysian equivalent to the British GSCE.Now, here is another God-forsaken scenario. Nadiah Amirah Jamil had a smirk on her face as she and her parents were photographed for the papers’ publication. It was claimed she was not pleased with her result but also not disappointed by it. Yeah, right! I am not resounding some envious statement here. All I got to say about this is that her below-par achievement is a total let-down as the local paper kept on bragging her possible success to fork out straight A1s in all of her 19 subjects. Then here comes reality. She was only able to get 14 A1s and 4 A2s out of those 19 subjects, leaving a sole B3 for ‘English for Science and Technology’. But honestly, even I was not able to produce an A for the damn subject. I mean, how ridiculous it is to have another subject for English that was supposed to be designated for the teachings of Science but having endless gibberish on those general knowledge in environment and technology instead. And thus, the name ‘English for Science and Technology’. She even had two books published for her achievements she had done during her earlier secondary education. And we are talking about “motivations for success” kind of book. Oh God! This highly publicized lass eventually hit the dirt. Her not-so-excellent success was overshadowed by even more extravagant achievements as repeated by Yeo Jie Ming (from Penang) and Melissa Sia Ying Ying (from Sabah). These two are the ones who managed to nail all those 16 A1s, which is better than having just 14 A1s and bragging-rightfulness of 4 A2s. And I repeat, it’s a repetitive success. As statistic is concerned, Sabah had produced quite a number of high-achievers for SPM throughout the years. But the one who really stood out is Siti Fatimah Mukhtar (from Kelantan, again) who scored 17 A1s and an A2. Definitely a wow factor. But somehow, in Melissa’s case, she is the youngest to score an exceptional 16 A1s.

Finally, I managed to score the best result ever!!!Somehow no one is able to overcome that illusive 17 A1s barrier. How’s that for the cynical arrogance! But the local paper (it was mentioned that the paper responsible is Utusan Malaysia) and the parents are to be blamed for the over-glorified statement about Nadiah. Nadiah claimed that she did not propagating about having all A1s in her 19 subjects for her SPM examinations. And another nut crack case. Jabez Ho is saying 16 A1s are not enough. He is not satisfied with a B grade for his ‘Music’ subject and submitted an appeal for the paper. If this is to be changed (for the better result of having an A, of course), Jabez will scored a straight 17 A1s for this time. He also mentioned that Nor Amalina (another 17 A1s star in the SPM Hall of Fame from the year 2004, which also happens to be my SPM year)was his idol and inspiration for success. What is so disgusting bothering me about it is that Nor Amalina claimed her glamour only in the SPM level but fell to shame when she was kicked out from her college of choice in London, Cheltenham Ladies College. Well good luck there, Jabez.So final question here is, what is the whole deal of getting so many As in your examinations? Some seek fame for the exemplary achievements displayed, some seek self-satisfaction, some are doing it for the excuse of “I can do it too because my next-door neighbour can do it”. Even the Ministry of Education is actually not encouraging students to take so many subjects as it deemed as useless. For once, I agree with the Ministry of Education about this issue. So what is the whole point exactly? Having more As does not mirror the possible success in the future, not to mention of getting a better job. Believe me, unless you get the job that suits your interest, the job that you are having or will be having is a total crap. Passion is the drive. So don’t do ambitions simply because it is popular. Choose with your heart, aim for the job that appeals more to you. So back to the real topic. Now we get things down the wire. We witnessed the astounding Nor Amalina a few years ago and now, she’s back to rot after dropped out from her college of choice. Sitting for many paper for your examinations is an apparent trend of students these days. But it’s justified alright. You do gain the popularity at the end of the day and the extra merit is you will be more hardworking than ever in order to achieve those ambitious results. But do bear in mind, this is a cruel world. No matter how hard you work for the countless numbers of As in your examination but in the working field later, the spectrum changes altogether. If you are in for success, you better work yourself out to get the goal that you are aiming for.

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