Going Home

I am three and a half hours due to my flight out from Kota Baharu to Kuala Lumpur and stopover for about three hours before taking another flight to Miri. I have trouble sleeping, so I kept myself company with hours worth of Monster. It is a nice great story. I really recommend you to watch it. Anyway I’ll be leaving campus an hour for now. I know I’m leaving way too early but it’s better to keep myself away from this place as soon as possible. I’ll try to keep posting whenever I have a chance in KLIA later on. Wireless internet had been installed a few months ago in KLIA. That’s good news to me. If there is anything interesting going there, I’ll be posting soon. So adieu for now!And of course, adieu Kelantan. Hope to not see this place again See you again in two months time.

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Updates:11.00 a.m.: Just arrived at KLIA. Actually I’ve just reached Delifrance for a plate of lasagna. I’m taking an early lunch because I am so freaking hungry. Anyway I’ve just hooked the phone with my father. He asked me to buy lots and lots of buns, Gardenia buns. I don’t mind buying buns but I do mind the ridiculous amounts that my dad asked me to. Buns are relatively lighter than my own laptop bag. Buy lots of them is not an issue. But what the heck does he wants the huge amounts of it? Is he conducting experiments on those buns? Probably tackle the ingredients they used for those buns. Beats me. On the scene with me now is another ridiculously large number of Indian tourists arrived at the airport. It’s as though the whole family is flying all the way to somewhere (probably India) to attend a wedding. On one side, they would just probably a bunch of tourists in a tour group.Backlogs (duh!):1:25p.m.: I checked in earlier after strolling around the main terminal for awhile. So after my brunch, I gave a go to buy those buns, lots of them. I guess I was not feeling satisfied by my current scenario. Thankfully I having enough buying power. I pampered myself with a new toy – a Sony earphone H.EAR series. That should ease the pain a little. In case you didn’t notice, this is a backlog. Why? Isn’t that KLIA is WiFi covered? Hohoho… I proof you wrong. Okay, there is free WiFi here but the waiting area where I am at is not covered. Heck! It did not bother much though. I still got several episodes of anime to watch. I haven’t reviewed my first impression on Claymore yet. That one will come very soon.1.45 p.m.: Forgot to mention this earlier. I’ve just noticed that KLIA has opened the other runway. Meaning to say that both runways are used to the fullest and the bad traffic that KLIA experienced before has been greatly reduced. Well about time. I guess the MAHB (Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad by the way) had a sudden boost to their IQ, thanks to Enfagrow! Another thing is that I was mistaken that my flight is a direct flight. I was so wrong. I had to stop over Kuching before heading back home. This is one long trip back home. Damn!1.50 p.m.: When I saw one hot leng lui, I was reminded that I met one good looking air stewardess, which rare to see in MAS domestic fleets. I begin to enjoy MAS lesser known services now – eye candies! Oops! Better stop this backlog. Time to board the plane.4.01 p.m.: I’ve just Kuching International Airport. Next stop Miri. Despite undergone upgrading, stil find the airport below international standard. The terminal itself is modern and well-designed. However the runway and certain lots of the terminal are an eyesore. Anyway I was relieved to see the Coffee Bean in the airport. And I tell you, it has the best view facing the runway. Very cool. Howeverr I must critise the barista though. She was slow and the coffee she made sucked. Imagine those coffee residues that did not dissolve in an iced mocha. Eww… What’s more is the Coffee Bean has no WiFi! The horror! And more backlogs)6.15 p.m.: I’m home! Finally! And I’m very tired. Will be posting next time very soon.

Kaze no Stigma (preview)

This preview is made based on the first two episodes of this series. The follow-up episodic review however is decided. It’s an absolute no for me.

This could be a good anime, if it was produced five years ago. Undeniable it has a cool name for its title – Kaze no Stigma or Wind Stigma. But the story did not impressed me. The start was okay for me but that impression stopped when the opening song began. OMG! The song is as though from the 90s or beyond. I think there are better songs from the 90s than this one. Even the ending song sucked. However I reminded myself not to judge the anime simply based on the song. For instance, Fate/stay Night had a lousy opening song but it turned out to be good anime. So I kept on watching. It didn’t took me long to feel like bailing out from watching further. Here’s the deal. Lots of the action scenes are repetitive, which kind of reminds you of Sailormoon. What’s more the drawings lack details. Most of the drawing are plain simple. The character design is not bad though, even the animation is standard quality (expected from Gonzo). Just the so-called action scenes tend to be the same and plain. Not to mention that they talk a lot of crap before fighting for several moments. It felt like forever for them to initiate a fight. I could die from boredom just watching this anime.

Kaze no Stigma

So the story begins with Kannagi Ayano defeated a youma (evil spirit) with the mythical sword that uses fire magic called Enraiha. Don’t worry, you’ll be seeing a lot of Enhaira in episodes to come. After the battle, she met up with her friends. Guess what the friends said?

“Good job, Ayano-chan! How was it?”

“It’s fine. The monster is creepy looking but it was easy.”

“Hey lets go karaoke like always!” At this point, I went like WTF?! There are no secrets of her defeating monsters I suppose. But to go to karaoke as always, you mean that hitting the KTV after successfully defeating a monster? Cut the joke please! This was not the reason why I hated this anime though.

Random Talk

Lately (in case you didn’t notice), this blog is slowly turning into an anime blog. What the foot??? (blame Kenny Sia for this) I don’t mind doing anime reviews and all. I love enjoy watching anime. I might reach the peak of otakuness sooner or later but not for now. However the real purpose of this blog which goes by the title, Life’s Never Normal is my expression of thoughts in any issue that suddenly popped out in my brain. If you ever meet me, you’ll see my head with a big hole to it, thanks to the explosion of ideas that never seemed to stop. I need to stop this nonsense. And of course, there are times I feel like letting out all my emotions (thus being emo). So converting my blogging ideals into a blog dedicated to anime would leave me stray away from my real purpose of blogging. I love blogging nowadays. No doubts on that. So reach out to me, give me your thoughts about this issue. What I am trying to say is I need a second opinion whether I should make this blog as anime blog or start off another project on anime blogs. I’m all ears. But one matter to consider is the frequency of update for maintain update. Anime blog can be difficult in terms of update because I need to watch the episode, make screen caps and upload those, then researched a bit on the anime (to validate certain information), make a synopsis and repeat the same steps to another episode of another anime. Sounds tough but I enjoy doing it. All that I ever hope for is a decent internet connection. Period.I’ve just done watching a Hong Kong movie. Surprise, surprise. I don’t usually entertain myself with movies from Hong Kong. But the critics were good. So why bother? I just have a go to it. The movie that I watched is Protege directed by Derek Yee. And what do you know? It is kind of good. The start got me clueless but I got the real deal minutes later. Yes, this is another typical theme for Hong Kong movies – undercover cop in a crime organisation and lots of betrayal going on. To the least, I enjoyed my time watching this. Review? Hold it there, no review on this one. Not this time. Too lazy and not inspired. Besides I saved up more reviews on other unwatched anime (which brings up the issue mentioned earlier).Today is the last day for me in Kelantan before heading back home the next day. The countdown commenced. Anxiety rushed in. Excitement inevitable. Miri, here I come! Now off to my anime reviews.

Romeo x Juliet (preview)

This preview is made based on the first two episodes of this series. The follow-up episodic review however is pending.

They did it again. Romeo x Juliet is an adaptation to one of the most famous plays by William Shakespeare. The settings and characters are quite similar. At least they tried to be innovative by avoid copying the storyline of the original Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet is definitely one of the most popular adaptation to creative arts since decades ago. It is about time that an anime title based on this play by William Shakespeare to come to light. From the trailer, Romeo x Juliet is vied to be a potentially good anime, given the good character designs, magnificent background designs and superb animation. No surprise there because this is a Gonzo production. The only letdown for me is the opening song. The song, Inori ~You Raise Me Up~ sang by Lena Park is adapted from Josh Groban’s You Raise Me Up. This song inappropriate for the opening AMV. No doubt it’s a beautiful song suited well for Romeo x Juliet but it just not fit well for the AMV. Despite this, I expect good soundtracks from this anime title. Can’t wait for its release.

Romeo x Juliet

The story sets in Neo Verona, which is a fairytale-like kingdom on a floating continent. This is an eye opener. What’s more the mythical creature, Pegasus exist in this place. Pegasus is a flying horse. I wish for a unicorn though. I guess unicorns are just overrated. At one stormy night, the ruling House of Capulet was sieged under the coup d’etat by Montague. Montague acted to kill the entire Capulet family in order to reign Neo Verona. Capulet’s daughter, Juliet witnessed her own father’s murder (cruel fate) then was brought away by Cordelia. Montague and his men noticed them and made haste to chase them. The two little girls were surrounded. Fortunately a group of Capulet’s knights came to the rescue and they were brought away as they escaped to the blizzard riding a Pegasus.

Makeover

This blog has completed its makeover – a new theme to please the eye. I guess I won’t be changing the theme until year end. In addition to this change, another page is added. Starting today, song downloads are available on this blog. So far only anime soundtracks are added but expect more to come. This will be a short one, I am too sleepy after this makeover and it’s way past my bedtime. I have also managed watch Romeo x Juliet, Kaze no Stigma and Claymore. The previews are coming soon.

Pardon me when I said that this week’s episode of Death Note is bringing up what the story is all about. The meaning of this story has totally lost, which is the fight between two brilliant minds – Yagami Light and L. This time, the story will be focusing on another battle of Light who is Kira against the minds brought up by L himself – Near and Mello.

Death Note Episode 28: Impatience

There are more than enough reasons why this week’s episode is bringing what Death Note is all about. The spectrum of the story has totally changed after L’s death. What’s more is that the animation this time is top notch – expectedly from Madhouse, and the intensity of the story peaked as Light is cornered from all opportunity. What is so different about Death Note this time is apparent in this episode. The notebook is used for personal, similar to what Yotsuba Company did before. However the acknowledgment of the death note to the mafia and the US government had initiated the urge for competition to get their hands of the notebook. Everyone are willing to do anything in order to get the book. Another obvious difference is the absence of a shinigami (death god) when a person touches the death note. No surprise there. That death note was previously owned by Rem who has self-sacrificed to save Misa. This gives a personal advantage to Light given that the users of that particular death note are not aware of the existence of shinigami and are not able to do the trade for the shinigami eye which serves an advantageous purpose to kill someone more effectively. Regarding the animation and drawing quality, it is back to its standard quality – not sloppy as suspected by most viewers judging from the previous episodes. On another issue, it has confirmed (as reported from Anime News Network), Death Note has 37 episodes, leaving only 9 more episodes to go. The end is drawing near. My thoughts were right, this second arc is shorter and has a faster pace.

Light: Have you seen my dark chocolate? Did you took it?
Near: No way, I hate chocolates. Go ask Mello, that chocolate fetish brat!

“This is dark chocolate! I hate dark chocolates…”

Alas The Holiday Begins

After 3 weeks of torture and occasional boredom, I am done with all my examinations. So now it is officially a holiday for me. Hold on, not so quick there. I still need to stay here until the 30th simply due to my recklessness of rushing to buy my flight tickets and the inconvenience caused from MAS (Malaysia Airlines). Nonetheless I remain thrilled and excited by the fact that I’ll be home soon and get to have the first taste of Windows Vista. I can’t wait!

Enjoying my deserving rest, finally

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Dying can be so hard at times

Darker Than Black (Episode 3)

As the story progresses, Darker Than Black is getting more and more exciting. The episode this time thrill you with some actions from Hei and his associates in their reconnaissance duty. Picture those spy kind of spin off. And as expected, the story delved further into explaining the history of the Hell’s Gate and the Contractors. The Hell’s Gate still remained a big mystery though but some history of it is being revealed. Also included is about how a Contractor is conceived but not in a technical manner. One more thing is about what Hei mentioned before in episode one – a Contractor has to pay something in return for their power. Each contractor has their own unique ways to repay their special ability. Here’s some light into it. Remember Jean from the first two episodes? He was seen arranging pebble on certain occasions. And also the guy who shoot beans, eating a flower after doing so. These actions are retribution to their powers. This also explains why Louis snapped his fingers after pulled off his gravitation powers. So you must be wondering what Hei has to do to repay his ability by now.

Surviving hell with a biohazard suit

In a deserted city shrouded in fog and bodies scattered all around, a man in biohazard suit was wandering about until he fell over at a road. He seemed confused and delusional. Can’t really say it for sure but he took off his head gear and vomited in disgust to the sight of the city as he said no human can ever live there. Then he noticed a blue flower in front of him as the flower released its pollens. The flower appeared to be glowing, what the heck anyway. In another scene that appeared to be the present future, light blobs seen traveled through the electric grids. Li was hanging out his clothes when a blob passed his apartment. He noticed his neighbour who is a black guy peered out of the window and greeted him with an awkward “good morning”. He cooked himself a rather heavy breakfast as the black cat (must be Mao) came over his place on the balcony. They chatted briefly. On his way out while taking out the garbage, he greeted another foreign man and also the landlady. The old landlady caught Mao saying that the cat has been around the area quite frequently lately. She also reminded Li (Hei was known as Li at that time; I am so confused on which name to use) that no pets are allowed in the apartment. Being a Chinese, the landlady assumed that Li would eat any animals with four legs with their bellies down while referring to the cat. Li denied to have eat any of them but suggested that a cat may tastes good. Unhappy with such remarks, Mao hissed and scuffled with the landlady.