28.4.04

Anger

Is an interesting emotional response. How did it come to being? Well, probably when humans were still on the verge of survival, anger helped spark a sense of intimidation and retaliation against predators that would attack the individual. Nowadays it's a cause of many absurd and illogical actions that would otherwise make a world quite ideal. If there was no anger in teh world... think of how much problems that would solve. What a hindering emotional response. The best defense against this would be to try and suppress it as much as possible, just as any emotion I suppose. No matter how illogical the reasoning is. Reason with calmness and assurance, not with fire and passion. And look at the whole picture; try seeing how the opponent sees the situation, if you have an opponent.

24.4.04

Commentary on Episode 8 of Noir: Intoccible Act 2

At this point you can conclude two things.
1. I really really REALLY love Noir.
2. English has taken over my mind. Someone please save me from this menace.

Without further ado, here are some interesting aspects of the 8th episode of Noir which I found just... beautiful. Yes, duh, this will be spoilers. So if you're gonna watch Noir anytime soon, don't read. If you aren't, it's not gonna hurt you, It's only gonna make you see how much I REALLY like Noir.
-----
Now, there are three events of interest in this show that make this one of the best episodes I've seen so far. First, the entire scene where Mirielle assassinates the Intoccible (sp?). That is one of the most beautful scenes in the history of anime, I tell you. Then there is the issue of why Kirika's hand shakes when she was being pursued by two other mafia assassins; this is a rather mysterious case that even I cannot figure out yet. Third is Kirika eating ice cream. Yes, I'll be talking about that later.
Now, in the scene where Mirielle was too petrified to fire the gun, anyone could have guessed that the Intoccible must of truamatized por Mirielle when she was young. This is interesting, as the expert assassin Mirielle shows to have a weakness, a fear, that is presented to the audience. What's most interesting about this scene is how she overcomes this fear and reverses it in the Intoccible. This leads to the symbolism in the gun and dagger. One recognizes that you must be calm and focused when using a gun to aim and kill. In contrast, a blade can be used in complete rage and kill off the opponent aggressively. This is why Mirielle couldn't fire the gun; her composure was not calm and focused because of the way the Intoccible intimidated her. Now, why does she go for the blade, while the Intoccible went for the gun? The surface explanation would be that Intoccible thought Mirielle would go for the gun so she went for it, and Mirielle, in seeing this, went for the blade. However, there is meaning in this. By passing on the gun to the Intoccible and instead picking up the blade, Mirielle was able to transfer her fear into rage. While holding the gun, she felt petrified and could not do anything. But with the blade in her hand, there was a sense of power; even when the gun could kill her faster, the dagger was the enzyme that transformed her fear into rage. This, in turn, surprised the Intoccible, and for once, in her whole life when she lived by the words " I know no fear", she felt fear. It is BECAUSE she felt fear that she died, because she failed in her own aspect by picking up the gun instead of the blade, and instead of using the anger that would be expressed through the blade, she picked up a gun, which cannot be used in blind rage OR fear. And to see someone who was once below and once afraid of her suddenly turn and lunge for her... that was all the fear and surprise she needed to go down. This is why she wants to crown Mirielle as she was dying, because Mirielle was the one to defeat Intoccible not physically, but mentally and emotionally. She made the Intoccible feel fear, and by that she defeated her. But Mirielle does not accept. On one hand, one person can say this is the case because she is mourning over what she has done, to a supposed childhood friend. On the other, this unacceptance from the hands of the Intoccible could be seen as the Intoccible's loss of power, how the once great and commanding woman can now longer hold any power over anyone, until she finally dies, and Kirika takes the paper.
Kirika is an interesting character in herself in that show. First off, why does her hand shake when she was fighting off those two assassins? She has faced off many skilled assassins and been in much worse situations, yet she shakes. My theory is that this could be her synchronization with Mirielle's fear, showing an inner connection between the two. It is further supported when she shoots and breaks the blade that the Intoccible was holding and about to kill Mirielle with. Her instinct to not kill the Intoccible but break the blade was because of her connection with Mirielle; had she killed the Intoccible, she would have just been another assassin helping her partner. But by shooting the blade, Kirika demonstrates that she has another connection with Mirielle, she, somehow, feels what Mirielle feels, and for all the lack of emotion that she seems to show, she has some deep within that are intertwined with Mirielle's emotions.
Last but not least, Kirika eating ice cream in episode 7. Strange. Very strange, as this is supposed to be a very serious anime, but some reason her utter cuteness is shone through her eating down the cone and all of ice cream. Why is this there? Why not just show her in her typical monotonous and meloncholy expression? It is probably to elaborate the irony, just as a typical 14 year old girl should not be such a brutal assassin. And so, they top it off with her eating ice cream to the most utter kawaiiness possible in the whole snow. Awwwwwwww.... Kawaiiiiiiiiiii.... *gets killed with a fork X.x*

19.4.04

NOIR (or black, or hei, or...)

Yesh! I finally got what I always wanted to watch for like, 6 months!! The anime Noir!! And it doesn't disappoint me either (not yet, anyway). Different from my usual line of anime, but none the less great. Superb animation. (they could have done something for the intermission though). Beautiful music. And... so far, the plot doesn't seem all that... "obvious", for a lack of a better word. And most of all, it's quite believable. Most of the aspects in this anime seems realistic enough to have it all happen in real life, except for a few things:

1. French people do not all know Japanese.
2. Somehow, in the anime, a CIA agent, or of that sort and training, cannot shoot a woman who was unguarded and unaware that the person was there. What kind of agent is that?!?
3. Mireille has hair either made of water or fire. Whatever it is, its not how normal hair moves. It like... flickers. o_O

Some things that are highly improbable, but not impossible in the anime:

1. Perfect Aim shots by a 14 year old (around that age) girl.
2. And she knows incredible gymnastics too.
3. And she has no emotions. Reminds of Rei. Hmm.

But that last one is kinda what makes the girl cool. :P Mystery still needs to unfold. I must look into it more.

NOIR!!!!!!!!!! (Black. :P)

18.4.04

Cast REVIVE on ANIME SPIRIT!!

Yes, that's right! I've revived (kind of) my anime spirit! Prematurely, actually, as I should have gotten back into Anime AFTER testing. Ah... well... I'm giving out some of my reviews for recent "first looks" on a few episodes of Anime, ranking from worst to best (I think so far):

Melody of Oblivion: Cool title. The only thing really cool about it. As far as I can see, this thing is the most illogical and poor quality anime I've seen out of the four. Its animation isn't that bad, and that's one of the reasons I went and watched it (the other reason is because of the title, as I stated earlier), but the plotline is like one of those Sailor Moon type anime, only its not as girly (probably would have been better if it was). Music isn't that super, either. The characters are rather... pointless. At least, the main character, who just has that "I want to be a warrior" attitude that doesn't care much of anything else (Hey! a PMA char!). And the main bad guy is some monster-transforming-humans-into-monsters sorta guy, lame-o. And Motorcycles. What the heck? This is just a taste thing, but no motorcycles for me. The arrow idea was kinda cool, but not enough to keep me going. I'm scrapping this.
Monster: Ok, first off, I don't like its animation. If not for the intriguing plot of a neurosurgeon, I would not have gotten into it. And even so, I found out that all they're gonna talk about is a guy doing surgery, not research, though he does give information on some research he's been doing. But other than that, it seems decent enough. Most of the problems presented in here are much like real life problems, assuming a murderer shoots two parents dead and delivers a bullet through a brother's head while the sister stands tramatized is normal. However, the story seems rather expected, and I have a good prediction on what's gonna happen next. If it's predictable, I probably might drop it a few episodes in. It's not a favorite, especially no because of its animation and music, but it works for something. Key component in this anime here is logic; everything is very logical in their terms and descriptions, and that's what I like about this.
Ragnarok The Animation: I'm a Ragnarok Fan, so obviously I like it. :P I mean, unless it's REALLY badly made, I'm still gonna download and watch it no matter what. Sure, it isn't the greatest, but its nice in how much it follows gameplay rules, descriptions, words, phrases, and monsters. For some reason, I like that. :) GO THEIF BUGS!!!! Ahem. Anyway, If I didn't know so much about Ragnarok, I would have thought that this might not have been as great as I do now, but because it IS so gamelike and reminds of the game, I love it. Remember, this a fanboy talking, so you might not agree. :P Then again, you might not agree with anything I say. :P
Doki Doki School Hours, or Sensei no Ojikan: SOOOOOOO KAWAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!! Basically, an Azumanga Clone, only more cute. Most people probably would look down on it because it IS a clone of Azumanga, but its so CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE!!!!!!!!!!! Basically, its the absurd adventures of a teacher that had a lack of growth hormones during adolesence (in simple anime-ish terms, SHE'S CHIBI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and the strange students in her class. Nice for comedy relief. I'm definately sticking with this one, both for the cuteness and the comedy.

6.4.04

ASBW Chronicles Box Logs #3: The Legend of the Arrogant Loner

And now, since PMA came back, we have the chapter where... PMA comes back!
-----
Now, usually you would expect a warm-hearted hug or even just a simple greeting when you finally get to see an old buddy of yours after so many years. But this wasn't the case, nope not at all. I thought that certainly he would experience the same joy of meeting an old friend as I do, finally being able to meet PMA again after all these years, but what do I get? A rather quick paced game of "shoot the Box" where I jumped from wall to wall dodging PMA's Mega Energy Blast attacks, until frankly I had no more walls to jump to.
"Well, it was nice meeting with you again, bully, but I'm afraid if you keep on shooting me I'm gonna have to leave this part of area, for the sake of safety!" I told him and bid goodbye.
"You aren't getting away that easily, demon!!" And again he began charging his blaster, cock and aim towards me. I stood and waved, and upon his firing I prepared to leave and never see him again.
However, a psychic gripped my leg and I tripped. Luckily, the blast went right over me, but of course the tripping came as a surprise to me, as I didn't expect PMA to be able (or be smart enough) to do that.
And I found out it was in fact another blue haired lady that walked up and must have executed the attack.
"Oh PMA," The blue haired lady said. "Didn't I tell you not to shoot everything that moves around here? It's obvious he's not one of the minions of Darkmaster Ash."
"Sabrina?? What are you doing here?? I told you, it's too dangerous for you to be around and I'll be fine by myself."
"Yea," Sabrina remarked sarcastically, "fine shooting your old time buddies instead of actually chasing DMA." PMA took a closer look at me. "Oh... It's you." I stood up and brushed myself.
"I'm glad you came to your senses, my good fellow. Here's to a reunion greeting!" I stuck out my hand, expecting a shake back. PMA just turned around. "I have more important things to do. I cannot be bothered with this..."
"Person who blew up the ASB Tower many years ago??" PMA got one of those little cross thingies on his forehead. "O yea, I need a place to stay for the night... As you can see, I'm kinda stuck, mind if I..."
"NO!!" PMA yelled, and flew away.
"Guess he doesn't want me in his residence." I shrugged and began to walk away.
"Wait, I know a place that you might be able to stay," Sabrina pipped up.
-----
"KINLAP OL' BUDDY!! How have you been??" The two old friends hugged.
"Fine Fine, running a nice park business, developing some cool bracelets for me and PMA to wear, fighting some crime and evil with PMA... though he seems to find me more of a nuicance lately these days..." Kinlap pondered.
"What IS up with that guy anyway? Some welcome he gave me." I pouted.
"He..." Sabrina sighed. "He's really a very nice fellow. As far as what I've gathered from his history, he came this planet when he was a child, alone and no one to take care of him. He wandered the streets for a while, until he was saved one day by this man in blue armor. Something like the armor he wears around now... well anyway, then you came along and tried to blow up the tower. Ash was apparently affected by this hero that he himself wanted to become one, and so that's why he went after you to try and stop you. Its something like child idolness..."
"I think it's still in him," I commented.
"Yea, it is." Kinlap continued Sabrina's story. "Well anyway, shortly after the four of us met, of course, you and the popcorn selling kid left. Since PMA was pretty much an orphan at that time, my family took him up and raised him. From then on until recently, we did many things together: developed cool bracelets, fight crime alongside, and that sort of stuff. Only, he always seemed to want to get the attention and fame of 'defeating the bad guy' and 'being the hero', which was perfectly fine with me, until recently. Now, he's working alone; he no longer wants anyone to help him. Consequently, something else came out of him... While the times were quiet and no crime was going around, a shadowy figure began to appear and begin causing trouble, and when PMA confronted him, he saw..."
"Himself," Sabrina finished. "I'm not sure, but I think it must have been some psychological effect, like PMA's desire to beat up things coupled with his sense of honor and loyalty... somewhere there must have been a split, and now he's like this. But that's only my guess."
"Enough about him, I'm sure you're tired. Let me bring you up to your room." Kinlap walked me to the nice bedroom in his mansion.
-----
I wasn't exactly as tired as Kinlap had thought I was. After all, there was a huge time difference travelling between dimensions, and days in my training dimension were almost twice as long as these days. So, needless to say, I got up and begn roaming around without waking Kinlap and the others. I took out a sheet of paper that had "Fei" (fly) inscribed on it and attached it to my wrist, then flew to the area I sat the time just before I blew up the ASB Tower, and gazed at the moons. They were similar to those in the former dimension, as all moons are: mysterious, illuminating, enchanting. Nevertheless, each moon was different, and it was a pleasure finally seeing a different moon in a different world...
"What are you up to?" I looked to my side and saw PMA, arms crossed. "Are you planning to demolish the building again? If you are, I'm not letting you."
I smirked. "Could you catch me if I was?" I started to fly towards the tower, but PMA immediately blocked my path. I flew above him and continued, then went around the tower and me and PMA played tag as we did in the early days, only now we flew. It was quite some fun, until some shadow stalkers and dark minions interrupted and attacked us.
"Get Away!! These are Dangerous!!" PMA told me in a heroic manner, though I frankly was willing to listen to him. After all, who wants to get their hands tangled with a bunch of freakish nightmares like them?
"PMA transform into Fightmaster Ash!!"
And PMA began fending off some of the minions, but apparently the creatures didn't see PMA as their only target. Some of them began coming after me, and soon after I had shadow stalkers coming from above (remember, I was right beside the ASB Tower) and minions coming from below and in front (some can fly!!).
"Hey guys, let me through!! I'm not your target!!" But I knew they wouldn't listen, so I quickly slipped through into my hands a leafletc, holding my hands in a upside-down cup like form to guise the spell. One of the the shadow stalkers grabbed the hand.
"So, you wanna see what's inside? WUDIN GUAN GONGJI!!" A bright spiralatic trail of five blasts of light hit and attacked the shadow stalkers above me, immediately dissipating them to nothingness.
"Sorry, love to play, but I'd much rather watch." I took out the inscription "Xiao" and attached it to my shoulder and disappeared from the view of my attackers. I immediately flew up (as the shadow stalkers that were above me have perished) and sat on the side of the ASB Tower, watching the battle go on below.
It was quite fun, much like a Jackie Chan movie, watching PMA toss the bad guys like they do when 500 bad guy flunkies take on one hero. One thing I thought he'd have trouble on is the shadow stalkers, but that didnt' seem to faze him.
"Heh, think you can be immune to me with your shadow bodies?" PMA stated arrogantly as he was grabbed by one of the shadows at the arm. "Sesmic Toss!!" He, in a startling manner, pulled the shadow from the walls and flung it across the street. "Low Kick!" he executed as another tried to grab him on the leg, and he quickly tossed that one aside as well.
However, dispite his nice antics, he soon enough was captured by the shadow stalkers and was held in a rather tight situation.
"Haw haw haw haw haw." Some guy's laugh sounded a lot like he needed a cough drop.
"Who's there?" PMA asked bravely (or foolishly, pick your choice of adverbs).
What emerged from the shadows was... a large shadow. It was amorphous, figureless, all but two sinister looking yellow glowing eyes. "My name... is Evil Master, and you have fallen straight into my trap." Evil Master laughed his sickly (as in, he sounded as if he was ill) laugh again.
"You work for Darkmaster Ash, don't you?? Don't get too cocky," PMA said ironically. "I may just have to bust out and use..."
"But you won't." Said a voice that sounded a lot like PMA (twice the egoness!!). It was, of course, DMA, with Sabrina in his clutches. Sabrina, try as she might, could not get away. "Actually, I've been working for this fellow shadow here, not the other way around. And if you try anything, your little wife gets it. Why can't she teleport away? Why, because I gave her the Mean Look, of course." DMA smirked.
At this point, I could tell PMA was in real trouble. Despite all his egotism and wanting to deal damage, he at least had enough honor left in him to protect the one that he loved... and with that, he stopped struggling and just glared at the Evil Master.
"That's a good fellow..."
SSSssss. "YEEOOOCCHHH!!!" A slip with the incantation of Guang (Light) had somehow struck the arm of DMA that was holding onto Sabrina. Then, in a blink of an eye, Sabrina disappeared from sight.
"What the--?!? But she couldn't have!! I trapped her with my spell, she couldn't have teleported away!!"
"But she did." PMA smirked. "PMA transform into ANGEMASTER ASH!!" The bright flash of light was enough to destroy all of the minions and shadows holding PMA down, and make Evil Master cringe.
"Arg... you escaped this time, but next time will not be so easy." Evil Master tried slipping into the shadows, but then suddenly a shine went through and he hit a wall. "What the?!?"
"You're blocked out," PMA stated obviously, "With no where to go. HYPER BEAM(ish attack)!!" With a bright flash of light, the Evil Master with a sore through cackled his last cackle and fell into oblivion, for now.

Meanwhile, up on another tower (ASB Tower #2 was destroyed with Evil Master blew up), Sabrina wanted to go back down and help her lover, but I pulled her back.
"You were ruining the show before, and I don't want you to go ruin it again. Let's see what PMA does now..."
"Let go of me!! I need to go help him!!" And so, the annoying Sabrina who I saved went back down to ruin the whole cool fighting scene that was supposed to happen with PMA and DMA. O well.

"Wait!!" Sabrina lunged onto PMA like a cheap soap opera show, quickly stopping PMA from delivering the last blow to DMA.
"I thought you teleported to safety," PMA said coldly.
"If you destroy DMA, you'll destroy yourself!!"
"What?"
"The reason he exists," Sabrina continued with her philosophical ideas, "is that he's a part of you... and even though he's your darker side, he's still you. A light cannot live without a dark. Bring him back into you. Please. Just keep closer watch over him and make sure he doesn't go on a rampage as he did to you... I think maybe we can do that by calling over... a couple of friends."
Sabrina was probably referring to me, but, as the battle was already over, I had begun to leave already.
"Oh well, let's get ready for the next adventure..." I snapped my fingers.
Immediately a huge spaceship flew straight over my head and landed a few feet in front of PMA.
"Woah, that was cool."

4.4.04

UPDATE ON THE WHERABOUTS ON PMA!!!

Note recieved by PM on TPM:

In case you guys are wondering where I disappeared to, I'm having some problems with my internet connection. I haven't been able to get to TPM or on AIM since Thursday afternoon. As for this message, I'm using someone else's comp so this is more or less all you'll hear from me until this is all sorted out. Please tell the others.


Later.

That has been a note from PMA. PMA, we're glad you're out there and fine! Now post in the ASB War RPG. :P

And the Investigation into the missing PMA Commences!!

As many of you know, the one known as Pokemaster Ash seems to have been eluding the internet these days. For those who know him, this is a very strange occurance; the screenname pokemasterrj has almost never been seen offline except in late night circumstances (or if you're on the west coast, not so late night circumstances). Where is PMA? Has something happened to him? his computer? his family? OR! Is there something... else behind this?? We look into the streets for more answers.

TheMysteriousBox: RO!
RiOrius: Aye?
TheMysteriousBox: has PMA been around lately
RiOrius: Haven't noticed either way.
TheMysteriousBox: hmmm
TheMysteriousBox: it seems that PMA has been... not online lately
TheMysteriousBox: highly suspicious
TheMysteriousBox: both me and Sal2 have noticed
TheMysteriousBox: it could be that he just blocked us because we were annoying
TheMysteriousBox: or it could be that....
TheMysteriousBox: that...
TheMysteriousBox: :O he got a life?
TheMysteriousBox: I will ask PJBW, he has more info on him
RiOrius: Don't jump to conclusions now :-P
TheMysteriousBox: that's what Sal2 said too :P

Apparently RO isn't worried. Nice to see he has confidence in the little egotist.

TheMysteriousBox: PJBW!
ProfJbWolf: Boxo
TheMysteriousBox: As a good friend of PMA, me and Sal2 would like to inquiry you
TheMysteriousBox: PMA has not been on our buddy lists for a while
ProfJbWolf: I have no idea where he is
TheMysteriousBox: has he blocked us, or has he truly... got a life? :O
ProfJbWolf: And I've noticed that he's been gone for awhile
ProfJbWolf: I think he may have gotten a life or...
ProfJbWolf: in the worst case scenario
ProfJbWolf: He's lost it
TheMysteriousBox: ....
ProfJbWolf: Of course
TheMysteriousBox: :O
ProfJbWolf: Its no good to dwell on such thoughts
TheMysteriousBox: a mystery indeed
TheMysteriousBox: yesh
ProfJbWolf: Actually
TheMysteriousBox: we must start an investigation
ProfJbWolf: He mentioned that his computer was going on the fritz
TheMysteriousBox: the PMA investigation crew MUST find out!
ProfJbWolf: Maybe it finally shut downa ll together
TheMysteriousBox: Is it that he has job problems?
TheMysteriousBox: is it that he has computer problems?
TheMysteriousBox: Is it that he has family problems?
TheMysteriousBox: or.... worse...
ProfJbWolf: He's been attacked by fluffy bunnies of Easter?
TheMysteriousBox: :O
TheMysteriousBox: but he'd survive that
TheMysteriousBox: and live to tell the tale
TheMysteriousBox: Oh would he tell
TheMysteriousBox: yes I know him too well

Again, no answers. However, we have learned that it is indeed PMA being absent rather than him blocking me and Sal2, for PMA would NEVER block out his friend PJBW even in the most annoying of circumstances (PJBW? Annoying? That's a funny thing in itself). Where in the world is Pokemaster Ash? We await your answer, PMA. We all miss you. :P