Moe Ranking

... from some other person's blog :V
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Please rate the following with 1~10points for moeness and comment~
(Low～Medium～HIgh →1～5～10 )
Please use 2D as the basis of moeness. Optional: If you want to state difference between moeness in 2D and IRL
Feel free to add categories that you think are moe.

●Uniform (制服) ： 7
Perhaps its more or less a concept of exoticness since in America public school students are allowed to wear whatever they want, that the moeness of school uniforms comes into being. Whatever the case school uniforms seem to be cute, most of the time. Though admittedly there are some designs which are questionable.

●Beast transformation (獸人化)：4
Not a fan of catgirls or doggirls or any mammalian creature hybrid of a female human myself, however I like the concept of angels or bird-girl hybrids. The flashy wings and floating feathers must do something.

●Glasses (眼鏡) ： 1
On a personal preference I strongly dislike girls with glasses, with very few exceptions (these exceptions are not characters that are my favorite in the series, either). Not that I think that they are flat out ugly but something about it makes me think they're not cute. Perhaps since I wore glasses ever since I was really young there's some indication of "that looks too much like me" in it?
Although, I think guys in anime wearing glasses is pretty cool. :V Generally what I don't like to see on girls I like to see on guy characters.

●Tsundere (ツンデレ) ： 4
Generally speaking I'm not a fan of tsundere and would have given it a lower ranking had there not been some especially good tsundere characters lately (*coughClannadandLuckyStarcough*). In a way you could say I'm "tsundere against tsundere" seeing how I usually deny the moeness of tsundere but became recently more attracted to some from a few of those series.
Its very specific, however. The tsunderes I typically like are not the super loud and act-before-you-think kind, but more like those who are usually quiet or talk quite intelligently and can win you in a debate if you attempted to argue with them. Since most tsunderes seem to enjoy fighting over talking, this eliminates most tsunderes off the list.
The definition of tsundere has changed remarkably so in the last couple of years, I believe.

●Bad Guy (悪人) ： 3
Very unlikely that I would like the bad guys (or girls) in a series, unless they're not truly "bad" which wouldn't make them bad guys/girls in the first place. I do think conversion of good to bad can be interesting sometimes, though.

●Maid (メイド) ： 8
This is similar to schoolgirl outfit in that, because I probably don't see it often, I find it more foriegn and exotic, thus more cute. Elegance and courtesy is also a plus, including when characters speak to you so politely when its very obvious they're angry at you... I dunno why that is cute. :P

●To be looked down upon(見下される) ： 1
This sounds sort of masochistic. :V WELL if the guy is incredibly stupid then maybe he deserves to be looked down upon, but generally speaking I like speaking to people on the same level. Arrogance is usually not a good trait. Except in Code Geass, where the guy I believe is truly smart enough to be arrogant.
I guess in that sense if the girl is smart enough and acts well enough then having her look down isn't a negative trait but generally if that girl is smart enough she'll be smart enough to know how to act like she's NOT looking down at you, so she can take advantage of you. :V


●Cross dressing/Unisex dressed(中性的容姿) ： 4
GOOD traps are so good that in the social definition I would still classify them as girls. However you have to do a SERIOUSLY GOOD JOB (in both anime or in real life) for me to think that way. Likewise, reverse traps that are so good that they look like guys, I will classify them as guys and won't even consider them as moe.

●Blond hair with Green eyes(金髮碧眼) ：7
Yes I think that would work. :V

●Small body： 8
Overall, cuter than a big body. But highly dependent on hairstyle and personality. There have been times where I admire an older onee-san like character over a more loli-ish character because of character design and personality.

●Useless guy (ダメ男)：4
...Or girl? If it's something like a hikikomori girl then it signifies dependence on another, which may be cute. This sadly contradicts almost what I said with the "being look down upon" situation but I think that's mostly human nature. Maybe wanting to be depended upon is a trait naturally wanted?

●Old man/Ojisama(おじ様)：1
Mostly apathetic. Can be smart at times. Not really meant for a Moe ranking and should rather be (N/A). Old Women are not attractive however.

●Loli/Shota(ロリショタ ) ： 7
Falls under same category as Small Body. Except Shota is doubtful. Can be cute at times though.

●The Quiet Type (無口系): 7
A good personality to have. However, it must be *blush*/timid/shy quiet over no-emotion quiet. I am not a general fan of no-emotion quiet characters, even if they're meant for character development to have some. Also, I don't like quiet characters that wear glasses, its like it augments the un-moeness. :V

●Good job~!: 6
For symbolic interpretation I will classify those as the cheery, excited happy types (usually sporty too). Again its a personality trait that's dependent on character appearance and the type of cheeriness they possess. But generally optimism is a good thing, right?

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BTW Where is the mention of hairstyle?!? The only mention is like blond hair which is cool but doesn't talk about hair length... Hair length and style is quite important in moeness as the same character with long hair can be dramatically more cuter than a character with short hair. :V

FOR ADDING THE TOPICS:
LONG HAIR: 10
SHORT HAIR: 3

EDIT: Making a few edits.

Ramblings on a Cell Phone

I have some things I wrote up when I was bored/excited on my cell phone that I now think is just taking up memory, but I don't want to delete them without putting them for them to be forgotten forever. So I'll just post all of them in this blog post.


"Perfection can be described in the form of a graph; the x axis is effort, the y axis is achievement. For some, the graph is linear; for some, it is exponential, and others it is horizontal. For myself, it is logarithmic; perfection can never be obtained, but the more I try, the closer I can get to that horizontal asymptote."

"What's a worse feeling? Having something important to do, but not doing it and feeling guilty, or having nothing to do, but feel like you should have something to do and feeling guilty?"

"Mirror neurons and AI. If humanlike AI is to exist, we must learn to mimic mirror neurons. In other words, make a computer 'understand' other people. Perhaps it is easier to start with humans >> computers. Would it be better to remove mirror neurons, or improve super neurons. But first, there are other technicalities to worry about."

Pikachurin

Everyone should look at this even if you have no idea what I'm talking about. Which you probably don't.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-07-22/research-team-names-protein-after-pokemon-pikachu

A common, friendly and effective method of initiating conversation.

TheMysteriousBox (19:55:54): OMG ONLINE AGAIN
TheMysteriousBox (19:55:57): you're really slacking off.
ProfJbWolf II (19:56:23): HOW IS ME BEING HOME SLACKING OFF!?
TheMysteriousBox (19:56:30): you should be working!
ProfJbWolf II (19:56:31): Jesus Christ, I work night shift
TheMysteriousBox (19:56:38): oh you changed?
ProfJbWolf II (19:56:38): After fucking night shift and yous ay I'm slacking off!?
TheMysteriousBox (19:56:55): but you were online 5 times in a row! it was a miracle!
ProfJbWolf II (19:56:56): WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CHANGED I'VE ALWAYS HAD NIGHT SHIFT!
ProfJbWolf II (19:57:02): HOW iS THAT A MIRACLE!?
TheMysteriousBox (19:57:10): because before I'd never see you online!

Mach's Radio

He's letting me stream sometimes, so I'll provide random publicity. LISTEN

http://mach.dyndns.org:8000

ALICE CARROLL

THE GREATEST UNDINE IN AQUA. IT CANNOT BE DENIED.

What is this feeling! It is a "this anime episode was so worthy that I cannot dare soil my eyes with any other anime at the moment" feeling! Gah!!!

So btw did I ever mention that Aria is a great series. :V

AX2008 Pics

AX2008

ANIME EXPO 2008

ONCE AGAIN BULLET-POINT FORMAT OVERVIEW OF ANIME EXPO, ONLY THIS TIME WITH MORE DETAIL!!!!

-Epic Pre-Con Registration Adventure: Seeing how the years before waiting in line for registration has been seen almost as an event for AX in itself, it was critical that I had get the badges asap without waiting in line too long. Originally I had thought it was going to be easy but then I realized that the registration times on the day before AX (3-8PM) severely conflicted with my summer class times (4-7). It was a difficult decision but I decided to make a run for the con at the very last hour in hopes that the line wouldn't be too long by the time I get there and miss the chance for registration (my class and parent's house is like, a 30 minute drive without traffic to LACC). Luckily, there was no traffic.
However, it seemed that all of that was not necessary since registration was ridiculously organized this year and I got my badge (and my sister's) in less than 2 minutes. It was so surprising that even the volunteer organizers were confused. ("Sir, you can't just go the computers you have to wait in li--*checks, sees there's no line* eer, go ahead.") I was so dumbfounded that I felt it would be a waste to have come over here and only spend 5 minutes at the con then go back, so I decided to explore a bit and figure out where everything was.
Finding the Nokia theater took 3 times as long as getting registered.

-Parking: 12 dollars per entry, no re-entry. It almost seemed like I was paying for a hotel stay (with roommates of course) with just the damn parking cost alone. Probably, with all 4 days + reentry due to lunch + pre-registration, parking costed me about 84$.
...where has all my money for anime gone...
Well, at least they accepted ATM card. :V

-Thursday, Shokotan Panel: I woke up a bit late due to jet lag (11 AM) and had to turn in something to my school, then I went to the convention. Checked out console gaming room, didn't find anything that interested me, met up with high school friend, wandered around like idiots with nothing to do (because we really had nothing to do) until the Shokotan panel, which proved to be really interesting and funny.
Overall lesson: Shokotan is a fetishist.
The panel ran overtime, and since I had a class to catch at 4 PM I was a bit panicking by the time I ran out of the panel. Traffic, as expected, was terrible at the time and I ended up into class 30 minutes late. Oh well, being tardy was worth seeing Shokotan doing her famous Bruce Lee impressions. :V
I was thinking of coming back to the convention center but stupid 12 dollar parking + my sister was tired and wanted to go straight to my apartment convinced me the panel "Anime in China" was not worth it.

-Friday Morning- Mostly spent in line for tickets we could have gotten easily even if we didn't stay in line. I let my sister go browse the Artist Alley while I stayed in line watching people spam like 4chan on DS Picochat. Lines. The only time when DS Picochat is actually useful. Or used at all. After we got tickets we went to the exibit hall and bought random 5 dollar manga that we can read when we went to the concert

-Jyunkai/Yoko Ishida Concert- They had cool music videos before the concert started! So many recent anime music that I recognized! I thought that was cool. Anyway the concert was good and significantly LONGER than the other concerts at AX, which I thought was neat. The one thing I was disappionted in is that AX didn't let the idols use the entire stage (the stage curtains were closed all the time) however the music and presence of the idol was more than satisfactory. Yoko Ishida mostly did a 10 minute combined version of her previous concert, along with some random Para Para dancing songs of popular anime theme songs. Jyunkai sung the Fate/Stay Night ED of course and a bunch of other songs (mostly from Ah! My Goddess). Overall Jyunkai's voice is very melodic and "rich", so her music always seems deeply moving. I also think her sense of fashion is really good, even though she herself is pretty nice but not awesome, so to speak.
My sister also really liked Jyunkai. She is now a Jyunkai-fan. :V

-Afternoon crap: Ate Orochan Ramen for lunch because everything else was closed. Went to the exhibit hall afterwards. Tried to look for nekomimi headbands but we reasoned that all of them were way too expensive and ended up not buying any. So my sister's costume wasn't quite complete but its ok. I think.

-SWR: At one booth in the exhibit hall one of the vendors was playing against a CPU in SWR, so I asked him if I could play. He at first stated that he'd let me play but he wouldn't play me himself since he thinks he sucks, but then another girl came up (dressed up as Alice! :O) and said she wanted to play! So we started! And the first thing we found out is we have no idea what the controls were! I was already not used to using a controller so that in a way was already a handicap, but we spent two fail battles and a good amount of time in config trying to make our controls work. After getting the controls right, I used Alice to beat her Reimu. Alice-chan was beaten by Alice...There's something ironic about that :V Anyway, other people wanted to play so I let another guy play and etc etc etc exhibit hall closes and we were kicked out. But not before getting Alice (and Marisa) cosplay picture on my sister's small crappy cell phone (YES WE FORGOT A CAMERA ORZ).

-Evening?: We didn't have much to do until the Circus panel I had to attend so we decided to goto the manga cafe and read a couple manga. After reading a couple manga and freezing to death we decided to go outside and defrost. At that point some random (professional? he looks professional) photographer was like "OMG that's an awesome pose let me take a picture of you" to my sister. Then we ate lunchables and watched fireworks partially covered by a tent-parking lot and a few palm trees. Happy 4th of July everyone.

-Circus Panel: I didn't win anything. :( Oh, and Da Capo coming out in English for 80 bucks. wtf 80 bucks. :( But even more sadly I think I'll actually buy it this time. :( Yes I am a sad Da Capo Fan. :(

-Saturday Morning: Yes we waited in line for tickets again BUT BEFORE THAT WE WENT TO THE JYUNKAI PANEL. And watch people ask questions like "What do you look for in a boyfriend." Because every time someone asks that at a panel. EVERY TIME. Oh, and we wanted to look for Jyunkai CDs since we didn't get one after the Jyunkai concert (had to go eat, it was already 3 PM) but we could never find one at AX. Geneon somehow sponsored the concert but (afaik) they've been long dead and didn't have a booth so there was no music selling. Which is sad, I used to buy KOTOKO from the Geneon booth. D:
We never found another Jyunkai CD in all of AX and even at the local Kinokuya (sp?) bookstore in little tokyo.

-Shokotan Concert: One of the most wild and Japan-ish concerts in all of the history of AX. (Although KOTOKO still pwns because of the cell phone waving everyone eventually did during her concert) She sang a lot of songs both me and my sister knew, and even one that my sister knew (somehow she had it on her ipod) that I didn't. She likes to cosplay a lot and even did the haruhi dance, which for a while I thought was interesting since I thought that would be covered by some copyright stuff for another professional idol to do that, but then again she's good friends with Hirano Aya so probably not bad. Shokotan's fanbase is extremely scary. Also, I am convinced that the one idol singer in Gintama is based off of Shokotan and her extreme fanbase.
Sanddollarman wtf. :V

-More Afternoon Crap: After participating in the Great Exodus of Jaywalkers we went to eat curry. Then we went to the japanese bookstore right next door to check things out even though they have their own booth at the exhibit hall. And my sister couldnt' find a Jyunkai CD. So we went back and looked at pretty pictures at artist alley, then bought more stuff in the exhibit hall. Then we watched spoof videos of FF6 with FMA/Zetsubou Sensei/Ouran High School intros and autoplay mario thing with a bunch of songs which I watched before but my sister didn't so she thought it was cute. This was all at the SWR booth. :V

-More Evening?: Went to the karaoke room for 2 seconds before I left because I couldn't stand the music (they WEREN'T KARAOKING THEY WERE DOING ROCK BAND OR SOMETHING). Went to get a coat, then ate seaweed, lunchables, and really disgusting smoothie at the Yoko Ishida Panel. Then I left my sister next to the Manga Cafe for a while so I can goto an 18+ panel. Stupid restrictions -_-...

-JAST Panel: IwonanHgameinaraffle. :V

- Sunday: I came, I bought a gift for a normal art major friend that does not live in the US, then bought some random broccoli (manga) before watching the miniconcert at their booth. They sing good music and they sing for Da Capo, so it was fun. Then I came home and typed up this blog entry. Now I have to do my essay and crap.

-Team Duo- AX 2008's theme in my mind was the AX of twos. As in, from what I can see a lot of people hung out in parties of 2, me included (with my sister). Tony's girlfriend had come over from Alaska so that was the first major duo that I saw standing out (Tony spent all his time with her, of course). And then I felt that Joe and Yan spent a lot of time hanging out with each other imho... Alice seemed to be with Valerie a lot... Gary also had one of his friends to hang out with. Two is a lucky number? It's certainly convenient. Being alone is quite lonely and can make AX not fun, while having 3 or more people may start making people that are not used to socials rather uncomfortable.

-Was my sister cosplaying? Kind of. She was trying to base her dress off this random picture I found a long time ago (it's somewhere in one of my facebook album, the picture of a catgirl with purple hair kissing someone. Except that my sister didn't have the catears/tail, didn't have the purple hair and definately isn't kissing anyone.) Except her outfit and makeup made her kind of look gothic and she was kind of flustered by that, but I said it was ok since it was at AX and half the female population look gothic anyway, whether they actually are or just cosplaying.
Not that anyone would be interested in knowing, but I had a somewhat matching outfit with a black polo shirt that my sister/mom bought and said looked nice on me. :V and I wore slacks (as usual) with a Kagami hanging out of my pocket. Which, I thought, looked cool. What! I did!

...:V

Pictures to come when my sister takes them off her cell phone.

CHAAARRRGGEEEE

Just because I need a place to quotespam.

Thomas says:
ITS MIND GAMES
Thomas says:
AM I GOING TO CHARGE AT YOU
Thomas says:
OR AM I GOING TO SPEAR YOU
Akuun says:
uh
Akuun says:
you *always* charge
Thomas says:
... :(


This is referring to Alice in SWR btw.

Rental Magica

An excellent series that is fitting for a variety of genre, whether you're interested in fantasy, magic, or action. Indeed, this not-well-renowned series is given less credit than what it deserves, similar to other series I've mentioned before, like Yume Tsukai. The series has an extraordinary amount of depth and detail in it, so much that it may get confusing at first, trying to read all the subtitles and translator notes during the first few episodes of the series. But the series is not all detail, and there are some pretty heated battle scenes for those who just don't care and want to see fighting and action going on. I probably can't say it's one of the best in fantasy/action/romance/comedy/whatever genre, but it certainly has a little of all and best of all, it makes sense. The series combines a whole plethora of different forms of magic, ranging from the western traditional magics to the eastern shrine type rituals. I could almost say that it's just a very well constructed anime combining Harry Potter, Touhou, Code Geass, Pokemon, a random ghost and a random Ofuda (paper magic) user together... but that sounds rather terrible, the series is actually much better than a collection of those things put all together.
The artwork is quite nice and comfortable. It's not rediculously moe as some of the series I've watched but its also cute enough to be attracted to the characters and not deem the fanservice as "unneeded" (not that fanservice is needed, but it's not annoying at the very least). There is also a good amount of male characters so that the series won't be completely directed as a harem type series, a good method to introduce female watchers since many girls automatically reject harem anime no matter how good it may be (for a reasonable excuse, its not deemed "harem" for no reason). Regardless of the character content, the story is very nice and in depth therefore anyone who's always criticized shows for their plot and detail would like this series quite a bit, I think.

The ending song is very catchy, and the chorus part of the opening song is pretty cool too.
In terms of the negatives, well, for the first portions of the series the series goes out of order, which is always a nuisance to me. After watch Touka Gettan where the ENTIRE SERIES was backwards I was no longer appreciative of WHATEVER reason a series would go out of order, whether it's symbolic or just because the creators thought it would be funny. However the latter half had the series finally going in chronological order and that was much more enjoyable. Also, there is one scene that they continously flash back to, which is understandable since its part of the story but after flashing back to the scene 4 times it gets old and annoying and makes it feel like a waste of time. :( Come on we want to watching fighting magicians in action, not the same childhood memory 4 times!!

But yes despite that Rental Magica is a good series, would highly recommend watching it.

Indiana Jones, Kimikiss, Scarlet Weather Rhapsody

Two quick short writeups on my opinions on these two visual works.

Indiana Jones was fun to watch, as I had expected. Unfortunately its plot was quite weak and the romance portion was lame, but the point of the show was to have Indy be awesome and have some comedic moments once in a while (the romance helps with that, admittedly). So, it doesn't really matter that the plotline sucked. Still, it would have been nice if they were more coherent with these things. Additionally, sometimes the characters like Indy mumbled and I couldn't figure out what they were saying; that's a bit annoying too.
I would also like to comment on the feasibility of surviving an atomic bomb while staying in a refrigerator, but when consulting a physics major he said it was narrowly possible. And since narrowly possible always means Indiana Jones can do it, I accept it as feasible and not impossible, like some things that are shown in anime. Everything Indiana Jones does is almost impossible but because there's a low chance of success he succeeds. (That's what heroes do, they turn 0.01% success into 100% success!) It was cool though, surviving an atomic blast in a refrigerator. :V

Kimikiss Pure Rouge was a random typical high school romance anime I happened to pick up. Nothing in it stands out in a particular, in fact it could be said as the most normal high school romance anime I've ever found. The art design isn't even that great. But I was quite attracted to the character personalities in the anime, which I found much more realistic (and less emo) than many other characters in romance and high school anime. For the most part most of the characters did not have me crying in agony and for those that did, it was only for a short while before they shaped up and I was like "huh, pretty smart". Unlike some anime where the protagonist never learns throughout the entire series (or takes the entire series to learn). So, I thought the characters were pretty good.
I really liked the ending to the first season of the anime, for whatever reason.

NOW I SHALL BREAK FROM MY CONTINUOUS ANIME WATCHING TO DO A WEEKS WORTH OF PRACTICE IN SWR. This game is IMMENSELY confusing, even more so than IaMP was. The graze system is slightly different in that you can graze in more directions, and you have to let go of the graze key each time in order to change direction. Grazing and using projectiles is ranked by these little orb things, and if you forget to let go of the key you'll use up all your orbs and be powerless, which proves to be a huge inconvenience.
There is only ONE melee button (therefore ONE close range button) and two projectile buttons. This wouldn't have been a problem except that the former character I used in IaMP, Alice, always had A as her long range and B as her short range SO I GET SO CONFUSED and keep on using the wrong button when I want to use melee. D:
THERE IS AN AWESOME CARD SYSTEM but it's going to take a hell of a long time to get used to. It's almost as if the game is a card game + fighting game in one, in that you can build your own "deck" of spellcards that you draw and depending on your deck you can affect the outcome of your power moves.
There's also some weather system but I haven't seen too much about that yet. So far it doesn't affect me too much, but I'm sure it will eventually... I just have to figure out what button does what first, then I'll work on more of the specific nifty details of this game...

Hayate no Gotoku

40 EPISODES IN ABOUT TWO DAYS. EXCELLENT SERIES TO WASTE TIME ON. YES.


In terms of the quality of the series, it certainly qualifies as a comedy series. Similar to Lucky Star, it provides a whole plethora of anime and just general cultural references, so much that many people will probably miss most of them. (I myself am sure I've missed a ton of them) A lot of the time I figure they're pretty specific references, but there are even some references so common that people who haven't seen anything related to the reference would notice them (For example, I never saw the Matrix but the oh-so-cliche freezing gunfight was there for one scene or so). But nevertheless its amazing how much references they manage to put in, and that's part of what cracks me up. How can you not be amused at trap-Hayate dressed up as Belldandy claiming his name is Hermoine, then some other character making a crack joke asking if he can do magic afterwards? :V
It IS different from Lucky Star, however, in that you can't easily say "OH I CAN RELATE TO THAT" with this series. Obviously, since many people are not combat butlers that don't die even after many profuse injuries and does amazing superhuman stuff, its bound to be more of a nonsensical "haha funny but it will never happen in real life" type of anime. Nevertheless, very amusing. I'm sure my experience with the anime is only augmented because I recognize so much references that are noted throughout the anime, but I'm guessing it'll be a fairly adequate show to watch even if its just casual. If no one has anything else to do for an entire day but to watch anime. It's certainly good to have days like this, I tell you.
The character designs were not exactly KyoAni style, but were still pretty good. In many cases, the character personalities made the characters cute, especially since many of them were so intensely exaggerated. After watching the entire series, I'd have to say that honestly (as with most otakus I bet) Isumi the directionally impaired girl is of course the cutest, but certainly Nishisawa the food girl comes pretty close with her school outfit being more attractive than the one used at the school the main characters go to. Hinagaku also looks surprisingly moe in a Utena outfit, though her usual style sucks in terms of clothes. I am sort of wondering why Nishisawa knew Hinagaku and Wataru but then again asking the story for plot is probably a bit too much. (Although with both being commoners I think its not that out of the ordinary, and amazingly enough it leaves MORE chances for plot development for a second season. It's like Hayate can't end...):V
THE MUSIC: I'VE DOES THEIR MUSIC. KOTOKO DOES THE OP SONGS. ENOUGH SAID.

Lun Lun Lun~

H20: Footprints in the Sand

MY SUMMER ANIME SPLURGE HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN!!!

(I realize I should be writing about Clannad first since it was a great series and deserves to have a review written about it but I am lazy atm so JUST WATCH IT IF YOU HAVEN'T and suffice to say that it was so good it made me like a tsundere as my favorite character.)

SO what is H2O: Footprints in the Sand? It is, in a more rash term, another one of those visual novel-themed animes. However, despite some mediocrity and cliche themes and characters, it has its merits. While I personally think the character personalities are a bit too overused and, at times, unrealistic, the character designs and seemingly unique plot makes up for it. I like the plot so far in that it's fairly non-predictable by my standards, which is a big plus considering many of the characters display very cliche personalities and actions. I always enjoy a scene that I wasn't expecting more than one where I can literally say what the character is going to say next.
In terms of character, I mention that they are cliche but for this particular anime I like the main boy protagonist quite a bit. He starts off being blind and is suddenly able to see again, which is not a character trait you see very often; in addition, he's a soft-spoken, typical nice guy except he still has his cheekiness in him so he's not a sucker when stupid and funny events come to him. But most importantly, he doesn't seem to emo (at least not yet) and devote himself to too many characters at once. He's a nice guy to all girls, like every other male protagonist in this type of genre, but he really emits a "I'm just a friend" type feel, not a player that tries to go after every girl while somehow not realizing it.
While many of the characters are somewhat cliche in personality, the major reason I kept up with the series is I find it to have beautiful character designs. Not as good as KyoAni works, but attractive enough to make me want to continue the series even when characters say cheesey lines. The two blond hair girls in particular are so very cute, and the one with longer wavey hair is so cute it makes me feel sorry for all she has to go through even though she brought it on her self. :(

Oh and the music for this series is very nice. :D

H2O makes the series sound so scientific, when it obviously isn't. In fact, it has more religious themes than science. :V

Anime Downloads...?

http://zepy.momotato.com/2008/05/09/police-arrest-3-people-that-shared-anime-on-share/


Similar to what the guy said in the beginning, at first I thought this wouldn't matter much but after reading the article I'd have to say, "Interesting. Let's see what happens."

Magical Cell Plasma B-chan!

WARNING

THE FOLLOWING BLOG POST IS FOR SELF-STUDY PURPOSES ONLY. ANYONE ELSE READING THIS POST MAY SUFFER BOUTS OF "OMG WTF HAVE I JUST READ" AND "I FEEL LIKE SUCH A GEEK NOW".

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

After much contemplation on how the immune system and all its complexity can be "moefied" I finally figured out a perfect representation of the immune system, placed into a simple magical girl scenario. After all, you have the bad guys and you have the heroes, what better situation can they be in? Sure we can have mech and sentai (I think that's what it was? transforming superheroes) but you know those two aren't very moe. :( Therefore Magical Girl seems to fit the theme quite well.

The Introduction

A young middle school girl named Bee. Her full name is Rinpakyuu Bee (From what I could get, Rinpakyuu is japanese for "lymphocyte") and lives in a fairly normal and peaceful world that is seemingly without danger. She has orange, semi-long hair that is only slightly wavey at the beginning but curls inwards it gets lengthier. She has small white ribbons which tie around the left side of her bangs. Her schhol outfit is generally a bright cheerful yellow with a white skirt and a red bow in the center. Her eyes are large, deep brown, and give off a sort of shy, silent-girl type appearance. In fact, she IS mostly a shy, silent girl that doesn't talk a lot even amongst friends and is frequently a victim of blushing to the slightest thing embarassing. Nevertheless she is very friendly and always is willing to help out any way she can.
MAIN CHARACTER DESCRIPTION ASIDE (which has NOTHING to do with immunology but EVERYTHING to do with moeness) one day Bee-chan, while walking home from school, had to make a detour due to construction. She didn't think too much of it, since it seems like it would only lengthen her trip home by a short amount, but what she encountered drastically changed the rest of her life...
It was then she had seen, for the first time, an "Infection". There were small, sphericallike objects everywhere that emitted a field of negative energy around the area. The spherical objects attached themselves to other beings and began sucking the life force out of those within proximity. Then, after they had obtained enough energy, they divided, and multiplied... each new division latching onto a host, whether it be the same host as before or a new one, to absorb more life energy and continue dividing. Naturally, Bee-chan was terrified and didn't know what to do. Slowly, she backed away and tried to run, but saw that they had multiplied so much in the short time she was staring that they had surrounded her. They slowly began to enclose her when...
There was a glow of energy within her. Three colors glowed from the center of her chest. She didn't know what was going on, but slowly, she began to feel less terrified and more calm, letting the new, mysterious energy take over her. One of the spherical objects lunged but Bee-chan merely caught it within her hands and, through some process she did not know, absorbed and disintegrated the creature. At that point all the spherical objects stopped advancing towards her, as if they had sensed a powerful force being released...
"Kitaaaaaaa!!" From the air emerged a new figure, her loud voice snapping Bee-chan back into consciousness. Frantically she moved aside from the new arriving individual, who crashed straight into the floor beside her. Slowly, she got up; she was a person about the same height and age as she was, only with an unusual outfit that had what appeared to be dragonfly wings on the back of her, as if she were some sort of faerie. The girl looked at her.
"So, you're the one huh?"
"???" Bee-chan looked at her with confusion and anxiety. The girl sighed.
"An immature one, you must be. Sigh, those are always hard to deal with at first, lack of exposure and all." She turned, brushed herself, then smiled. "Hiya, just call me T-chan! I'm going to be your Helper from now on!"
Bee-chan looked on, still confused. "Helper?"
Before T-chan could explain, there negative energy force suddenly felt stronger and more powerful than before. They looked around and found that they were now completely engulfed within the spherical monsters...
"Ah, these cocci are multiplying like mad... Here I'll explain later, let's first clean this place up! Here, hold out your MHC."
"...my what?" But before she can understand what was going on, she involuntarily held out her hand, which began emitting a bright yellow glow. In the center of her hand appeared to be a piece of the cocci that had previously attacked her.
"Excellent. TCR to MHC response--" T-chan held out her hand and clasped it with Bee-chan's hand-- "Cytokine Release--" Many bright and sparkly starlike objects bursted out of T-chan and began swirling around the two girls "--ACTIVATION!!"
Transformation Scene. First the obligatory nakedness where here clothes and ribbon disappear. Her hair lengthens until it reaches her hips, then splits into two and braids themselves automatically, until she has two very long braids hanging down the back of her head. The hair then changes its color from orange to light blue. She is given a purple outfit that looks something like a dress with accessories like ribbons and Y shaped clips, five of the clips being aligned perfectly at the rim of her dress (which extends just below her knee) in a ring shaped manner. then gloves and shoes appear and finally she opens her eyes, which have now changed color to a more firey type orange and... she makes some pose. Which is not too cheesey but not just standing there either. Use your imagination.
A second after realize she has transformed, she panicks frantically not knowing what in the world had just happened to her. T-chan, however, knows exactly what to do.
"Oi, just listen to me, here! Just repeat everything I say and you'll do fine!"
"Huh??? Oh... uh okay!" Bee-chan stammered.
"So you're in your M-mode, perfect! First off, Antibody Dispersion!!"
"Antibody Dispersion!!" Immediately a wide array of rings flew out of Bee-chan and began sticking to the cocci surrounding them. The cocci seemed to make some moaning noise as if they were in pain.
"Agglutinate!!" T-chan shouted.
"AGGLUTINAAATEEE!!" Bee-chan repeated. The cocci were then pulled together, away from the many hosts they were sucking from, into one very large sphere of cocci, held together tightly by the objects Bee-chan had dispersed earlier.
"Now, finally... Complement System..."
"Complement System..."
"INITIATE!!!"
"INITIATE!!!"
Suddenly as if they were appearing out of nowhere, objects of varying sizes and sorts began clumping onto the cocci. When a number of them had accumulated on top of one, the cocci would burst and disintegrate.
"There, the Membrane Attack Complex should finish them off..."
Indeed within a short while, the explosions accumulated exponentially until the whole large sphere of cocci seemed to explode at once, emitting a bright light and... after the light faded, everything returned to normal.

Except for the rest of Bee-chan's life, of course.


THE CAST

Bee-Chan and T-chan were pretty much introduced in the introduction. Consequently Bee-chan in her magical girl phase is a plasma cell, while in her dormant phase she is (now) a memory cell.

T-chan has a twin brother called T-kun. T-kun (representing a cytotoxic T cell) is not a helper and actually goes and kills hosts which have been infected. Bee-chan was not very happy when she first found out about T-kun's job, but realizes soon afterwards that it was a necessary thing he has to do.
T-chan and T-kun's actual names (and the names they use when they are in "human" form) is Tomoyo and Tomoya.

There is another "lead handsome guy" character that comes in that represents all forms of phagocytes in general. He helps Bee-chan fight off the evil microbes that come and invade their planet. He initially starts out with one form, the "Neutrophil" form, which is a general form for killing microbes. He gains more forms later ("Eosinophil", "Basophil", "Natural Killer"), each suited differently depending on who he is fighting. For example, "Natural Killer" form helps out T-kun in tough times where there are many infected hosts, while "Basophil" form helps close off an area in the city (to prevent further people from accidentally coming in) and creates a generally more "heated" environment which slows down the microbe invasion.

Bee-chan has several forms as well. The forms are known as "Class M", "Class A", "Class E", "Class D", and "Class G". Similar to the previous character mentioned, each class varies in power and effectiveness depending on who Bee-chan is fighting and where she is. For example Class A would be more effective in sea-type battles since Class A allows her to be more movable in water, while Class E helps against very large opponents (ones that would, in this world, rank at about the size of a skyscraper). Her most powerful form is Class G.
Oh, and each time she is in a new class, she has a different outfit as well.

OTHER MISC

Many of her adventures start off simple enough, just to introduce the characters and letting Bee-chan adapt to her new lifestyle. However, things get tricky fast when she has to combat various organisms with basis off of viruses and parasitic eukaryotes. Her opponents get tougher and tougher when she encounters those who can become resistant to some of her antibodies, those who can "cloak", and those who incapacitate T-chan using toxic shock and HIV infections. However ultimately in the end she finds that she must combat what seems like herself, after suffering through a molecular mimicry battle and inducing an autoimmune disorder (ie. possibly emo phase)... will she make it through?

EXTRA

There would probably be doujin of Bee-chan and Monoclonal Antibodies. Those damn tumor cells. :V

OH MY GRANDMA

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-05-01/right-stuf-licenses-all-three-aria-tv-seasons-and-video

DEKAI SUGOI!!!

MOEMONS?!?

because my blog has lately been full of emo and stupid self-talk that many people wouldn't care about and much less read about, I now present to you something that people still won't care about but at least is remarkably more amusing: MOEMON

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FEZG8h6MQo


AND THE DANGO MOEMON SONG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCKE6-u-kZc

Scholarships and Idleness

One of the most remarkably irking qualities humans sometimes have is the fact that they feel like they have nothing to do when there is obviously something to do. I on many occasions have reprimanded people on this yet I feel extremely frustrated that it has happened many times to myself as well, classifying me well as a hypocrite for telling others to fight against idleness when it's happening to me every so often. Most recently there had been a troubled feeling about how I seemed to have nothing to do, even though I did have things to do and they were planned out accordingly so I didn't have too much work to do. But just today it had turned out that I had forgotten something incredibly important, something that wasn't even that difficult to do had I thought of it earlier, and that was turning in scholarship applications.
It had occurred to me when a fellow undergraduate working in my lab had said she got accepted to a scholarship and I congradulated her. But then I realized that I had forgotten all about scholarships since the last time I sent applications in, which was last semester. This was an incredible fault on my behalf since many of my applications can simply be copied and given in as a new application. But this time I forgot, and a lot of potential was lost immediately. This is an immensely grave mistake, yet also a very good lesson to myself how foolish and immature I had been. I had thought that I had all things planned out, but in reality I was only looking at things inside school, taking less into account my labwork (since I had less proposals to write about) and other administrative issues. I had thought that in terms of administrative issues I had been fairly on top of things, scheduling my classes very early and getting all the stuff done with my advisors as soon as possible. But obviously that proved to be wrong.
Regardless about how much I distress about it, I can't do anything about it now. I have to learn from my mistakes and make sure they don't happen ever again (or at least happen less often), therefore I will be sure to get all things dealt with, even if they are many months ahead of time. If I don't have the deadline for something yet, I will make a preliminary deadline to check when the time comes that there should be a deadline, even if I need my cell phone to remind me.
I will hope this won't happen again, because the feeling of failure, though needed, is never comfortable.

Morbidity.

Generally I should be doing my lab report which is what I had planned, but due to my illness I'm going to delay that. One may be wondering why I can't do my lab report if I'm here writing in my blog, but due to previous experience (for example, this afternoon) I found that when I'm doing academic work which usually requires thinking, I'll be exerting a lot of energy and this severely degrades my condition when I'm sick. If I do something that doesn't require that much thinking and is just relaxing (maybe like watch Aria, if I had Aria on this computer...) I don't think it will stress me out as much which would be significantly better so I can recover from my condition faster.

On a positive note I didn't procrastinate on my lab report and have most of it (I think) finished. I'm just worried I won't have as much time to double check over it before I have to turn it in.

In regards to anime, I completely finished Clannad in one weekend. This requires a blog writeup since it was obviously good, but that will have to come later because that also requires quite a bit of thinking and energy exertion. Someone remind me to do that later. And to also put up a writeup on the ONE visual novel too.

I have a strange suspicion that my illnesses and my microbiology class are conspiring together. A few weeks ago when our teacher started talking about Viruses I had an outbreak of Herpes virus, which I hadn't had for a while. (Herpes virus is a latent virus that comes back every so often in a person who has it, for those who don't know, use wiki) And now when my teacher is starting her lecture on pathogens and immunology, I get sick again. Which I can complain is unfair because I was only sick 3 months ago (and I think its the exact same illness too, a common cold -_-;; ) but on top of that I get allergies and the lovely Santa Ana winds coming by to make me feel more miserable than I already am. Well, on the positive side I don't have a fever.

Yet. >.> <.<

MUSIC QUIZ THINGY

With help from ChikoSai because as sad as it sounds I have no idea what 3/4ths of the titles on my playlist mean. Probably the reason why I never did it earlier.


RULES:
1. Put Your iTunes, Windows Media Player, ETC on Shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
4. Put any comments in brackets after the song name.
5. Put this on your journal.

1. If someone says, "Is this okay?" You say?

Kimi ga Matteiru Kara
(I'm still here waiting for you)
[Gackt]
If anything probably just waiting for someone to finish so we can leave already.

2. How would you describe yourself?

Hitorigoto
(Monologue)
[KOTOKO]
...uh, I'll interpret this as being somewhat of a loner. Which is partly true.

3. What do you like in a girl?

Duran Shoukan
(Summoning of Duran)
[Kajiura Yuki, Mai Hime OST]
...ok... the most farfetched interpretation I can think of this is tsundere which is WRONG... well maybe not quite but certainly not Duran.


4. How do you feel today?

Monochrome Sekai
(Monochrome World)
[Shimotsuki Haruka]
I don't see the world in gray! ...Do I? ...It's cloudy today.


5. What is your life's purpose?

Rhythm Emotion
[Endless Waltz]

Not quite. In a most farfetched idea it could signify adding a sort of stability to complex human behavior which could possibly signify the desire to overcome one's faults to become someone greater. Or that I live for techno.
I think its the former.

6. What is your motto?

Snow Angel
[KOTOKO]
HAHAHA THIS MAKES NO SENSE BUT IT'S ENTERTAINING.

7. What do your friends think of you?

Heart Warm
[Spiral OST]
ROTFL.

8. What do you think of your parents?

Kimi yo, Utsukushii Kaze ni Nare
(Feeling the beautiful wind with you)
[KOTOKO]
Well, we DO go on vacations a lot. Possibly symbolic about the enjoyment of spending time with my family.

9. What do you think about very often?

Last Song
[Gackt]
Because its better than the current song.


10. What is 2 + 2?

Happy Material
[Various Artists, Negima anime]
...at least its school related? Happy math?


11. What do you think of your best friend?

Michishirube
(Guidance? or something like that)
[Yuumao]
Umm... well I don't have one type of best friend anyway so... I guess I'm a good guider? or I get guided by my friend? I think the former would apply more.


12. What do you think of the person you like?

Kagerou
(Dragonfly, or Heat Haze)
[Various Artists]
:V Heat maybe more appropriate. Analogy for "hot?" I don't like "hot" girls though...


13. What is your life story?

Can you feel crying alone?
[tiaraway]
That sounds remarkably emo.


14. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Neat Sister
[Rozen Maiden OST]
...WHAT.

15. What do you think of when you see the person you like?

Ashi Ato
(Footprints)
[KOTOKO]
Because the foot is the most attractive part of the body. For more symbolic meaning, Footprints are like imprints in the sand which can interpret to having fond fading memories which would mean I would think she'd be memorable.

16. What will you dance to at your wedding?

Chiisana Shiawase
( A Small Happiness)
[Kajiura Yuki, Mai Hime OST]
Not a bad song actually, for a wedding.


17. What will they play at your funeral?

Fusion Star
[KOTOKO]
An excellent way to end my life. Like the Big bang, only opposite.

18. What is your hobby/interest?

Yamiyo no Prologue
(Prologue to a Dark Night)
[Kajiura Yuki]
I am secretly a dark and evil person. Actually, some people may agree with this.

19. What is your biggest fear?

Hua Duo Kai Hao Le
(The flowers have finished blooming)
[S.H.E.]
Symbolic of the end of life? Or the end of the "blooming" period of life, aka getting old. Not a bad fear to have.


20. What is your biggest secret?

Solitary
[Gackt]
...I don't think its that big of a secret that I'm sort of a loner.


21. What do you think of your friends?


Kirameki no Kanata he
(That Sparkle on the other side)
[Miyu Matsuki]
Awwww... how cute... Sounds very Aria-ish.