The Blog of Xbolt

Chloe

In case you didn’t know, this was Lily’s release week.

She’s not Gumi, but this song is not bad. Not bad at all.

Paranoia Agent starts out like your typical detective story: A series of attacks by a mysterious assailant, known only as “Shounen Bat”. As Bat-Boy beats up more people with his golden bat, then rollerblades away from the scene, two detectives are on the case.

And then, the story takes a turn for the weird. Somewhere in the NGE direction on the compass. The plot lost me a few times, but I think I finally got a grip on it by the final episode… I guess? Yeah, well, maybe I did. I admit though, the final episode was pretty cool…

I can’t get into character descriptions, as that would ruin the whole show. The story depends on you learning the characters as you go along.

So, if you don’t mind having your mind bent as much as Bat-Boy’s bat, Paranoia Agent could be in your alley. Do not watch this if you are susceptible to headaches.

Paranoia Agent – Our sick, mad world

This song was in my video for Serial Experiments Lain… Why use the same song twice? Well… It really does fit with these bizarre (mad) stories–in its own way.

The Homework Never Ends!

It’s also Back-to-School-Time^TM :(

But that cannot stop us from our celebratory actions on this day. Carry on.

Happy Birthday to Hatsune Miku

Someone’s birthday is today. You have three guesses as to whose it is. And the first two don’t count.

Anyway, the traditional birthday celebratory actions still apply. If you need me, I will be in my room, with a pair of headphones on.

【第5回MMD杯本選】光響戦隊カナデンジャー(TVサイズ)【KAITOオリジナル】

Is it really time for the MMD Cup again? My, how time flies.

Also: lol XD

In the near future, the Internet has grown into a huge virtual world called the World of OZ. In OZ, users create avatars to represent themselves, and do stuff. Shop, game, etc. Companies and governments have also set up shop in OZ, so it is connected to much of the world’s infrastructure, for ease of access for the people who work in those areas.

Kenji Koiso is a high school math genius. Natsuki Shinohara is a girl, who asked him to come over to her house to help set up the celebrations for her grandmother’s 90th birthday. While there, he receives a text message containing a long string of numbers. He solves it, and sends his reply. The following day, systems all over the world go haywire.

And that’s the basic story of Summer Wars.

Summer Wars was directed by Mamoru Hosoda, who had previously directed The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. You can’t really make comparisons between the two, as they are very different. (Art style aside. That looks similar.)

The characters are all really fun. There’s a lot of people over for Grandma’s birthday, and they all have their own unique personalities. They don’t get a lot of character development, though; it’s only the main characters who do that.

Was it good? You bet. Of course, I’m biased towards things involving the Internet, but that aside, it still was a great movie.

Summer Wars Trailer

Nothing to do with the trailer, but I just thought I’d say that their Koi Koi is more epic than yours. ;)

Purple Rain United: Alice’s Unbelievable Assault

Under normal circumstances, I loathe rap music. But every once in a while, something cool cuts through all the junk. (Mostly parodies of the genre, now that I think about it.)

And it helps that the PV is visually interesting. DJ P-Knowledge is awesome.

This video has been around for about a month, but someone’s finally translated it. So now I know what they’re rapping about.

Whaleware has been mentioned on what looks like a German Haruhi fanblog.

Whaleware is now officially an international phenomenon. Whoa.

(A Google translation, so you can see (sorta) what they’re saying.)

Aitai

Another example of Gumi being the best-sounding of all the Vocaloids.

This song was number one this week. Mozaik Role had a resurgence, and it went up to number two. So Gumi held both of the top two places. It appears the world is finally coming around to realize the truth. Gumi > Miku.

Incidentally, third place was held by… Haku? That was a surprise.

Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem is a visual representation of Daft Punk’s album, Discovery.

If you don’t know about Daft Punk, they are a French electronic music duo. They are responsible for “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”, which you have already heard, provided you know your Internets. They were also hired to do the soundtrack for the new Tron movie coming out in December.

So, being a fan of electronic music, and Daft Punk being kings in the world of electronic music, it would be a crime for me to not watch this movie.

Interstella 5555 tells the story of a popular alien band, that is kidnapped by an evil record company executive in order to make his label the biggest. Their memories are erased, their skin color changed, and they become “The Crescendolls”, Earth’s newest pop stars. Meanwhile, Shep, a fan of theirs from their home planet, sets out to rescue them.

The visuals are top-notch. The music obviously is as well. There’s no spoken dialogue in the film, and minimal sound effects. The music carries the whole thing. Despite that, the characters come across amazingly well. When was the last time you cared about characters in an MTV music video, huh?

Is Interstella 5555 cool? You bet it is.

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Embedding disabled by request

Though my favorite part of the movie is Veridis Quo, that’s real late in the movie, and as such, it wouldn’t be my style to post it. So here’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.