After six straight weeks of something to do with Valve, I thought I would post something different for a change. A cool Touhou remix for your listening pleasure.
It’s summer. Which means it’s prime time for the Sunflower Youkai, Yuka Kazami. Who also happens to be my fourth-favorite Touhou character. (And hey. With a cast of characters as large as the Touhou crowd, that’s really good!)
Hayabusa the Falcon -Welcome Back Version-
For those who don’t know, Hayabusa was a spacecraft launched in 2003 by the JAXA. (Hayabusa means Peregrine Falcon.) Its mission was to travel to the nearby asteroid Itokawa, and bring back some samples of material. This would be the first time that we got our hands on some fresh asteroid dirt.
Hayabusa reached Itokawa in 2005. Upon reaching the asteroid, poor Hayabusa had problem, after problem, after problem… Engine failures, fuel leaks, <<TRANSMISSION LOST>>… On April 25, 2007, the spacecraft began limping back to Earth. More engine failures made the return uncertain. But it still trudged on, and finally arrived back home on June 13, ending the seven-year mission in a spectacular victory candescence.
Welcome home, Hayabusa. You did well.
The original version of the song was written in the last leg of the return journey, and of course this one was when Hayabusa finally landed. While I like the original version more, this remix is very nice. Epic songs, to go with the epicness of space and space voyages.
Present day, heh… Present time! HAHAHAHAHAH-
When I started watching Serial Experiments Lain, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I only barely glimpsed at the overview before starting. (I actually picked this one up because the name just sounds cool, and so is the cover art.)
From the cover art, I thought this might be a horror anime. “Boo haha”, that kind of thing. I was very, very wrong.
While not horrifying in the sense I was thinking of, Lain definitely is very, very disturbing. Lain is both psychological and philosophical, much like the infamous final two episodes of NGE. But Lain is much better than those. It’s still a nightmare for your brain to process all the information that is presented, but I think with a second viewing, I would be able to understand it a lot more. But I’m going to wait at least a couple months to let my brain cool down before I do that. Or maybe I shouldn’t have watched it all in one day. Watch one, then think about what happened for a day, then watch the next one… Yeah, that would have been a better approach. Oh well.
Anyway, yeah. Lain is disturbing. The atmosphere presented in the show is… Hmm… I’m having trouble coming up with suitable adjectives to describe it, besides just disturbing… The word “suffocating” comes to mind. The colors seem washed out, as if somebody turned up the contrast very high. The sound and music is very minimal, often simply the electricity humming in the Wires, or the empty clacking of a keyboard. And those shadows… Brrr…
If you want an anime where you don’t have to think too hard, Lain is not for you. If you want an uplifting, happy story that’s fun, Lain is not for you. If you want a bleak, confusing anime dealing with issues around technology and human consciousness, Lain is for you. Even so, I really did like Lain.
“Mad World” – Serial Experiments Lain AMV
Unlike a lot of AMVs out there, this song fits with the anime. Rather well, I might add.
Forget the YTT video I put up this morning. This is much more important.
So yeah. Our first Portal 2 trailer! Looks spiffy, and GLaDOS is awesome as always.
And the “surprise” is that Portal 2 is coming out on the PS3. Bah, some surprise. I really could not possibly care less. I guess that’s cool for PS3 owners, though. But still. I was hoping for something more interesting after all that hype about the surprise.
United States of Hudda Hudda Huh
HUDDA HUDDA HUH!
Team Fortress 2 Now available on OS X
lolno. Not really. But you’d think it was, reading the TF2 forums…
Anyway, so TF2 is now on the Mac. And this video contains lots of cool little hints. (maybe?) See if you can find them.
And no, the shotgun is too obvious. You get no points if you point it out.
Pretty good week this week. There were a lot of new songs that I liked.
WEDH dropped to #2. It was replaced by a new CosMo song. But as opposed to the last one, this one is actually pretty interesting. So that’s ok.
Recall how I said that FMP! was funny because Sousuke was so totally socially inept, and found a terrorist threat in everything?
Fumoffu turns that up to 11.
Whether it’s blowing up a suspicious love letter in a shoe locker, booby trapping boxes of bread rolls, or stopping trouble in a bear suit, Sousuke always brings lots of fun to everyone’s day.
Kaname is still unamused.
A couple new characters were introduced, Issei Tsubaki, the leader of the karate club, and Atsunobu Hayashimizu, president of the student council. I really like the President, because he considers Sousuke’s actions to be a reasonable response to the given situations.
If you’re looking for the action of the original, you’re going to be disappointed. But if you’re looking for lulz, Fumoffu is for you.
The scariest two seconds. Ever.
Uh oh.
Wow… I missed putting a video up yesterday. Guess I’m getting lazy while I’m off for the summer…
So since I’m late, I had to post something to do with Valve, who just announced that Portal 2 will be delayed until 2011. :(
As of this minute, I am 20 years old.
…
Wow.
…
I’m officially no longer a teenager.
…
I DON’T WANNA BE OLD! D: