The Blog of Xbolt

Neon Genesis Evangelion. NGE. A BIG name in anime. It began airing in 1995, so it is an older show. It went on to win several animation awards, and was highly influential to later animes.

NGE is also famous for being a highly controversial show. You either love it, or you hate it. Personally, I side more with the latter. For my tastes, it was just too… WEIRD. Haruhi was weird, but NGE takes it to new levels. The ending especially so.

For the first 24 episodes, it tells the story of giant robots called Evangelions, who defend the world from Angels, which are some form of alien creature. Shinji Ikari is the pilot of Evangelion Unit 01, and is the son of Gendo Ikari, who heads up NERV, the organization who creates the Eva units. Gradually, you learn more about what NERV does, and what the Evas are, but you never get an answer to the ultimate question: “JUST WHAT IN THE HECK HAPPENED HERE?!” A lot of people, myself included, were left screaming that question after the two final episodes. I was expecting some epic conclusion after the build-up of the first 24 episodes, but then you get some bizarre psychological thing happening entirely in the character’s minds.

So! The creators made End of Evangelion, which is an alternate ending to the series. Or, depending on your interpretation, it is the ‘real-world’ events during the end, rather than what’s going through the character’s minds. But even this left me with a ‘What the heck?’ stance.

And that concludes my thoughts on the series. Is it an overrated show? In my opinion, yes. But maybe some of you reading this will enjoy it, and that’s fine. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

AMV-Evangelion Mentos Commercial

Mentos are especially good when you drink Diet Coke while you’re eating them.

WE’VE ENTERED AN ENDLESS RECURSION OF TIME

Wareware wa onaji jikan wo, eien to loop shiteru no desu yo.

This was kind of a mini-meme on the CQFF. For a day. Then it stopped.

Live on, Whaleware! Someday you will return to us! And it will be awesome!

The title ‘K-ON!’ is derived from the Japanese word for light music, keiongaku. The story revolves around four girls who form a light music club upon entering high school. They dream of performing at the Budokan, a very famous concert hall in Tokyo.

Yui Hirasawa is a very shy girl, who is not very athletic, and doesn’t have any hobbies. She joins the club, thinking since it has ‘light’ in the name, all she’ll have to do is easy things. Like whistling. Or castanets. The other members however, think she’s an excellent guitar player. But as it turns out, she has no idea how to play the guitar at all. But after some encouragement by the other members, she gradually learns the instrument. She also learns to sing very well.

Ritsu Tainaka is the president of the club, and plays the drums. She is cheerful, and often likes to make jokes, sarcastic mostly. She is very forgetful though, and has trouble remembering important club activities and announcements, as well as forgetting to turn in important club forms. She is a childhood friend of Mio, whom she teases at any and all opportunities.

Mio Akiyama is the bass player, the lead vocalist, as well as the writer of all the lyrics to the group’s songs. (Though, the lyrics are usually rather odd. Where else are you going to find a song called ‘Light and Fluffy Time’?) She originally intended to join the literary club, but was forced into the light music club by Ritsu. She can be mature and strict at times, trying to get the group to practice instead of goofing off, but she is easily embarrassed. A fact not lost on her friend Ritsu. She handles gross things very badly, always cowering in a corner when something gross is brought up.

Tsumugi Kotobuki, nicknamed ‘Mugi’, plays the keyboard. She is a very wealthy girl, with a gentle personality. Her father is president of a company, and her family owns several summer homes around Japan, where the band goes for ‘training camps’. She always brings an assortment of pastries and sweets to the club room, where she makes tea with a set she keeps there.

Despite being a very non-organized group, the band manages to make good music. At one of their live performances, they even inspired another girl to join the club. My favorite of their songs is ‘My Love is a Stapler’, a duet by Mio and Yui.

My Love is a Stapler

And that’s all folks.

In the 80’s

I WANT THEIR TIME MACHINE.

お誕生日おめでとうミク！

That’s right, on this day, two years ago, Hatsune Miku was first released.

So, happy birthday Miku! May you gain even more popularity before your third birthday!

WOOHOOO!! Garbagemennnn…Innn….SPAAACE!!!

And there you have the basic setting for Planetes, brought to you courtesy of Nip, Tuck, and Thelma.

The year is 2075. It has been over a century since mankind first ventured out into space, and in that time, we have established permanent bases on the Moon, and we have set foot on Mars. Unfortunately, we have also created a lot of trash out there. Broken satellites, spent rockets, lost tools, all of that. This is extremely hazardous to spaceflight, as a piece the size of a bolt traveling thousands of miles an hour can cripple an entire spacecraft. This is what debris haulers are for. They clean up in order to make space safe to travel in.

Technologically, the show is incredible. Not since 2001 have I seen a show that painted a realistic picture of spaceflight. (Thankfully, Planetes doesn’t have any Mysterious Alien Black Boxes of Doom in it.) In Planetes, it is stated that a planned mission to Jupiter will take seven years. Sorry, Star Wars. You can’t just go zipping halfway across the galaxy in a couple hours. In addition, exterior shots of the spacecraft are silent. You can’t hear the engines firing. Heck, you can’t even hear it when two objects crash into each other! As someone who likes science, this impressed me greatly.

Storyline-wise, the show isn’t too bad either. It tells the story of the Debris Section of Technora Corporation. Overworked and underpaid, the Debris Section nevertheless works hard to keep space safe.

Hachirota Hoshino is one of the guys who does the EVA work when collecting debris. His nickname is Hachimaki, or Hachi, because he always wears one. (A hachimaki is a type of headband, worn as a symbol of perseverance or effort by the wearer.) He is loud and brash, and has difficulty expressing himself adequately.

Ai Tanabe is the newest member of the team, and she learns the ropes from everyone else, especially Hachimaki. She is bright and earnest, yet mostly unsure of herself. She is willing to do almost anything to help others.

Fee Carmichael is the pilot of the debris-collecting ship, the Toy Box. She is even more loud and brash than Hachi, and can get violent when others get on her nerves. She is a heavy smoker, which leads to trouble, since smoking is a strain on life support systems. She has to go into designated smoking rooms, and will fly into a fit of rage if they are out of order for an extended period…

Yuri Mihairokov is calm, kind, and compassionate, and often acts as the most level-headed member of the group. He is in charge of taking care of the animals that live on ISPV 7, the space station the Debris Section operates from.

Philippe Myers is the manager of the Debris Section. He is overweight and jolly, and is near retirement, but something always happens to stop that…

Arvind Ravi is the assistant manager. He is a bit of a trickster, and a prop comedian, which he enjoys very much.

Edelgard Rivera is a temporary worker, and she is in charge of secretarial and clerical duties. She always has a quiet and professional demeanor.

Despite it being awesome, Planetes is not nearly as well-known as it should be. So I’m doing my part to spread the word. Unfortunately, this also means that I couldn’t find any really good silly videos to put here. So what to do? How about real-life shots of the Earth from space, set to music from Planetes?

The earth seen from space + PLANETES

A good compromise, in my opinion.

TF2: Blast Assist

So beautiful… The sounds of the Crockets are like music…

In what is one of the most epic pieces of news in the history of news:

Black★Rock Shooter is to receive its own anime.

For those who don’t know, B★RS is an original character created by huke. Ryo, the guy who wrote Love is War, made a song based on the character, using Miku as the voice. This became very, very popular, and was the sixth Miku song to reach 2,000,000 views on NicoVideo, the YouTube of Japan.

I am sure that Chibi Miku will be very happy with this news. As for me, I am just about jumping out of my chair with excitement. Spring 2010 can’t come soon enough.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is… different than I was expecting. At first glance, I thought it was going to be some high school drama kind of thing. But what do I find upon watching it? A quasi-science fiction story! I totally did not expect that.

The story follows Haruhi Suzumiya, a first-year high school girl with a strange fascination of aliens, time travelers, and all that stuff. Her introduction to her class went as follows, and I quote: “I have no interest in ordinary humans. If there are any aliens, beings from the future, or super-humans, come see me. That is all!”

She joins every club in the school, only to leave again before the day is out. None of the clubs hold any appeal for her, and so she decides to form her own club: the Spreading Excitement all Over the World with Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade. But that name was too long to fit on the form, so it was shortened to the SOS Brigade. She then abducts others into the club:

Kyon really had no idea what he was getting himself into. He can be very observant and quite intelligent, despite getting average grades. He often intervenes when Haruhi behaves particularly erratic, usually without the aid of the other members of the club, who passively follow Haruhi’s orders.

Yuki Nagato is a quiet girl, and is the only member that willingly joined the Brigade, as opposed to being ‘voluntarily arrested’. She was originally a member of the Literary Club, whose other members were all seniors, and consequently graduated, leaving Yuki the sole member of the club. When the Brigade took over the room, Yuki came with it. Yuki prefers simple body language rather than speaking, and when she does speak, it is always in a monotone with a dispassionate expression. She thinks very rationally, has a huge intellect, and enjoys reading. In most of her appearances, she is reading a book. I think she’s my favorite character in the series. It’s hard to find a person who is more like Mr. Spock than Mr. Spock, if you know what I mean.

Mikuru Asahina is very shy, and easily embarrassed. Easy prey for Haruhi, who makes her do embarrassing things. She makes very good tea, and is often praised by Kyon. She starred in The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina, a film produced by the Brigade for the school festival. (It had production values somewhere in the vicinity of The Hobbit. Possibly worse.)

Itsuki Koizumi is the fifth member of the Brigade. He is constantly smiling, and speaks in a formal and polite manner. He was recruited by Haruhi as the stock ‘mysterious transfer student’ character. He seems to agree with every one of Haruhi’s demands or actions, no matter how ridiculous it is.

Something else to note about the series, is that the episodes were initially broadcast ‘out of order’. Meaning, they were not broadcast chronologically. Initially, this is a bit confusing, but it begins to make sense after you watch more of the series. People new to the series, should watch it in this order, referred to as the ‘Kyon order’. After you’ve watched it once, you can go back and watch it again in chronological order, or the ‘Haruhi order’.

I don’t want to say too much about the plot, as it should be left to be unraveled by the viewer. I will say though, that it is weird.

As for your funny video of the week…

Haruhi Does The Mario

It’s random. And therefore awesome.

Lucky☆Star Dance with Loituma’s music!!

Sheesh, is there anything this song CAN’T do? Finnish, Japanese, and now Russian?

And you get the Lucky Star Dance as an added bonus.