So, this week is a big ending week for anime in regards to the spring 2010 season. I just finished the mid review for Giant Killing and am now set to give a review of the comedy slice of life, Working!! After this, as in within a couple days will be the review for the comedy gag style Arakawa Under the Bridge.
Working!! is a comedy anime that follows a 16 year old guy, Takanashi Sota, and his encounters with a new part time job working at a cafe called Wagnaria. He is recruited by a small senpai or upperclassman, from here on I will use senpai partially because it is shorter and I am lazy like that, named Taneshima Popura or Poplar, like the tree. As the anime continues, we meet a host of interesting characters from a waitress that carries a katana and shows lesbian tendencies, nothing major, to a violent, red haired androphobe (one who fears men). Needless to say, this is a heavily character driven anime that has close to no plot. However there is plot continuity and should be watched in order as each episode links to the next in some way.
Personally, I really liked this anime. There was a lot of humor and I found each of the characters and their respective quirks quite likable. There is no real objectionable content except a couple of strange innuendos that are easy to overlook. As a comedy anime, there is also a good amount of romance and a bunch of really odd situations. For example, the main character crossdresses in not one but two episodes. While I am not into that, the comedic effect of it was quite powerful and fit the plot perfectly. Along the lines of music, the OP is typical of this type of anime, high energy with a bit of a high pitch voice. Perhaps a bit better than some of the other OPs in this genre, I personally do not listen to the OP/ED very carefully unless I like them. As for the actual soundtrack, it is largely unimposing yet a good blend and just plain feels right to the anime which is always a good thing.
Overall, if you are looking for a good laugh, this is a pretty good choice. If comedy is not your thing but you like embarrassing dramas and love stories, this will fit the bill pretty well. Otherwise you might want to stay away. Perhaps this anime is in the world of otaku and not your thing, but it was funny and I am hoping for a second season. If you watch, you will probably understand why since the end leaves a lot to be explored. In any case, I am putting this right towards the top of my list of the best of spring 2010 with a few of the other animes not yet reviewed yet. Next up is Arakawa Under the Bridge, another comedy but completely different in style. After that the summer 2010 season kicks into full gear so expect first episode reviews. After that and all other reviews are done, expect more randomness and a storm of strange articles, complete with my own brand of either criticism or disbelief.
Overall: 9/10
Amongst comedy anime: 9/10
*Note: you get pictures too - link
I found myself too lazy to mash them together so you get that instead
--CsMiREK
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Spring 2010 Midterm Review: Giant Killing
So, in a couple of days the summer 2010 anime season will get into action but before that I still have a few reviews to finish. This post is on the soccer anime Giant Killing. While I do not usually enjoy or watch sports anime in general, Giant Killing was among my favorite anime of the season. The basic story is about a failing professional soccer group called East Tokyo United or ETU for short that has been consistently doing badly for past seasons. To this end they try to employ Takeshi Tatsumi, a former star player of ETU, who has been in England managing a small town's soccer club. He manages to raise that small town's soccer club to be a formidable team and as such his former team tries to recruit him again as manager/coach to the ailing ETU. Rife with problems, he comes to ETU and immediately kicks up a storm, changing the major lineup and in doing so, dividing the team. In this way, the show deals with more than just the team members but also touches on things like the managing and coaching of the team and player to player interaction.
At the end of the 13th episode, the most current episode to date, ETU wins its first game of the season and the show seems to really get itself into gear. It seems unclear how long this anime will last but it seems to have gotten off to a good start at a good time, in sync with the World Cup. As a sports anime I have to say that I am impressed as the anime does not have ridiculous players and the main focus is not a single person. While Tatsumi is a very central character, other characters are fleshed out and explored almost more so than Tatsumi. I find it a good thing that it can be hard sometimes to tell that Tatsumi is a main character and feel that for this particular anime, this is perfect. Along with good things there are always bad. The art is a bit strange and perhaps old school, think triangle noses, and the animation could be better for a sports anime. The music is often nonexistent or so lacking in strength that it does not add to the power of the individual scenes. I also did not personally enjoy the OP/ED very much but they were not terrible. However, if those are what hold you back, that is not really a good reason.
Overall I thought that Giant Killing was a good, strong anime this season and if you like soccer a pretty decent watch. Next up, probably later today or tomorrow, is the comedy, slice of life anime Working!! followed by Arakawa Under the Bridge. Durarara!! is being delayed since I have not finished watching it yet.
Overall: 8.5/10
Amongst sports anime: 9/10
*Note: Giant Killing can be streamed legally from crunchyroll.com
--CsMiREK
At the end of the 13th episode, the most current episode to date, ETU wins its first game of the season and the show seems to really get itself into gear. It seems unclear how long this anime will last but it seems to have gotten off to a good start at a good time, in sync with the World Cup. As a sports anime I have to say that I am impressed as the anime does not have ridiculous players and the main focus is not a single person. While Tatsumi is a very central character, other characters are fleshed out and explored almost more so than Tatsumi. I find it a good thing that it can be hard sometimes to tell that Tatsumi is a main character and feel that for this particular anime, this is perfect. Along with good things there are always bad. The art is a bit strange and perhaps old school, think triangle noses, and the animation could be better for a sports anime. The music is often nonexistent or so lacking in strength that it does not add to the power of the individual scenes. I also did not personally enjoy the OP/ED very much but they were not terrible. However, if those are what hold you back, that is not really a good reason.
Overall I thought that Giant Killing was a good, strong anime this season and if you like soccer a pretty decent watch. Next up, probably later today or tomorrow, is the comedy, slice of life anime Working!! followed by Arakawa Under the Bridge. Durarara!! is being delayed since I have not finished watching it yet.
Overall: 8.5/10
Amongst sports anime: 9/10
*Note: Giant Killing can be streamed legally from crunchyroll.com
--CsMiREK
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Weekly Discovery: week 3
So, it's been a month since I started this blog and if I'm correct there are probably only 10 or so people who actually read it. I would be lying if I said I don't want more people reading but I do realize that the internet is a very, very large place and there is an astronomically low percent chance of this blog ever becoming widespread. In any case, this particular post is on the next artist of the doujin gothic scene from Japan, Asriel. Asriel is a duo consisting of Kurose K who is the composer and does some of the backgrounds while Kokomi is the vocalist. Out of the three I'm talking about, Asriel is likely the most well known due to them having done the OP to the anime Monochrome Factor and the ED to the anime 11eyes. While this is true, I won't say that they are the best out of the three since that's up to you to choose. Regardless of that, here's a crossfade from 18 different tracks.
Asriel - xfade
I apologize for the sound quality as some of the tracks were quieter than others, when I tried to amplify some of the tracks I accidentally caused some clipping and caused some problems. A word of warning, Kokomi's vocals are really strange. They fit really well with the type of music but tend to be oddly pitched and quite on the really sharp and high side. That said, enjoy the crossfade and look forward to the last in this group, Rokugen Alice next week. Also, here is their website: http://asriel.jp/ Next post is a mid anime review of the soccer anime, Giant Killing.
--CsMiREK
Asriel - xfade
I apologize for the sound quality as some of the tracks were quieter than others, when I tried to amplify some of the tracks I accidentally caused some clipping and caused some problems. A word of warning, Kokomi's vocals are really strange. They fit really well with the type of music but tend to be oddly pitched and quite on the really sharp and high side. That said, enjoy the crossfade and look forward to the last in this group, Rokugen Alice next week. Also, here is their website: http://asriel.jp/ Next post is a mid anime review of the soccer anime, Giant Killing.
--CsMiREK
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Spring 2010 Review: Angel Beats!
Onto the third review of the spring 2010 season, Angel Beats! is an anime produced by Key, the company best known for such anime as Air, Kanon, and Clannad. However, unlike those titles Angel Beats! is not a romance and is not based off of a game. The main genre here is actually action if you can believe that. Along with that we have themes like the afterlife and school life.
A brief synopsis would likely go something like this: Otonashi Yuzuru wakes up in a strange world and pretty much the first thing he does is die. He is told that this is a form of afterlife and that the people here are people who died with troubles in their lives. There's gunfights and magical powers and all sorts of weirdness as Otonashi slowly gets accustomed to this new life and the strange people around him.
While not the most amazing action anime, it's not a terrible anime overall. There is some pretty decent music, some pretty good animation as you might expect of something produced by Key, and a pretty good plot, if not always apparent. The characters are interesting and their interactions even more so. You get a nice and complete ending that also leaves a sense of "huh? there's more?", which I feel is perfect for this anime in particular. The pace was pretty good, with little dragging and yet not overly squished like Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao. It might be a bit rough getting through the first couple of episodes due to the "what am I watching" factor, but after that it becomes pretty good so I say it's worth a watch, especially since it was one of the only real action animes of the season.
As stated earlier, the music was decent, there are a couple of interesting vocals throughout but besides that, the music is not particularly memorable, to me at least. The OP and ED are both pretty good and are probably towards the top end for this season. As an interesting fact, the break at the middle of the anime plays a concert A, 440Hz or so, as the tone. Besides that I have one picture from episode 12 that I just had to point out because it reminded me of something.
So, the character in the picture is Yuri, the second character you meet and as you can tell by the gun, this is an action anime. However, the computers in the background remind me of a much older anime, Serial Experiments Lain. It's a good anime that is heavily thought provoking, to that end watch at your own discretion. Angel Beats! is nothing like that, but I felt that I'd like to point it out. Anyways, Angel Beats! was a pretty decent anime and next up is...Durarara!! I think, I got behind so maybe a different anime will be next.
Overall: 7/10
Amongst Action Anime: 6/10
--CsMiREK
A brief synopsis would likely go something like this: Otonashi Yuzuru wakes up in a strange world and pretty much the first thing he does is die. He is told that this is a form of afterlife and that the people here are people who died with troubles in their lives. There's gunfights and magical powers and all sorts of weirdness as Otonashi slowly gets accustomed to this new life and the strange people around him.
While not the most amazing action anime, it's not a terrible anime overall. There is some pretty decent music, some pretty good animation as you might expect of something produced by Key, and a pretty good plot, if not always apparent. The characters are interesting and their interactions even more so. You get a nice and complete ending that also leaves a sense of "huh? there's more?", which I feel is perfect for this anime in particular. The pace was pretty good, with little dragging and yet not overly squished like Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao. It might be a bit rough getting through the first couple of episodes due to the "what am I watching" factor, but after that it becomes pretty good so I say it's worth a watch, especially since it was one of the only real action animes of the season.
As stated earlier, the music was decent, there are a couple of interesting vocals throughout but besides that, the music is not particularly memorable, to me at least. The OP and ED are both pretty good and are probably towards the top end for this season. As an interesting fact, the break at the middle of the anime plays a concert A, 440Hz or so, as the tone. Besides that I have one picture from episode 12 that I just had to point out because it reminded me of something.
Overall: 7/10
Amongst Action Anime: 6/10
--CsMiREK
Thursday, June 24, 2010
PP, FfT, PoI, or ToI?
So, here's another post because I like getting things off my chest all at once? Regardless, along with WDs and pointless rantings, I'd like to have some more variety to the types of posts I have and thus I have been pondering the name of the new section. Do I go with "Personal Points" (PP), "Food for Thought" (FfT), "Points of Interest" (PoI), or "Things of Interest" (ToI)?
I suppose I should give some reasons for each one now. PP reminds me of pokemon for reasons quite obvious as well as Microsoft PowerPoint, both things are quite good I suppose. FfT reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics, a good game to be sure, but also Fast-Fourier Transform of which I do not have fond memories, enough so that I won't even give a link to explain it. In addition, food for thought is a cheat in the original Starcraft but is often a phrase used much too often. PoI looks...pretty bad but isn't a bad title as long as I don't shorten it. ToI reminds me of "Tales of Interest", something seen from the American cartoon, Futurama. This is a good place to be, however I'm still unsure of which to use. To that end, I will think it over and if you feel inclined to, leave a comment or email and help me decide or help me come up with something I didn't think of at all.
Anyways, onto the actual post since well...that was just a jumble of words without a real meaning. As you'll soon find out, I periodically scour through the Yahoo! odd news and some other news sites for really random and enlightening things. However, for this I'd like to share an article from BBC about grumpiness. I really hope you clicked the link as the rest of this post relies on it. No matter whether you think my writing is good or bad, you should know that I am usually on the grumpy end of the spectrum. For what reason is hard to explain but I feel that this article is a pretty interesting and thought provoking thing. To all you happy-go-lucky, optimistic, sunny day type people, you're not thinking clearly. Stop being so happy, it's not useful. Perhaps that's a bit harsh but personally people who're too happy really...irk me. Anyways, that's all for this post and look forward to more really strange articles in the future.
--CsMiREK
I suppose I should give some reasons for each one now. PP reminds me of pokemon for reasons quite obvious as well as Microsoft PowerPoint, both things are quite good I suppose. FfT reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics, a good game to be sure, but also Fast-Fourier Transform of which I do not have fond memories, enough so that I won't even give a link to explain it. In addition, food for thought is a cheat in the original Starcraft but is often a phrase used much too often. PoI looks...pretty bad but isn't a bad title as long as I don't shorten it. ToI reminds me of "Tales of Interest", something seen from the American cartoon, Futurama. This is a good place to be, however I'm still unsure of which to use. To that end, I will think it over and if you feel inclined to, leave a comment or email and help me decide or help me come up with something I didn't think of at all.
Anyways, onto the actual post since well...that was just a jumble of words without a real meaning. As you'll soon find out, I periodically scour through the Yahoo! odd news and some other news sites for really random and enlightening things. However, for this I'd like to share an article from BBC about grumpiness. I really hope you clicked the link as the rest of this post relies on it. No matter whether you think my writing is good or bad, you should know that I am usually on the grumpy end of the spectrum. For what reason is hard to explain but I feel that this article is a pretty interesting and thought provoking thing. To all you happy-go-lucky, optimistic, sunny day type people, you're not thinking clearly. Stop being so happy, it's not useful. Perhaps that's a bit harsh but personally people who're too happy really...irk me. Anyways, that's all for this post and look forward to more really strange articles in the future.
--CsMiREK
Spring 2010 Midterm review - Kaicho wa Maid-Sama
Time for the next anime review of spring 2010. First however I'd like to say that RAINBOW is being removed from my list because I'm too lazy to finish watching it now that it's 26 episodes long. In its place I will be giving a review of Durarara!!, sometimes shortened to DRRR, from the winter season that is concluding at the end of the spring season. This review is on Kaicho wa Maid-Sama and is a review of the first 12 episodes out of 26.
Kaicho wa Maid-Sama is a shoujo romance anime centering around the student council president of Seika high school. When translated, the title is pretty much "The Student Council president is a maid" so I guess that sums up much of the anime's premise. The main charater, Misaki Ayuzawa, is pretty much your standard tsundere tough girl type character who, in her position, is fighting for the safety and welfare of female students in the predominantly male Seika high school. She also has a secret side job at a maid cafe which prompts the title. On the other side is her male counter, Usui Takumi, who remains a mystery and static force of confusion and mixed emotions from Misaki.
While not a breathtaking anime by any means or one with a crazy outlandish set of plot twists or much originality at all really, I still would say that Kaicho wa Maid-Sama is a pretty decent anime, especially in its genre. Misaki is far from weak, yet constantly shows a softer side in each episode. The relation and comedy drawn from Usui's particular behavior is also somewhat refreshing, although again far from original. The romance itself is better than most as well, partially drawing from a good cast of voice actors in relation to the characters.
Regarding music, I would say that it is decent. Not a marvelous score by any means, but not terrible. Another interesting thing is the use of classical music, namely Bach, inside the musical score in a light and proper fashion. I definitely won't be placing this as one of my favorites of the season but it is worth a proper watching I think, especially if you're into the genre. Next up is the anime Angel Beats! from Key, the producers of animes like Kanon and Clannad. Look forward to the review in a couple of days. Also, as a side note, expect reviews to be longer and more in depth starting summer season since I kinda just jumped into this without thinking about it...like a lot of things.
Overall: 7/10
Amongst Shoujo Romance animes: 8.5/10
*Note: This anime is up for streaming, but it's not free so...I'm not gonna bother. You're better off finding subs elsewhere...illegal but free, tough choice ain't it?
--CsMiREK
Kaicho wa Maid-Sama is a shoujo romance anime centering around the student council president of Seika high school. When translated, the title is pretty much "The Student Council president is a maid" so I guess that sums up much of the anime's premise. The main charater, Misaki Ayuzawa, is pretty much your standard tsundere tough girl type character who, in her position, is fighting for the safety and welfare of female students in the predominantly male Seika high school. She also has a secret side job at a maid cafe which prompts the title. On the other side is her male counter, Usui Takumi, who remains a mystery and static force of confusion and mixed emotions from Misaki.
While not a breathtaking anime by any means or one with a crazy outlandish set of plot twists or much originality at all really, I still would say that Kaicho wa Maid-Sama is a pretty decent anime, especially in its genre. Misaki is far from weak, yet constantly shows a softer side in each episode. The relation and comedy drawn from Usui's particular behavior is also somewhat refreshing, although again far from original. The romance itself is better than most as well, partially drawing from a good cast of voice actors in relation to the characters.
Regarding music, I would say that it is decent. Not a marvelous score by any means, but not terrible. Another interesting thing is the use of classical music, namely Bach, inside the musical score in a light and proper fashion. I definitely won't be placing this as one of my favorites of the season but it is worth a proper watching I think, especially if you're into the genre. Next up is the anime Angel Beats! from Key, the producers of animes like Kanon and Clannad. Look forward to the review in a couple of days. Also, as a side note, expect reviews to be longer and more in depth starting summer season since I kinda just jumped into this without thinking about it...like a lot of things.
Overall: 7/10
Amongst Shoujo Romance animes: 8.5/10
*Note: This anime is up for streaming, but it's not free so...I'm not gonna bother. You're better off finding subs elsewhere...illegal but free, tough choice ain't it?
--CsMiREK
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Weekly Discovery: week 2 pt2
Here is the second post of the day on the group MiddleIsland. To my understanding they started as a piano group and added vocals along with other instruments later on. The vocals tend to change from track to track since they, like many other doujin groups barring Asriel, collaborate with each other to make their albums. That said, the main vocalist has an incredibly "powerful" voice and is pretty distinct, especially in conjunction with the background music. In addition, they make incredibly heavy use of guitar but also don't shy away from instrumental tracks full of powerful string sound. While perhaps not rated quite as high as Asriel and Rokugen Alice in my books, they are without a doubt an interesting group that at least deserves a listening. With that I will give you my crossfade made from 8 different tracks of theirs from multiple albums. As I'm still getting used to crossfading and all that, it's not all too great, but at least it's longer than the last one. Next up is likely going to be a mid-anime review of Kaicho wa Maid Sama or some sort of rant.
MiddleIsland-xFade
This is their site with crossfades of most of their albums: http://www.middleisland.net/
Note: While I don't endorse illegal downloading in general since having CDs is nice, these tracks are pretty difficult to find/get so if you want me to "direct" you, send an email or whatnot and I "might" place you in the right direction.
--CsMiREK
MiddleIsland-xFade
This is their site with crossfades of most of their albums: http://www.middleisland.net/
Note: While I don't endorse illegal downloading in general since having CDs is nice, these tracks are pretty difficult to find/get so if you want me to "direct" you, send an email or whatnot and I "might" place you in the right direction.
--CsMiREK
Weekly Discovery: week 2 pt1
This week's WD is again a music related one but this time we go from France to Japan, where most of the music related WDs are likely to live. First however, I'd like to make some changes to my original post season review plan. Since a few of the shows I am watching have been extended to full 25-26 episode long status or longer, I'll be doing a few more mid-anime reviews. The anime in question are Giant Killing, K-ON!!, and RAINBOW so look forward to those really soon, most likely next week. Anyways, back to the WD.
More than tackling a single artist/composer for the next few WDs I'd like to talk about a genre of music that I enjoy a little bit, maybe a bit too much? This genre happens to be gothic metal/rock. Now I don't mean to say by any means I'm that kind of person. The thought of teen guys in all black and jeans much too skinny for them perturbs me greatly goes for teen girls too. However, when it comes to music, I'm open to many, many things. While the US has gothic bands, I'm generally not too interested however, some of the music I've found around the internet coming from Japan intrigues me.
In particular, I will be talking about 3 groups MiddleIsland, Asriel, and Rokugen Alice. I will also be talking about them in order in 3 different posts. The MiddleIsland post itself comes after this post since I don't like incredibly long posts and this one is more background than anything. So for background, all 3 groups are labeled as 'doujin' groups. This means that they are pretty much indie groups in Japan although Asriel has been becoming more mainstream lately with a couple of OP/EDs of anime. The major events for these types of groups are Comiket held bi-annually in summer and winter, M3 a music convention held bi-annually in spring and fall, and Reiteisai which is a special convention held in the spring for a specific game (Touhou games) and fan-made things including music. Of these, the most famous is definitely Comiket but I won't go into detail as there are quite a few questionable things to say about it.
Back to the music style, I would call it best as gothic metal/rock or symphonic metal/rock. All 3 groups make heavy use of various string instruments, pianos, and guitar. The vocalists are all a bit different, especially when compared to American music standards but that's something you'll find out quickly enough. So without any more delay, the MiddleIsland post.
--CsMiREK
More than tackling a single artist/composer for the next few WDs I'd like to talk about a genre of music that I enjoy a little bit, maybe a bit too much? This genre happens to be gothic metal/rock. Now I don't mean to say by any means I'm that kind of person. The thought of teen guys in all black and jeans much too skinny for them perturbs me greatly goes for teen girls too. However, when it comes to music, I'm open to many, many things. While the US has gothic bands, I'm generally not too interested however, some of the music I've found around the internet coming from Japan intrigues me.
In particular, I will be talking about 3 groups MiddleIsland, Asriel, and Rokugen Alice. I will also be talking about them in order in 3 different posts. The MiddleIsland post itself comes after this post since I don't like incredibly long posts and this one is more background than anything. So for background, all 3 groups are labeled as 'doujin' groups. This means that they are pretty much indie groups in Japan although Asriel has been becoming more mainstream lately with a couple of OP/EDs of anime. The major events for these types of groups are Comiket held bi-annually in summer and winter, M3 a music convention held bi-annually in spring and fall, and Reiteisai which is a special convention held in the spring for a specific game (Touhou games) and fan-made things including music. Of these, the most famous is definitely Comiket but I won't go into detail as there are quite a few questionable things to say about it.
Back to the music style, I would call it best as gothic metal/rock or symphonic metal/rock. All 3 groups make heavy use of various string instruments, pianos, and guitar. The vocalists are all a bit different, especially when compared to American music standards but that's something you'll find out quickly enough. So without any more delay, the MiddleIsland post.
--CsMiREK
First Review of Spring 2010: Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao
So, with just a couple weeks until the summer anime season starts, I'm reviewing all the anime I've kept up with this past season. First up is Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao. The genre for the anime in question is without a doubt harem. There are 5 girls yet the anime is surprisingly not romance focused.
Since this is the first review, I will be explaining my setup for all of my reviews. They will start with an intro stating the genre and some interesting qualities that make the anime stand out, if it does. Next will be a super brief synopsis with as few spoilers as possible, in case you actually do choose to watch the anime in question. After that will be a bit about my impressions in relation to other anime and a section on the OP/ED if they're notable. I will end with a section on music if I thought it was good and give the final overall score in relation to the anime as a whole and in relation to other animes in its genre, at least in my opinion. If I found any pictures of particular interest, they'll be placed at the end. With that, I will begin this review for real.
Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao is a harem manga whose main character is Sai Akuto. He wants to be a priest, or something to that effect and so enrolls in a magic academy in wherever this anime takes place. He comes to class and is immediately labeled "demon lord" and the entire school erupts into chaos. Blah blah blah, he meets girl after girl as they somehow fall in love with him and there is a climactic battle at the end of the anime.
While most harem animes end up as trash, eg. Sekirei (manga is better in my opinion), To-Love-Ru (manga is better in my opinion again), along with a whole host of others, Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao does stand out in its genre. For one, the main character isn't a complete wimp which is always a plus. On the other hand, I felt that the ending was seriously rushed and that the anime should have deserved a full 24-26 episode term. The beginning was definitely much better than the end as the anime tried to shove a lot of plot into the last 4 episodes which caused a lot of confusion, at least on my part. However, there are other pluses, namely the main character gets a kickass dragon in the middle of the anime who he ends up riding into battle with at the end of the anime. Special note, the three characters that are part of the student council minus the president are totally ripoffs from the anime/manga Princess Resurrection, if you've seen that.
As far as the OP/ED go, they are pretty solid but not great, much like the actual anime. While not amazing, it's really hard to say that the anime was terrible either so here are my final scores, maybe I will go more in depth next season. In the end, you could do much much worse although it is important to note that the anime does have a lot of fanservice with panty shots and the sort. Expect more pictures next season since I just started this and was not expecting to do post season reviews. Next up is a mid-anime review of Kaicho wa Maid Sama. Expect it in a few days along with a WD sometime soon before or after.
Overall: 5.5/10
Amongst Harem Animes: 8/10
*Note: You can stream this anime legally from crunchyroll.com (has some weird censoring but it's legal)
--CsMiREK
Since this is the first review, I will be explaining my setup for all of my reviews. They will start with an intro stating the genre and some interesting qualities that make the anime stand out, if it does. Next will be a super brief synopsis with as few spoilers as possible, in case you actually do choose to watch the anime in question. After that will be a bit about my impressions in relation to other anime and a section on the OP/ED if they're notable. I will end with a section on music if I thought it was good and give the final overall score in relation to the anime as a whole and in relation to other animes in its genre, at least in my opinion. If I found any pictures of particular interest, they'll be placed at the end. With that, I will begin this review for real.
Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao is a harem manga whose main character is Sai Akuto. He wants to be a priest, or something to that effect and so enrolls in a magic academy in wherever this anime takes place. He comes to class and is immediately labeled "demon lord" and the entire school erupts into chaos. Blah blah blah, he meets girl after girl as they somehow fall in love with him and there is a climactic battle at the end of the anime.
While most harem animes end up as trash, eg. Sekirei (manga is better in my opinion), To-Love-Ru (manga is better in my opinion again), along with a whole host of others, Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao does stand out in its genre. For one, the main character isn't a complete wimp which is always a plus. On the other hand, I felt that the ending was seriously rushed and that the anime should have deserved a full 24-26 episode term. The beginning was definitely much better than the end as the anime tried to shove a lot of plot into the last 4 episodes which caused a lot of confusion, at least on my part. However, there are other pluses, namely the main character gets a kickass dragon in the middle of the anime who he ends up riding into battle with at the end of the anime. Special note, the three characters that are part of the student council minus the president are totally ripoffs from the anime/manga Princess Resurrection, if you've seen that.
As far as the OP/ED go, they are pretty solid but not great, much like the actual anime. While not amazing, it's really hard to say that the anime was terrible either so here are my final scores, maybe I will go more in depth next season. In the end, you could do much much worse although it is important to note that the anime does have a lot of fanservice with panty shots and the sort. Expect more pictures next season since I just started this and was not expecting to do post season reviews. Next up is a mid-anime review of Kaicho wa Maid Sama. Expect it in a few days along with a WD sometime soon before or after.
Overall: 5.5/10
Amongst Harem Animes: 8/10
*Note: You can stream this anime legally from crunchyroll.com (has some weird censoring but it's legal)
--CsMiREK
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Double posting, endless ranting
Well, I feel a bit bored, so here's another post. Given my writing style, it must seem like I like to rant a lot, and I do. Therefore, it should be quite obvious that I should have posts devoted solely to ranting about pointless things. Thus my motivation for this post. So the question to be answered is: "what will I rant about?" Will it be ranting about ranting as this seems to be...perhaps that might be fun. Ranting about ranting it is. As you can tell, I don't think particularly hard while writing these posts, maybe because I like typing exactly what my mind is thinking; I'm not really sure. So onto ranting about ranting.
My personal belief is that the media likes to rant incessantly about things that while they should be ranting about, are blown quite out of proportions. I don't understand how people like Glenn Beck, who are pretty much talking balls of ego, become popular and make it on the air. Even sadder is that the second thing that pops up after typing the letters "gl" into google is Glenn Beck, right after glee apparently. Now I have listened to Glenn Beck talk and my reaction is that he is really annoying. Words said strongly are not equivalent to powerful words. On another, slightly unrelated note, I would like to say that I am pro-choice because well...it's easy to say that you are pro-life when you don't have anything to lose from it. Since this is a touchy subject to some people I will merely say this: with life comes death. My thoughts are that those who seriously wish to go through with an abortion will and that this debate is a pointless waste of people's efforts as they push beliefs that are rather trivial in a day to day sense onto others. Anyways, back to media over-ranting. I'd like to say that cookie monster has not betrayed his creed and life's work. However, I'd be lying if I said that I believe that. Although with a bit of looking around, it's pretty clear that the media definitely blew his eating of vegetables out of proportion. I am a bit sad about that but this media explosion has proved to be pretty funny. As long as I know that cookie monster hasn't abandoned himself, I think the generation I'm a part of will be ok. Anyways, some interesting depictions of cookie monster are good for you, the first two are really unrelated but quite funny: here, here, here, and here. I'm happy that cookie monster is trying to teach moderation but am sad from his almost seeming betrayal. Anyways, I think I've got everything I wanted to say out so I'm done for the day. Next post is my first spring 2010 review, or it should be at least.
--CsMiREK
My personal belief is that the media likes to rant incessantly about things that while they should be ranting about, are blown quite out of proportions. I don't understand how people like Glenn Beck, who are pretty much talking balls of ego, become popular and make it on the air. Even sadder is that the second thing that pops up after typing the letters "gl" into google is Glenn Beck, right after glee apparently. Now I have listened to Glenn Beck talk and my reaction is that he is really annoying. Words said strongly are not equivalent to powerful words. On another, slightly unrelated note, I would like to say that I am pro-choice because well...it's easy to say that you are pro-life when you don't have anything to lose from it. Since this is a touchy subject to some people I will merely say this: with life comes death. My thoughts are that those who seriously wish to go through with an abortion will and that this debate is a pointless waste of people's efforts as they push beliefs that are rather trivial in a day to day sense onto others. Anyways, back to media over-ranting. I'd like to say that cookie monster has not betrayed his creed and life's work. However, I'd be lying if I said that I believe that. Although with a bit of looking around, it's pretty clear that the media definitely blew his eating of vegetables out of proportion. I am a bit sad about that but this media explosion has proved to be pretty funny. As long as I know that cookie monster hasn't abandoned himself, I think the generation I'm a part of will be ok. Anyways, some interesting depictions of cookie monster are good for you, the first two are really unrelated but quite funny: here, here, here, and here. I'm happy that cookie monster is trying to teach moderation but am sad from his almost seeming betrayal. Anyways, I think I've got everything I wanted to say out so I'm done for the day. Next post is my first spring 2010 review, or it should be at least.
--CsMiREK
On shopping
Well, I've been in Hong Kong for about a month now and so I feel that it is prudent to say this: Hong Kong has a lot of places to shop. For a place smaller than the smallest US state, there are more places to shop than you might think. It's hard to say that Hong Kong is a country when there aren't any real cities or towns inside it. It would be better described as a region where people live, divided into different districts. Anyways, enough of the pointless talk, onto shopping in Hong Kong.
While I personally do not enjoy shopping all that much, there is a lot to see and even more to potentially buy. The sheer range of different stores is a bit staggering when considering the size of the area. Some of the MTR stations have their own malls attached to them, complete with places to eat and simply walk around. While perhaps not true, it seems that just as frequently as you see 7-Elevens, you also see shopping malls. However, what I've said isn't very specific so I'll move down the ladder a bit.
From where I've been, I have seen 3 pretty big shopping districts. If you plan on coming to Hong Kong, these are probably pretty good places to go. The first is Sham Shui Po. Sham Shui Po is a really big electronics district so the streets are just lined with shops selling things like phones and small electronics. There are also malls that just sell computer related things, from hard drives to speakers to mice and keyboards and computer related books. Next is Mong Kok. Mong Kok is part of the Kowloon district and is one of the most densely packed places I have ever been. People walk in the streets and there are so many shops lining the streets that it's overwhelming. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that it is literally a shopping district for just shopping. There is for example a street simply for shoes, every single shop minus a couple of food shops are dedicated to selling shoes. While I'm not interested in shoes, even I was awed by simply how many different shoes they had lining the streets. For more information on the different stores and streets in Mong Kok, here is a link. Yea, I know that it isn't hard to search for it on wikipedia, but now you don't have to so that's one fewer thing for you to do.
The last district I'll be focusing on is Tsim Sha Tsui. Tsim Sha Tsui is a port city and thus is a huge tourist attraction. Apparently, there are a lot of museums in the area as well, although I haven't been to one yet. In any case, it has a pretty magnificent view and has to my knowledge at least 3 shopping malls in the area and they're all quite large. Since wikipedia doesn't seem to much useful information on Tsim Sha Tsui and I'm too lazy to go looking, this section is without a link. Interestingly, I've only been to Tsim Sha Tsui for dinner and thus haven't had a lot of time to look around.
Originally I was gonna make two posts for shopping in Hong Kong, and I may yet, but for the time being this is all. With that, I'd like to leave some interesting bits of things I've seen here that don't translate to things in the US, at least not that I know of. Apparently, "adult" stores are quite a bit more prevalent here and they are sometimes set up right next to normal stores with only curtains blocking the store's contents. Also, there are quite a few places where there are headphones on display that you can try out. Another good thing to know is that most stores, especially in places like Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok, have employees that speak English. Anyways, I'd like to end this with a couple of pictures of the streets of Mong Kok on a Saturday.
With that, my post on shopping is complete and I've said what I wanted.
--CsMiREK
While I personally do not enjoy shopping all that much, there is a lot to see and even more to potentially buy. The sheer range of different stores is a bit staggering when considering the size of the area. Some of the MTR stations have their own malls attached to them, complete with places to eat and simply walk around. While perhaps not true, it seems that just as frequently as you see 7-Elevens, you also see shopping malls. However, what I've said isn't very specific so I'll move down the ladder a bit.
From where I've been, I have seen 3 pretty big shopping districts. If you plan on coming to Hong Kong, these are probably pretty good places to go. The first is Sham Shui Po. Sham Shui Po is a really big electronics district so the streets are just lined with shops selling things like phones and small electronics. There are also malls that just sell computer related things, from hard drives to speakers to mice and keyboards and computer related books. Next is Mong Kok. Mong Kok is part of the Kowloon district and is one of the most densely packed places I have ever been. People walk in the streets and there are so many shops lining the streets that it's overwhelming. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that it is literally a shopping district for just shopping. There is for example a street simply for shoes, every single shop minus a couple of food shops are dedicated to selling shoes. While I'm not interested in shoes, even I was awed by simply how many different shoes they had lining the streets. For more information on the different stores and streets in Mong Kok, here is a link. Yea, I know that it isn't hard to search for it on wikipedia, but now you don't have to so that's one fewer thing for you to do.
The last district I'll be focusing on is Tsim Sha Tsui. Tsim Sha Tsui is a port city and thus is a huge tourist attraction. Apparently, there are a lot of museums in the area as well, although I haven't been to one yet. In any case, it has a pretty magnificent view and has to my knowledge at least 3 shopping malls in the area and they're all quite large. Since wikipedia doesn't seem to much useful information on Tsim Sha Tsui and I'm too lazy to go looking, this section is without a link. Interestingly, I've only been to Tsim Sha Tsui for dinner and thus haven't had a lot of time to look around.
Originally I was gonna make two posts for shopping in Hong Kong, and I may yet, but for the time being this is all. With that, I'd like to leave some interesting bits of things I've seen here that don't translate to things in the US, at least not that I know of. Apparently, "adult" stores are quite a bit more prevalent here and they are sometimes set up right next to normal stores with only curtains blocking the store's contents. Also, there are quite a few places where there are headphones on display that you can try out. Another good thing to know is that most stores, especially in places like Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok, have employees that speak English. Anyways, I'd like to end this with a couple of pictures of the streets of Mong Kok on a Saturday.
With that, my post on shopping is complete and I've said what I wanted.
--CsMiREK
Monday, June 14, 2010
Weekly Discovery: week 1
So, if you've never been here or don't know me, I am someone who gets bored quite easily. Perhaps this is apparent, perhaps not, who am I to judge? In any case, from the depths of my boredom, I bring you this blog, whether it pleases you or not is not my concern. Anyways, now that that's out of the way, I'd like to give you the first Weekly Discovery. After pondering what name I should give, this is the best I could come up with, is that sad? Perhaps, but again not my concern. The posts labeled "WD" or Weekly Discovery are not necessarily new discoveries on my part, but perhaps they will be for you. At least that's the reason why I'm doing this. These posts will be highly random, ranging from music to anime to news to simply odd facts, but that's part of the fun, you'll never know what you'll get each week. The same applies to me since well....I don't like to think that far forward, too much effort I suppose. Anyways, from the anime posts it's pretty obvious that I like anime and with that, Japanese music. However, this week's WD is a composer named Yann Tiersen. He composed the soundtrack for a French film called Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain. While, this post is about the composer behind the music, I also recommend watching the movie since it's actually a pretty good movie. Onto the music, it's very....French, incredibly characteristically French if that makes sense to you. That said, I crossfaded the first 5 tracks of the soundtrack together in this file. I hope you enjoy it and this massive blob of a disorganized paragraph. The next post is likely to be a Hong Kong post, but who knows, things never seem to go as planned with me. Also, that's the first time I've crossfaded any music together so don't expect it to be done amazingly or anything.
--CsMiREK
--CsMiREK
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Spring 2010 Anime Post-Season Reviews
As the spring 2010 anime season comes to a close, I think that it is prudent that I should give my personal reviews on the various anime shows I followed. In my opinion, I felt that this season was relatively strong, at least in comparison with the winter season. However, I feel that since this is my first real anime post, it would be a good idea to give some background and overview of my reviews for the season.
Throughout the year, there are 4 big anime seasons, in order, winter starting in January, spring starting in April, summer starting in July, and Fall starting in October. Each season has roughly 8-15 new anime shows to fill the slot left by the ones that had single season runs. This means that most anime shows have 13 episodes, but this is not always true. There are long standing anime like Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece that will never be reviewed by me. My goal is to review only the anime that you have never heard of, the ones that appear and disappear in the span of 13-26 weeks.
With that said, I followed a record of 10 different anime shows this season from romance to comedy to action and drama. While not all of them were very good, I will be giving my reviews in a relatively objective manner and if you take my reviews seriously, you should mainly be looking at the content of the anime and not my feelings about it. In order the 10 anime I will be reviewing are:
Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao link to review
Kaicho wa Maid-sama link to review
Angel Beats! link to review
Working!! link to review
Giant Killing link to review
Arakawa under the bridge link to review
K-ON!! link to review
RAINBOW(not reviewed)
(The) Tatami Galaxy link to review
House of Five Leaves link to review
Durarara!! link to review
These are placed in order by the date of their last episode, exluding Kaicho wa Maid-sama which is 26 episodes long so I will be doing a mid-anime review for that one. In addition to reviews, I will also give where to find streaming for each legally, if such a site exists, for many they do.
In addition to these, there were other anime of "note" that you might be interested in that I simply did not watch for some reason or another. These would be, Mayoi Neko Overrun!, Senko no Night Raid, B gata H Kei, and Heroman. I cannot guarantee anything about these four as I did not personally finish watching any of them. At the least they had a somewhat decent first episode. If you haven't already clicked the links, they link to their respective pages at animenewsnetwork.com which is a great source for all things anime. In addition, they have professional pre season reviews, so if you feel my reviews are not good enough, go there. Not to mention there are usually 2 or 3 reviews per anime there, so if you just want more opinions. That should be all I have for this intro, look forward to the first post season review this weekend and more on Hong Kong.
--CsMiREK
Throughout the year, there are 4 big anime seasons, in order, winter starting in January, spring starting in April, summer starting in July, and Fall starting in October. Each season has roughly 8-15 new anime shows to fill the slot left by the ones that had single season runs. This means that most anime shows have 13 episodes, but this is not always true. There are long standing anime like Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece that will never be reviewed by me. My goal is to review only the anime that you have never heard of, the ones that appear and disappear in the span of 13-26 weeks.
With that said, I followed a record of 10 different anime shows this season from romance to comedy to action and drama. While not all of them were very good, I will be giving my reviews in a relatively objective manner and if you take my reviews seriously, you should mainly be looking at the content of the anime and not my feelings about it. In order the 10 anime I will be reviewing are:
Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao link to review
Kaicho wa Maid-sama link to review
Angel Beats! link to review
Working!! link to review
Giant Killing link to review
Arakawa under the bridge link to review
K-ON!! link to review
RAINBOW(not reviewed)
(The) Tatami Galaxy link to review
House of Five Leaves link to review
Durarara!! link to review
These are placed in order by the date of their last episode, exluding Kaicho wa Maid-sama which is 26 episodes long so I will be doing a mid-anime review for that one. In addition to reviews, I will also give where to find streaming for each legally, if such a site exists, for many they do.
In addition to these, there were other anime of "note" that you might be interested in that I simply did not watch for some reason or another. These would be, Mayoi Neko Overrun!, Senko no Night Raid, B gata H Kei, and Heroman. I cannot guarantee anything about these four as I did not personally finish watching any of them. At the least they had a somewhat decent first episode. If you haven't already clicked the links, they link to their respective pages at animenewsnetwork.com which is a great source for all things anime. In addition, they have professional pre season reviews, so if you feel my reviews are not good enough, go there. Not to mention there are usually 2 or 3 reviews per anime there, so if you just want more opinions. That should be all I have for this intro, look forward to the first post season review this weekend and more on Hong Kong.
--CsMiREK
Friday, June 11, 2010
The internet is an odd place
Well, I bet no one expects a post within 2 hours of the prior post, but this just caught me a bit off guard. So, if you've never been to this blog, I recently changed the template, if you have been here you've probably noticed already. In any case, before I didn't have the top bar but I was feeling bored and lazy so it's there for now. In any case I was clicking the "next blog" link at the top and came across the oddest coincidence and following revelation: Google hosts a LOT of non-English blogs and I mean that. It took me 18 blogs to grind to a halt, the 18th blog did not have a "next blog" link at the top so I was forced to end my journey there. Interestingly enough, most of the blogs are Spanish from what I could gather. Now the question I pose is this: how many non-English blogs does Google host? Furthermore, how exactly does the "next blog" link work so that by some odd coincidence I travel 18 non-English blogs before hitting a stopping block? This was an unexpected post and next post will be less random, I think.
-note: there also seem to be a lot of perhaps German or Swedish blogs, I can't really tell.
also, apparently once you hit one non-English blog, you seem to only hit more of them, very strange
--CsMiREK
-note: there also seem to be a lot of perhaps German or Swedish blogs, I can't really tell.
also, apparently once you hit one non-English blog, you seem to only hit more of them, very strange
--CsMiREK
FMA - The end
To those of you who think I mistyped FML, you're wrong, now get out of here. I am actually spending this post to cover the last manga chapter of the manga/anime legend, Fullmetal Alchemist. At over 100 pages long, this is potentially the longest single chapter of any manga I have ever read, and I have read many. To those of you who were waiting until the manga finished, here it is and it was a glorious ride with lots of action and amazing artwork. Now, to those who have never heard or never bothered to read this manga, now that it's complete I encourage you to go ahead and read it as there are not many mangas or animes that even stand in the same place as Fullmetal Alchemist. The second anime version of it Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is slated to end with its 64th episode sometime at the beginning of July, just in time for new anime to fill its place. While I am sad that this manga is over, there will always be more out there and many other amazing titles. At some other time I will cover some of those that I have personally seen and my thoughts on them.
However, this post is for Fullmetal Alchemist and not those other animes. Since some of you probably have never read this manga or have not yet read the ending, I will not spoil it. However I will say that it was a good ending and was in no way rushed or designed in a way to give lingering feelings. For that I say my thanks to the author for not disappointing me with a bad ending to an otherwise amazing manga. I will be covering the basics of manga/anime very soon along with some personal reviews of anime I am currently watching. Stay tuned for that, but next post is not anime related.
--CsMiREK
However, this post is for Fullmetal Alchemist and not those other animes. Since some of you probably have never read this manga or have not yet read the ending, I will not spoil it. However I will say that it was a good ending and was in no way rushed or designed in a way to give lingering feelings. For that I say my thanks to the author for not disappointing me with a bad ending to an otherwise amazing manga. I will be covering the basics of manga/anime very soon along with some personal reviews of anime I am currently watching. Stay tuned for that, but next post is not anime related.
--CsMiREK
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Some Thoughts on Math and 7-11 pt.11
So here's the second part of my thoughts on math, labeled pt.11 because I feel like it and it's a perfect continuation to pt.7 from before. However, unlike the last post, this one has a lot more focus on actual math and less on trivia and other seeming nonsense.
Onto the number 11, it is the first two digit prime number and the first of very few prime numbers consisting of only the number 1, others include 19 and 23 repeated 1s, typing those out would be too much effort so I won't. Another point of interest in these numbers consisting of repeating 1s is as such:
1*1 = 1
11*11 = 121
111*111 = 12321
1111*1111 1234321
and so on. Obviously, it looks a bit funny after the digits pass 9 but it still follows correctly.
Since I wanted a shorter post this time, I'm only gonna cover one more interesting fact about the number 11 in particular. There is a particular triangle named Pascal's triangle that is used mainly for teaching binomial expansion to high school students. When looking at it closely however, there is a strange relation between each row and the number 11 that I will now demonstrate.
11^0 = 1 = 1
11^1 = 11 = 1 1
11^2 = 121 = 1 2 1
11^3 = 1331 = 1 3 3 1
11^4 = 14641 = 1 4 6 4 1
11^5 = 161051 = 1 5 10 10 5 1
Ok, I'll be the first to say that it's not absolutely perfect, but only because of carrying values. In actuality, each digit of the expansion of 11^n is a corresponding number to the triangle, which is a little bit interesting. Well, that's all for this post, the next post is on...well I'm not really sure yet so who knows. Oh and yea, this post turned out longer than I'd hoped, perhaps they'll all be about this long?
--CsMiREK
Onto the number 11, it is the first two digit prime number and the first of very few prime numbers consisting of only the number 1, others include 19 and 23 repeated 1s, typing those out would be too much effort so I won't. Another point of interest in these numbers consisting of repeating 1s is as such:
1*1 = 1
11*11 = 121
111*111 = 12321
1111*1111 1234321
and so on. Obviously, it looks a bit funny after the digits pass 9 but it still follows correctly.
Since I wanted a shorter post this time, I'm only gonna cover one more interesting fact about the number 11 in particular. There is a particular triangle named Pascal's triangle that is used mainly for teaching binomial expansion to high school students. When looking at it closely however, there is a strange relation between each row and the number 11 that I will now demonstrate.
11^0 = 1 = 1
11^1 = 11 = 1 1
11^2 = 121 = 1 2 1
11^3 = 1331 = 1 3 3 1
11^4 = 14641 = 1 4 6 4 1
11^5 = 161051 = 1 5 10 10 5 1
Ok, I'll be the first to say that it's not absolutely perfect, but only because of carrying values. In actuality, each digit of the expansion of 11^n is a corresponding number to the triangle, which is a little bit interesting. Well, that's all for this post, the next post is on...well I'm not really sure yet so who knows. Oh and yea, this post turned out longer than I'd hoped, perhaps they'll all be about this long?
--CsMiREK
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Some Thoughts on Math and 7-11 pt.7
To those who know me, I'm thought of as someone who is at very worst, pretty decent at math. However, I don't personally care much for the topic, especially after taking calculus, I lost all sense of its importance on my daily life. For this reason, I'm going to talk about math, but more specifically numbers. In particular, 7 and 11 will be the topic of these next two posts.
The two numbers 7 and 11 are the only two numbers in the English language that rhyme without use of prefixes like "twenty" or "negative" and don't end with "teen". In addition, they are both prime numbers, which I will define as positive numbers with only 2 factors, namely 1 and them. Now, as the mathematical implications of the number 11 and other numbers similarly formed of all ones is more interesting, I will focus my attention on the number 7 first.
At a purely mathematical level, the number 7 is largely inconspicuous besides its seat as a single digit prime number. One interesting point mathematically about the number 7 is that its inverse, 1/7, is equal to .142857 repeating. If you notice, pairwise those numbers are 2*7, 4*7, and (8*7 +1). 2/7 is equal to .285714 repeating or 4*7,(8*7+1),2*7. It changes a little bit after that but that's not really all too important and personally I lose interest after 2/7.
In any case, regardless of the mathematical interest level of the number 7, humans have been fascinated by it since as long as we can remember. It pops up in so many places that it simply cannot be coincidence. However, there is no definitive reason why exactly so many cultures and belief systems from the Romans to Christians to Japanese customs see the importance in the number 7. For a compilation I found when searching "lucky 7" on google, this link does pretty well at showing just how many cultures and different systems see how important the number 7 is. Also, interestingly enough, a convex heptagon or 7 sided polygon is the first shape to have 2 distinct "star" shapes that look like this:
and this:
If you're being really anal, you'll notice they aren't perfect. Well, screw you, drawing perfect heptagons is hard, it's not like I had a tool on hand to make them; making the diagonals is worse. So if you have anything to say concerning how accurately I drew those, just don't say it. In any case, 11's up next and will not have any obnoxious pictures to draw. See you then....or maybe not.
--CsMiREK
The two numbers 7 and 11 are the only two numbers in the English language that rhyme without use of prefixes like "twenty" or "negative" and don't end with "teen". In addition, they are both prime numbers, which I will define as positive numbers with only 2 factors, namely 1 and them. Now, as the mathematical implications of the number 11 and other numbers similarly formed of all ones is more interesting, I will focus my attention on the number 7 first.
At a purely mathematical level, the number 7 is largely inconspicuous besides its seat as a single digit prime number. One interesting point mathematically about the number 7 is that its inverse, 1/7, is equal to .142857 repeating. If you notice, pairwise those numbers are 2*7, 4*7, and (8*7 +1). 2/7 is equal to .285714 repeating or 4*7,(8*7+1),2*7. It changes a little bit after that but that's not really all too important and personally I lose interest after 2/7.
In any case, regardless of the mathematical interest level of the number 7, humans have been fascinated by it since as long as we can remember. It pops up in so many places that it simply cannot be coincidence. However, there is no definitive reason why exactly so many cultures and belief systems from the Romans to Christians to Japanese customs see the importance in the number 7. For a compilation I found when searching "lucky 7" on google, this link does pretty well at showing just how many cultures and different systems see how important the number 7 is. Also, interestingly enough, a convex heptagon or 7 sided polygon is the first shape to have 2 distinct "star" shapes that look like this:
--CsMiREK
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Some thoughts on Hong Kong
Phew, that last post was really long. It's pretty unlikely my posts will be that long in the future. Anyways, this time I'm talking about my thoughts of Hong Kong from being here 3 weeks now. Well, throughout my stay I'd like to describe Hong Kong as a land of 3 things: 7-Eleven, shopping, and food. For this post I'll be tackling 7-Eleven.
I'd like to begin this by saying that Hong Kong has an inordinate number of 7-Elevens, just absolutely ridiculous. Now I'll give you some history on 7-Eleven, fun right? For a brief, 7-Eleven started in the US but eventually got bought by a company in Japan where it has the largest number of stores, even more than Hong Kong. For your information, Japan has 12,349 7-Elevens with 1,557 in Tokyo alone, according to Wikipedia. Hong Kong has over 711 7-Elevens meaning, if you were paying attention 2 posts ago, there is on average at least one 7-Eleven per square mile in Hong Kong since the total area is 426 square miles. I'd like to say that that's probably not true but at the same time, there are sometimes 7-Elevens across the street from each other. To give you an idea of how many there are, I created a composite picture of most of the 7-Elevens I saw from 5/26-6/6 which is at the end of this post. Part of the reason why there are so many 7-Elevens is that pretty much every MTR station has at least one 7-Eleven. However, even though there are so many 7-Elevens, what saddened me was that not all of them have Slurpees and being an American, that saddens me somewhat, although quite frankly I'm not sure why. Anyways, here's the picture.
So, if you don't want to count, that's 10 7-Elevens in that picture, all of them are from different stores. Interestingly enough, if you look closely at the times in the pictures, you'll see that two of them were taken only 2 minutes apart from each other. Sadly, there was actually another 7-Eleven close by that I didn't take a picture of, but I think that that proves my point sufficiently. I think that's all for this post. It's a lot shorter than the last one but that's just fine. Anyways, I'm taking a break from Hong Kong posting for the next few but the next Hong Kong post will be on shopping.
--CsMiREK
I'd like to begin this by saying that Hong Kong has an inordinate number of 7-Elevens, just absolutely ridiculous. Now I'll give you some history on 7-Eleven, fun right? For a brief, 7-Eleven started in the US but eventually got bought by a company in Japan where it has the largest number of stores, even more than Hong Kong. For your information, Japan has 12,349 7-Elevens with 1,557 in Tokyo alone, according to Wikipedia. Hong Kong has over 711 7-Elevens meaning, if you were paying attention 2 posts ago, there is on average at least one 7-Eleven per square mile in Hong Kong since the total area is 426 square miles. I'd like to say that that's probably not true but at the same time, there are sometimes 7-Elevens across the street from each other. To give you an idea of how many there are, I created a composite picture of most of the 7-Elevens I saw from 5/26-6/6 which is at the end of this post. Part of the reason why there are so many 7-Elevens is that pretty much every MTR station has at least one 7-Eleven. However, even though there are so many 7-Elevens, what saddened me was that not all of them have Slurpees and being an American, that saddens me somewhat, although quite frankly I'm not sure why. Anyways, here's the picture.
So, if you don't want to count, that's 10 7-Elevens in that picture, all of them are from different stores. Interestingly enough, if you look closely at the times in the pictures, you'll see that two of them were taken only 2 minutes apart from each other. Sadly, there was actually another 7-Eleven close by that I didn't take a picture of, but I think that that proves my point sufficiently. I think that's all for this post. It's a lot shorter than the last one but that's just fine. Anyways, I'm taking a break from Hong Kong posting for the next few but the next Hong Kong post will be on shopping.
--CsMiREK
Hong Kong pt2
Ok, I was totally planning to have this post up yesterday, but I got sidetracked. Anyways, this is the next Hong Kong post from me. I didn't mention last time but in Hong Kong I'm staying with my uncle, now doesn't that tell you something about me? I'll update the round 1 page with new clues when necessary. As an apology for the late post, I'll be putting up another post right after this with more stuff, and a picture to boot.
So, this time I'll be talking about transportation and international travel as stated in the last post. As far as transportation in Hong Kong, there are quite a few options. Obviously, as in all major cities walking is the best way to get from point A to point B when the distance is short. On that note, if you do plan to go to Hong Kong, make sure you have comfortable shoes, you'll probably end up walking a lot and uncomfortable shoes are a bad idea. Also, as in the US, there are quite a few cars on the roads for most of the day....including late at night; expect loud nights. If you're like me and don't like the sounds of cars in the middle of the night, bring earplugs. When talking about public transportation there are 2 options, the MTR and bus. The bus operates as you'd expect it to so there's not much to talk about.
MTR stands for Mass Transit Railway and is the subway system that pretty much holds up all of Hong Kong. There are a multitude of stops, I'll show a map at the end of the post, that take you pretty much to any place in Hong Kong minus a few places. Now, there are two methods of payment for the MTR, tickets and the octopus card. Tickets are as expected, you buy one with the route you'll take and you pay. The octopus card however is a different story. For those unaware, the octopus card is like a debit card that can be used at all MTR stations and multiple other places. It carries an RFID(Radio Frequency ID) chip inside it that allows scanners read data on it easily. This expedites travel since you don't have to buy a special ticket every single time you take the MTR. In addition, costs between tickets and octopus card actually vary slightly so sometimes it's cheaper to use the octopus card. Mainly it's just convenient. I'll have pictures of those at the end too. Now, it should be noted that the MTR has really high traffic pretty much all day, I'll show a picture at the end as well. As such, if you don't like getting on crowded trains, stay away from the MTR. However, it should also be noted that a trip on the MTR is often much cheaper than driving and the wait time is much shorter than for buses. For example, a trip from Tsuen Wan to Ngau Tau Kok costs $8 HK, exchange rate is roughly 7.75HK : 1USD, so about $1. So even with all the troubles, including being slower than driving, the MTR is very likely the most used form of transportation in Hong Kong.
Now for a quick note on international travel to Hong Kong. When taking a flight to Hong Kong, assuming it's the final destination, you have to fill out a card with a bunch of information although I hear on the way back to the US it's much worse. From SFO or the San Francisco Airport the flight is about 13 hours long so make sure to have something to do or sleep. On another note, I'll be using EST for most of my times since it's exactly 12 hours different from Hong Kong's time which makes it really easy. If you don't know, outlets in Hong Kong are not the same as in the US so buy a converter for any electrical appliances you plan on bringing with you. I believe that's all for international travel...at least for now? So enjoy some pictures.
This is the MTR map
These are 2 examples of octopus cards
This picture was taken at 8:14 AM EST or 8:14 PM in Hong Kong. I made it black and white because...well I wanted to, that's all for this post. Next is on my actual thoughts and not information though you're probably more likely to have already read that one by the time you read this line....oh well.
*note: the ROUND 1 page has changed
--CsMiREK
So, this time I'll be talking about transportation and international travel as stated in the last post. As far as transportation in Hong Kong, there are quite a few options. Obviously, as in all major cities walking is the best way to get from point A to point B when the distance is short. On that note, if you do plan to go to Hong Kong, make sure you have comfortable shoes, you'll probably end up walking a lot and uncomfortable shoes are a bad idea. Also, as in the US, there are quite a few cars on the roads for most of the day....including late at night; expect loud nights. If you're like me and don't like the sounds of cars in the middle of the night, bring earplugs. When talking about public transportation there are 2 options, the MTR and bus. The bus operates as you'd expect it to so there's not much to talk about.
MTR stands for Mass Transit Railway and is the subway system that pretty much holds up all of Hong Kong. There are a multitude of stops, I'll show a map at the end of the post, that take you pretty much to any place in Hong Kong minus a few places. Now, there are two methods of payment for the MTR, tickets and the octopus card. Tickets are as expected, you buy one with the route you'll take and you pay. The octopus card however is a different story. For those unaware, the octopus card is like a debit card that can be used at all MTR stations and multiple other places. It carries an RFID(Radio Frequency ID) chip inside it that allows scanners read data on it easily. This expedites travel since you don't have to buy a special ticket every single time you take the MTR. In addition, costs between tickets and octopus card actually vary slightly so sometimes it's cheaper to use the octopus card. Mainly it's just convenient. I'll have pictures of those at the end too. Now, it should be noted that the MTR has really high traffic pretty much all day, I'll show a picture at the end as well. As such, if you don't like getting on crowded trains, stay away from the MTR. However, it should also be noted that a trip on the MTR is often much cheaper than driving and the wait time is much shorter than for buses. For example, a trip from Tsuen Wan to Ngau Tau Kok costs $8 HK, exchange rate is roughly 7.75HK : 1USD, so about $1. So even with all the troubles, including being slower than driving, the MTR is very likely the most used form of transportation in Hong Kong.
Now for a quick note on international travel to Hong Kong. When taking a flight to Hong Kong, assuming it's the final destination, you have to fill out a card with a bunch of information although I hear on the way back to the US it's much worse. From SFO or the San Francisco Airport the flight is about 13 hours long so make sure to have something to do or sleep. On another note, I'll be using EST for most of my times since it's exactly 12 hours different from Hong Kong's time which makes it really easy. If you don't know, outlets in Hong Kong are not the same as in the US so buy a converter for any electrical appliances you plan on bringing with you. I believe that's all for international travel...at least for now? So enjoy some pictures.
*note: the ROUND 1 page has changed
--CsMiREK
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Hong Kong, an intro...I suppose
So, as I said in my last post, I'm currently in Hong Kong for the summer and as such I'd like to give some initial thoughts. To those unaware, Hong Kong is a region of China, technically part of it, however is given a special administrative region status or SAR, one of two, the other being Macau. This means that Hong Kong is essentially another country with autonomous rule. This can easily be seen in their not having the heavy censorship of internet as in China. Hong Kong has around 7 million residents packed in an area of 426 square miles, smaller than the smallest US state Rhode Island, and about 6 times the size of Washington DC. To give a sense of the population density difference, Rhode Island is about 3 times larger yet has about 1/7th the population and the city of DC has about 600,000 people so 6 times the actual size and assume population, and that's still only half the population of Hong Kong.
Onto the weather, during the late spring/summer months it is very humid and quite hot. Since I've been here, a little over 3 weeks now, it has rained at least once a week and averaged around 76-80 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, as you might expect of a heavily populated urban area, the air quality is not the best. If that doesn't sound appealing, come in the winter when average temperatures are significantly lower, but not enough to snow. According to Wikipedia, a great source for these kinds of things, the average low temperature in January, the coldest month is still a nice 57 degrees Fahrenheit.
Anyways, it's a pretty amazing place, albeit really crowded, and I'll have more posts coming soon. The next post is on transportation and international travel, for those interested.
--CsMiREK
Onto the weather, during the late spring/summer months it is very humid and quite hot. Since I've been here, a little over 3 weeks now, it has rained at least once a week and averaged around 76-80 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, as you might expect of a heavily populated urban area, the air quality is not the best. If that doesn't sound appealing, come in the winter when average temperatures are significantly lower, but not enough to snow. According to Wikipedia, a great source for these kinds of things, the average low temperature in January, the coldest month is still a nice 57 degrees Fahrenheit.
Anyways, it's a pretty amazing place, albeit really crowded, and I'll have more posts coming soon. The next post is on transportation and international travel, for those interested.
--CsMiREK
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)