Tears To Tiara - Episode 3

Tears to Tiara TV ep. 3 has been aired. New character, Morgan (it sounds like a male's name?) was introduced. She is an energetic girl, and is deemed inferior to Arthur in terms of warrior skills, thus having her granted with the 2nd warrior of the Gael people. For me, she somehow resembles Mayumi Thyme of the Shuffle! anime series in many aspects.

Now I started to realize how many similarities this series with the Roman history. As a self taught Roman historian, I can say that the Gael people is analogous to that of Gaul people (or even Gaelic tribe of the Dark Age Europe), the Holy Empire to that of Roman Empire and Albion is of course, to that of Britain. And I wonder why the Japanese anime makers always tend to refer to ancient as Albion rather than the actual name "Britannia"? Although Albion is also from Graeco-Latin language which literally means "White Land" (probably because of the whitish geographical feature visible from a distant view), Britannia is more popular amongst native European since the ancient time, despite the name Albion itself is regarded as the oldest known reference to the island of Britain. Japanese oh Japanese... (drat...)

Back to the series, Morgan, quite soon after she met Arawn, offered herself as his second wife. It may be weird but polygamy is like, acceptable in the Tears to Tiara world. Well, harem and polygamy is to be expected from an eroge adaptation after all, and Tears to Tiara is no exception in this case. Character design wise, the anime adopts the design used for the PS3 version of the game, which looks cuter and *ahem!* (Morgan appears way damn sexier). Too bad the PS3 version is not available in English for now (like I have the PS3 anyways) and I'm not sure whether the PS3 version is a H-game like its PC counterpart or a general viewer version. And why the PS3? The game only use anime-ish graphics so using PS3 platform is like, a major waste because anime-ish graphics does not utilize PS3's graphics processing power to its fullest (but only a very small fraction of it, to be honest)...

In episode 3, the story still retains its bloody war scenes. Gaius, the general of Holy Empire army also having first encounter with Arawn himself, and he started to build some kind of obsession towards him.

It was revealed that the Gael people are descendants of the people of Albion kingdom, an ancient government that has collapsed many centuries earlier. After the confrontation in the episode 2, Gael people has declared independence/rebellion against the Holy Empire and fled to Albion, the homeland of their ancestors.

Personally, I don't like Arawn since his very first appearance in episode 1. He may use his brain more compared to other characters in the series but I prefer Arthur despite his stupidity. I also dislike the fact that Rhiannon is so attached to Arawn just because he has saved her life only once. Ergh! Anyway, I'll just enjoy the upcoming episodes and hope to understand things better while playing the eroge version as well.

Tears to Tiara Episode 4 review

The Melancholy of a Yaoi Fangirl (or a Yaoi Hater?) - part II

(in addition to this post)

2 months have passed since the 'fateful' day that I found my girlfriend's yaoi manga collection inside her laptop. After occasional lovers fight associated with the event occurred, we still keep the normal pace of boyfriend-girlfriend life. She even still lent me her laptop whenever I need it and even more open about her 'peculiar' interest with me now. However, both of us are still in the process of reconstructing our relationship after facing the hard time.

To be frank, I will NEVER accept the fact the she is having that kind of interest. It is normal for a guy to like hentai (because guys are creatures that turned-on visually). However, it is totally weird and absolutely abnormal for a girl who likes to read yaoi manga, no matter how straight she is to go out with a guy. Come to think of it, why it has to be yaoi? If it is because they don't prefer hentai as hentai may give them 'mental experience' then why bother to go for something sexual?

I'm sorry to say this but to all female yaoi fans out there, what you people do is not the same or comparable to that of what the guys do with hentai.

Crapedia

Wikipedia is crapedia. Why?

1. The man behind it is the same man behind the adult entertainment industry. Allowing your kids to refer to wikipedia while you know about that fact is like accepting the idea of some porn directors teaching real academic subjects at schools.

2. Notability is not enough. Aside from being notable by having genuine authored references, the material to be published also must have been recognized by having awarded or so. This is crazy, considering that wikipedia should deliver any knowledge that supposed to be spread (as in 'knowledge for all'), not being too restrictive and selective like this. This is totally opposite and against the nature of an encyclopedia.

Common mistakes in anime production

Stereotypes and misconception by the Japanese anime makers:

1. A Chinese must have some stereotypical Chinese appearance (the males have pigtail hairdo or the females have the twin hair lumps, wearing clothes that may resembles cheongsam or quipao. What the..!? No Chinese really look like that!

2. Arabs, Persian and Turks are deemed the same!

3. Islam may not exist at all, or even if it is, it is displayed in the form of antagonist or terrorist. Even worse, some of them even 'converted' to Japanese, adopting Japanese name and lifestyle referring to Kasim 'Kashimu' > Seisuke Sagara in FMP! and Soran Ibrahim > Setsuna F. Seiei in Gundam 00).

Japan may be one of the most technologically advanced nation in the world, however they are always misunderstood about the outside world, especially foreign culture while they themselves single-handedly always busy promoting and spreading their own culture to the rest of the world. In fact, they are still very much isolation like they used to be centuries ago. This time it is not because of their foreign policy or mindset, but due to the language barrier. Relying heavily on hired translators/interpreters making them heavily influenced by the unreliable translations/interpretations.

1. Words I may derive from the word 'anime': animestic/animestica, animatic, animous, animesque, animesco, animeish

2. I discovered more more than one way to cook curry, by using the same kind and the same amount of ingredients.

3. Web 2.0 and the so-called 'webtop'. If webtop were to replace desktop OS, isn't it means the future desktop OS would become very basic with only full-featured web-browser and multimedia capabilities are present, since everything from storage to media layer will be made completely available online? It also means internet is crucial or compulsory for future computing. Just hope that internet will be highly available, reliable and affordable on that time, or even free of all costs.

Tears To Tiara - Episode 1

This is the first time for me to write a 'real' anime review and this is the first time I volunteer myself to follow a development of an anime series. It is not that I don't like anime but the actual thing is I rarely immerse myself in new anime because I am quite picky when it comes to those things.

Alright, Tears To Tiara is an anime adaptation from a RPG PC/PS3 game with the same title which is launched some time ago and it is produced by White Fox. The anime is very new and in fact the premiere was just shown in Japan on February 6 2009. Thanks to the international anime series cable-satellite channel Animax, this anime has been made available worldwide simultaneously, complete with English and/or local language subtitle. This is the first time an anime series being aired in the same time with Japan, and it is also most probably the first time Animax bringing a very new anime to its international audiences.

Watching the first episode (the only available episode in the time of writing this article) gives me a mixed and unexplainable feeling. On some part it feels like watching The Lord of The Rings, while the other time it feels the opposite and even that is also unexplainable. Maybe I was just too excited or something I can't explain as well. However, the story is so intense, reminding me of the anime Claymore I watched a couple of years back, where we can see people killed and blood spilled (seriously!).

From Animax:

Set in a fictitious land during a medieval-like era of magic and fantasy, Tears to Tiara unfolds with the Divine Empire's rise to power as it conquers and rules lands far and wide. On the island of Erin, still ruled by the Ancient Kingdom, the Goidelic people are attempting to sacrifice priestess Riannon to revive protagonist and demon king Arawn to lead the resistance against the Empire. Although the ritual fails and Riannon survives, the seal imprisoning the demon king is broken and Arawn is resurrected. Armed with mysterious and devastating powers and a human's demeanor, Arawn joins Riannon, her brother and battalion commander, Arthur, as well as their team of fighters comprising a swordsman, an archer and a quintet of magical pixies, in the epic struggle against the Divine Empire.

I think that's all I can give for now. I don't mind writing spoilers but I don't feel like to write it right now either.

EDIT: My article on Episode 2 can be read here.

(image credits to Animax, AquaPlus, T3Works and all other parties that may involved directly or indirectly in the production)

One Nation Malaysia

Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei were almost becoming one nation in the past but things didn't go well due to some stupid people and their stupid actions. i don't really mind though since what has passed is past, but I always wanted to see really close and united close strategic regional relationship between these countries like, like what we see in US-Canada, France-Monaco and many EU members. However the separation now is not entirely the fault of all these stupid people of the past. It was some stupid people in Singapore on that time that voiced out the so-called 'Malaysian Malaysia' at the wrong time. These people were just too greedy and impatient when there were already the independence but they wanted more than just that after the country gained independence around a decade earlier. The idea was a total absurd on that time considering that many mainland Malays were still suffering from centuries of oppression by the colonials. It's not that the the idea is not acceptable and the Malays are not weak or incompetent either but they have been weakened by the foreign powers. These foreign powers were actually fear the potential of the Malays that they ruled them in such a way of suppressing them.

On the other hand, Brunei never become one with Malaysia because some stupid people there were refusing and also it was because somebody want to keep the title 'King of Malaysia' exclusive only for Brunei Sultanate, as if other malay states don't have their own sultan. Not only that, some people today also too stupid, struggling to restore sultan's immunity and totalitarian power. Thanks to these people, Malaysia today still inferior to some other smaller and younger nations, as well as lagging quite far behind in many terms such as technology, economy, military, civic awareness and even entertainment.