Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

Original Title: Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
Genre: action, drama, psychological, science fiction, supernatural
Length: 25 episodes (completed)

Description: The Empire of Britannia has invaded Japan using giant robot weapons called Knightmare Frames. Japan is now referred to as Area 11, and its people the 11’s. A Britannian who was living in Japan at the time, Lelouch, vowed to his Japanese friend Suzaku that he’d destroy Britannia. Years later, Lelouch is in high school, but regularly skips out of school to go play chess and gamble on himself. One day, he stumbles on terrorists 11’s who’ve stolen a military secret and is caught by a member of the Britannian task force sent after them, who is Suzaku. As the rest of the squad arrives, Suzaku is shot for disobeying orders, while the military secret, a young girl, gives Lelouch the power of Geass, which makes anyone obey any order. While Suzaku is secretly made the pilot of Britannia’s brand new prototype Knightmare, Lancelot, Lelouch becomes the masked Zero to lead the rebellion to destroy Britannia once and for all.

This is the first season. I started watching this series like a month or so after it ended. The post might be a little short as I watched this ages ago. I first encountered it during fyp, when a girl from the next class was watching it.

Me: Hey, what anime is she watching this time. Looks interesting.
Friend A: Oh, that’s code geass. The show’s pretty ok for me.
Me: I see. The design looks a lot like CLAMPs
*saw mechas at this point of time*
Me: Eh, I see mechas. Will it be like another Gundam anime -_-”
Friend B: NO! This is definitely a lot better!
Me: You sure it is not like Gund..
Friend B: Yes I’m sure!
Friend A:: Just go watch the first few eps and you will see why
Me: Ok i guess…

I cannot really remember who I talked to but there were definitely two of them. Thus, I decided to give it a try. After watching the first episode, I was totally in awe. It started off simple enough, telling us a brief history of what had happened in the past (the war with Britannia and such) and we can see that our main protaganist, Lelouch, vows to crushed Britannia. Fast forward into the future, Lelouch is now living as a normal Britannian student. However, what should have been a normal school day for Lelouch (it won’t be normal for most students though) took a horrible turn when he was caught up the mess created by the ‘terrorists’.  In a twist of fate, he managed to obtain the geass of absolute obedience at the end. Cool huh? Absolute obedience. I was really intrigued that Lelouch had such a powerful tool at his disposal so early in the series and i was really interested to see how he is going to crushed the Britannian empire with it.

The rest of the story never cease to amaze me. The way he manipulates people and use them as though they were pawns in a chess game, how battles were fought out (not with superior numbers or firepower but real-time strategies) the many plot-twists and so on. The only thing that can relate Code Geass to Gundam is probably the mechas. Other than that, the story itself is pure genius. Maybe i am exaggerating a little but it is truly a sight to behold. The end of the series left me in such a state that I do not feel like watching any anime for a day or two. It just left me thinking about the stuff that happened in the anime. Thankfully at that time though, Season 2 was not that far off so I do not have to wait as long as other people. This is one anime you should definitely try out. It might appeal to you, it might not but hey, doesn’t hurt to watch an episode or two right?

Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix

The past few days in Harvey Norman Suntec City was pretty empty due to the F1 race being held in the area. Sales were obviously bad with the severe lack of customers. Well, enough about work. Back to topic. I was not that really keen on the F1 at first until I experienced first hand the adrenaline when watching the cars go whizzing by. Furthemore, after reading the newspaper articles yesterday about the qualifying matches and what not, the interest somewhat managed to crawl its way into me. With all the drama surrounding it (what with Fernando Alonso starting at the 15th position and stuff), it is quite difficult to ignore it. I was really interested to see if Alonso is capable in making his way up from his 15th position (although at that time I thought it was near impossible since he had literally ‘give up’ the race and not to mention the difficulty in overtaking someone in the street circuit)

The match started off as expected, with Massa leading the pack in the starting laps. Furthermore, as the race goes on, the distance between him and Hamilton increases. The future seemed bright for Massa until the time when Renault’s Nelson Piquet Jr.car crashed into a side barrier. There was then the safety car interlude to removed the wreckage. All is still well until he decided to take the first pit stop which ends up disastrous. He was given the green light but unknown to him, the mechanics were not exactly done yet and thus drove off with the rig still intact into his car. He only realised it near the exit of the lane and ‘parked’ his car at the side, waiting for the mechanics to remove it. By the time it was done, he was already the last.

I was like “Woah! Siak arh! HAHAHA!” when I saw him driving off with the rig. (No offense to anyone though, I just find it simply amusing as I doubt that rarely happens) People were like going “EH?!” or “What the hell?” or they just simply stared at the screens in disbelief. My colleague was going on and on about how people who bet Massa will win would be furious or something (He is probably one of them) From that incident, I guess it shows that teamwork is really important here. Alonso took advantage of the safety car prelude and Massa’s pit stop blunder to quickly rise up in the field and thus become the champion of the first night race here. I was also impressed with Germany’s Nico Rosberg performance. Even with a stop-go penalty, he still managed a second. Impressive in my opinion.

Ryogi Shiki Garannodou (PVC Figure)

Item name: Ryogi Shiki Garannodou
Manufacturer:Good Smile Company
Scale: 1/7
Material: PVC
Producer : Nanashi
Original: Kara no Kyokai
Release Date: November 2008

If I were to get a figurine, this will be the first one in my list. I have never collected any figurines before. It is possibly due to the high price on these pieces that deter me from purchasing any of them but I can make an exception for this.

The kimono and sword combo may be common in an anime or manga but the way Shiki is potrayed here gives off a different feeling from the usual figurines you see. For one thing, it’s like she has a ‘life’. Possibly due to the kimono she is wearing, which looks kind of realistic.

Oh well, I would not be getting her until all my financial stuff has settled. Hopefully they will be selling her in the figurine stores here by the time I enter university. Shipping and stuff like that is real troublesome ya?

I will post the different angle shots in the ‘Ingredients’ page when I am done with it.

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness

Original Title: Disgaea: afternoon of Darkness
Publisher: NIS America
Console: Playstation Portable
Category: Strategy Role-Playing Game

Description: The Netherworld – a place darker than a pitch-black cave, located deeper than the depths of the sea. It is a cursed land where evil reigns and foul beings dwell. Nobody knows its whereabouts, but everybody fears its existence…

The story takes place two years after the death of King Krichevskoy, the ruler of the Netherworld. His son Laharl slept for two full years, unaware of his father’s death, while demons fought for supremacy over the Netherworld. With the help of his surbodinate Etna and her underlings, the egocentric Prince Laharl fights his way to become the next King.

I played this game on a whim. The real reason was that I wanted to play Yggdra Union but at that time, the English version wasn’t out so I was left with no choice but to look for other SRPGs small enough to fit into my 2GB memory stick, which has already 1gb plus worth of games inside. Disgaea and Final Fantasy tactics fitted the bill nicely but I chose Disgaea because of its Ragnarok-ish feel.

The game was downright enjoyable. There’s your usual yet unusual cast of characters, ridiculous albeit humorous storyline, spartan leveling (if you’re hardcore enough, you can even play till the thousands) and the oh-so-many-ways of fighting (try picking up the prinny, a penguin-like character, and throw it at your oppenents).

The game is divided into chapters, with each chapter having a certain ‘goal’ to accomplished while at the same time moves the story along at a nice pace. Most of the the time, you’re either out there battling/training or at your home based doing usual stuff like healing or buying weapons. Combat is like any other SRPG, with it being turn-based. Thus, careful planning on where to place your characters and what to do with them is needed. First-time players might find it confusing, with stuff such as Geo Panels, but you will get the hang of it over time.

Character creation is one aspect of the game that I simply loved. Besides the story-related characters, you’re able to create characters to help you in your quest to become King. There is a huge variety of classes available to choose from, and even more available to you when you ‘unlocked’ them after certain requirements are met. Classes range from your usual Warriors and Mages to the Divine Majin and Angel. My favourite character is of course, the Archer class. You can also create monsters as well although they’re rarely used as the classes have a lot more advantage but that didnt stop me from transmigrating my prinnies into other monsters. (You can catch monsters as well so I was feeling kind of assed when I find that out as i had already trained my Neko girl to level 70+ and my dragon to a 60+ that time.)

What is transmigrating? It is sort of like a rebirth system,  where you will be able to reset your characters to level one but with better stats and in some cases, you are able to transfer the skills over as well. Transmigrating isn’t limited to the class itself so you can cross transmigrate like for say, a Fighter to a Ninja (with the exception of story-related characters).

You can also petition stuff to the dark assembly which includes stuff like unlocking extra worlds, getting better weapons or even make your enemies stronger. There 3 ways to pass the petition: either you are at a high level where they will vote for your idea without any trouble, bribe those who are rejecting your idea or simply force them. I did try to force them once into unlocking an alternate world (god knows how I survived and won without my characters dying) but just be sure the senators who reject your idea is not of a uber high level. There’s more stuff actually but I will end the post here for now. Might do a follow-up if I’m not lazy. Now, what are you waiting for? Grab your PSPs and start playing the game if you haven’t done so!

Comex 2008

This is most probably the last IT fair I’ll participate in before serving National Service for the next two years. This time I was posted under the printer section instead of the LCD monitors but no complains as of yet as I thought sales would be good. The printer section was divided into two; one group under Best Denki and another group under PC Connect. I was in the latter group. Here are my sales.

Thursday: 4    Friday: 8     Saturday: 2     Sunday: 10-11

Yes I know. Horrible weren’t they? The others from PC Connect sold roughly the same number or slightly more except for a lucky soul or two who manage to make it more than 10 on a single day (with the exception of Sunday of course) The situation did not help either when they increase the promoters on our side by close to twice at the weekends (thus, explains my miserable 2 on a Saturday)

Look across to the one under Best Denki and you see them selling theirs like hotcakes as they were positioned at the place where most of the traffic flow comes in. Oh well, no use crying over spilt milk.