Random Life Update Part 1

So this term has gone by pretty quickly, the work is difficult and there are various evening obligations (not all involve alcohol) which make it even tougher. But since I refuse to work after 7pm I’m left with a lot of time to sleep, eat and pursue many non-academic activities.

It’s good that I can’t play Starcraft here, but the fact that I can just cycle 5 minutes home means I end up playing anyway. Somehow I’ve managed to find the time to watch more anime than I did during the summer holidays, so I guess I’ll talk briefly about some of them.

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Makai Senki Disgaea

They say it exists in the place deeper than any sea and darker than any darkness. It is a dark place where ominous things gather. No one knows where it is. But everybody believes it and is afraid of it.

Kliuchevskoi, the king of devils, died. The news of the great king, who had ruled the Devil World for a long time, traveled among other worlds. Soon, it got around all over the Devil World.

Taking this opportunity, ambitious daemons, who had smoldered with their complaints, rose one after another. Then the Devil World turned into the age of rival chiefs.

Two years have passed since then…

Basically I was watching this while playing Disagea 2, only reason I wanted to see it was because I hadn’t had enough of the characters from the first game. The anime roughly follows the story of the game but it seems like some characters’ personalities have changed.

The art and animation are not good, the music is taken from the game and I didn’t like the ending (there are multiple endings in the game). Basically there’s no one I would recommend this to, and if you’re a rabid fanboy of Disgaea then you will have watched it already.

Rating: 3/10 (because it’s cute at times)

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Koi Kaze

Soon after his younger sister was born, Koushiro’s parents divorced. The two siblings were raised separately – Koushiro by their father, and Nanoka, his younger sister, by their mother.

10 years passed and Koushiro had forgotten about his sister completely. He lives a normal life, working at a dating agency. However, his sister would be attending high school in the spring. To ease her daily commute, she moves in with Koushiro. This situation proves perplexing for him. To make matters more awkward, he had previously dated Nanoka without recognising her as his sister. To add to his embarassment, the agonies of a broken heart had once driven him to tears, and it was Nanoka who had comforted him.

Nanoka attaches herself to Koushiro as if to make up for the time lost during their separation. Koushiro decides to become a good brother, but fails from the start. Nanoka is just too cute, and he cannot help being aware that she was an attractive girl.

He knows he must hide his feelings for his sister. However, every time he
meets innocent Nanoka, those feelings surge to the fore and make him irritable, resulting in another day of self-loathing.

So it’s under-aged girl and incest. This may or may not be the secret or not so secret fantasy of every unmarried middle aged japanese man. I’m not entirely sure why I wanted to watch this. I remember it being recommended when I asked for something that wasn’t like the typical anime and made you think.

I watched this while playing Arcana Heart, which (almost) has an entire cast of lolis. That may have been why I wanted the characters in Koi Kaze to be have their faces smashed in. But I think it’s mainly because I found the whole thing very boring. Unsurprisingly it’s hard for me to relate to or feel sympathetic for the dopey, grumbling main character. The girl often acts very mature for her age, which I find makes her character less believable.

Maybe if I found the little girl attractive this wouldn’t have been such a snore-fest. Not that everyone who likes this is a paedophile. But I suppose it’s more likely they will be. There’s a lot of cutesy loli types in anime but this is the only one I’ve seen where underage sex is clearly implied. Well at least it has a happy ending.

Rating: 2/10 (only finished it because it was short)

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Nodame Cantabile

Shinichi Chiaki is a gifted, if arrogant, student at the Momogaoka Music Academy. Although he has enrolled in piano classes, his real dream is to become a world-famous orchestra conductor. Unfortunately, an extremely traumatic event which occurred during his childhood has resulted in a fear of flying, destroying his chances of studying abroad under the wing of the renowned conductor, Sebastian Viera.

Chiaki’s attitude, as well as his frustration and disappointment with the state of his life, results in him keeping an arms-length relationship with his fellow students, and in conflicts with his instructors.

However, things begin to change for him when he meets fellow piano student Noda “Nodame” Megumi. She may be a slob, an airhead, and a slow learner, but there’s something about her piano playing that moves his heart. Perhaps even change it.

Light-hearted and lots of classical music. It’s not really that funny for a comedy, but my sisters seemed to enjoy it. So if you’re a 10 year old girl who plays the piano, or a teenager whose favourite movies are all chick flicks then you’ll love this.

Like a lot of anime, how much you enjoy this will depend entirely on how attached you get to characters. Also you don’t need to have much knowledge of other anime or japanese culture to understand the jokes (except maybe know what Doraemon is).

Currently watching the second season, although you can stop after the ending to the first.

Rating: 5/10 (average)

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Chaos;HEAd

Takumi is a high school student. He is withdrawn and is not interested in 3D things. In his town, a mysterious serial murder case happens and people get panicked. One day, when he chats on the internet, a man suddenly contacts him and gives him an URL. He goes to the website and finds a blog image that suggests a next murder case…. On the next day, it really happens….

Takumi Nishijō suffers from intense delusions as a result of his apparent schizophrenia and the extremely secluded lifestyle he lives as a hikkikomori. One day he accidentally stumbles upon a gruesome murder scene, a part of a chain of events called “New Generation.” After this, his life gets caught up in these events, and he meets a bunch of increasingly insane anime girls with swords.

Starts off with the typical harem theme. Nerdy guy suddenly finds himself under the attention of a variety of girls in different shapes and sizes (colour coded of course). But fortunately that doesn’t last long. It’s quite a simplistic psychological thriller which won’t take much of your time but leaves you feeling quite satisfied by the end.

The main characters pathetic cowardice is annoying but understandable. He pulls it together eventually after screaming like a girl, for a girl, in front of a girl, in front of 2 girls, with a girl and so on.

Rating: 6/10 (a bit above average, although nothing special)

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I’ve kept the good ones for part 2.