My best friend, Hannah, has cancer. It is leukemia. I went on the Net and I did a bit of research on it. She has acute lymphocytic leukemia. Malignant cancer cells are replacing the healthy cells in her bone marrow. Hannah is normally a very athletic person (she’s on the soccer team) but during the last month she always felt tired for no particular reason. A twenty mph jog would leave her exhausted because she didn’t have the necessary red cells to carry the oxygen to her muscles. When she went to the doctor they did a blood test. The low blood cell count alerted them to the problem.

Luckily, it is no big deal. The doctors will give her a new body next month. She’ll get her second body a couple of years early, and she’ll suffer from growing pains, but it is a minor inconvenience. However, had we been living two thousand years ago the diagnosis would have been her death sentence. People living back then didn’t have the technology to produce replaceable bodies. In order to “cure” leukemia they used primitive methods: “chemotherapy,” and “bone marrow transplant.” They would dose the body with high amounts of radiation to kill both the healthy and the cancerous cells in the bone marrow and then replace the dead bone marrow with a transplant. It was a sickening procedure, literally. Their hair would fall out, and they would vomit constantly. Furthermore there was always the chance that a malignant cell would survive the radiation and infect the new bone marrow transplant.

Science and technology, I think, is a good thing. Without biosilicate, robots, or replaceable bodies, life would be short, miserable and fearful. Since our ancestors had only one body for their entire lives minor things like a mysterious shortness of breath, a bump that wouldn’t go away, or a twinge in the heart would be cause for fear. Now, however, it is no big deal. As long as the brain case isn’t damaged we can always get new bodies!

– Sasha

Chizuko will go out and try to find him again.

The airship is crashing; Ken is trying his best to save the ship and the people including Chizuko. What’s going to happen?

The excitement here mounts to the top and as we anticipate a boom, we don’t get disappointed (no actual explosions occur).

OK, back to the beginning of the episode. 20 Faces decides to go away again, and leaving Chizuko and Ken all alone. However, he trusts them to get out of the situation.

Chizuko tries to find parachutes, but the bomb blows these out of the ship.

Fortunately, the people who seems to be dead are alive and they wake from their drug-introduced slumber.

Aketsuki goes to try to help. On his way, he finds some fishermen and gets their help to save the survivors of the would be crash.

The ship lands in the sea OK, and Aketsuki saves Chizuko. Ken, after seeing that Chizuko is indeed saved, goes away presumably hiding.

On the other hand, Toumei, who’s loyal to Chizuko, makes a deal with the evil step mother and helps out Chizuko in her own smart way.

Now we have the members of the detective girls, it’s time to for their adventure!

Without giving much away at all, I’m looking forward for their adventure in the coming episode.

After watching so many seiyuu sweating and working their asses off, I tend to forget how great they did their work. Here’s no different. Aya-chan promised to sound different, and she does.

Once again, she and the cast gives an excellent performance. I highly recommend you catch up to this show if you’re an Hirano Aya fan and if you haven’t watched this show at all.

(Of course I’m biased because Aya-chan is in this one!)

P.S. Trying not to be cynical, finding new stuff and lowering my expectations, and reflecting on the basic elements of anime…

I’m not being remotely sarcastic at all but little bit remorseful and quite sober (it’s 4:00 PM here in Taipei, Taiwan).

I’ve lost that enthusiasm long, long ago when I first got back into anime. At that time, I was in college, and someone introduced me to Ninja Scroll. Everything just looked so cool, freshing and edgy with enough blood and sex and the fact it was animated was somewhat surprising for me. I watched kids’ anime when I was a child in Asia but nothing else for many years after that. I went through high school worrying about not being able to fit in, suicide, prom ( I did have an excellent prom with a girl who was stacked), and other good stuff.

But after that, and after many, many, many, many more anime, finished and unfinished, I got cynical. That may be why I don’t get comments often for my articles (even though that’s not the point here). Because my post is rather boring and the same old critiques are repeated in my post - “uninspired, unfunny, uninteresting, bland, boring, same old same old, run-of-the-mill…” and other highly energetic and interesting words.

Boy, if I was someone else reading these words in the same article I’d fallen asleep or change the damned channel in under one micro-second!

But after seeing so many things done over and over again, I’m rather bored. Really, really bored.

I envy other people who can write something about a show which I find boring, such as Zero no Tsukaima season 3. I actually do, because they can find parts that make them excited and they feel wonderful about it, even episode 1.

I’m just not a fan of that show.

Does any of you know how to stop being cynical and bored and just be excited about everything being reviewed? Please, I humbly ask your assistance and I’d love to be enlightened.

Please.

I think I’m infected with the cynical reviewer disease. I guess I’ll try to be fair then.

To me so far, this seems like a show using a concept that we don’t see that much in anime, but it’s certainly not revolutionary.

An interstellar police is trying to catch criminals but in the process, a commoner on this common earth gets hurt, and in order to revive him, she has to get him involved somehow, and in this case, she simply inherits his body.

Of course the boy is in love with a girl, in this case Sakamoto Maaya’s character, and of course, some daily hijinks ensue.

One dramatic moment is Birdy’s robotic partner dies in this episode (spoiler? Who’s actually watching this show?). I’d love to see just a little bit more emotional expression and sadness, but I think the flashback is effective enough. The guy who shares the body with Birdy doesn’t have to say anything, though.

You know what my problem is ( as if anyone cares)? It’s that I’ve seen so many anime finished and unfinished, if something doesn’t wow me (is that allowed in the blogsphere), I simply don’t get excited and unbiased about it.

Nothing is particularly exciting or catering to any special tastes here. I guess if you’re a seiyuu fan in general you’ll appreciate the cast.

Even the important fight scenes don’t seem that inspired. But honestly, if you can catch this one, give it a shot. The concept and everything else about it hails back to the earlier days of anime, and you may even appreciate this one.

In the days between cons–between Anime Expo and Comic Con, which starts tomorrow–we raced against time, and terrorists, to bring you the 24th episode of Anime Diet Radio! (Sound only, this time.) We just have a couple of news items: the new season of Black Lagoon, and the weird shenanigans happening at Studio Bones about Full Metal Alchemist and Darker Than Black sequels. Our Roundtable discussion is about the difficulties and the triumphs of our first ever live panel with Anime Genesis.

For the first time in a while, too, there were some outtakes worth keeping. There’s a story there about how I could get Shokotan’s number next time and about one other panel glitch in which we (sort of) shafted our beloved friends from Makenai, the Japanese cover band whose lead singer Pamela won AX Idol this year. Consider this yet another apology from us. :)

It’s great to be back on a roll with Anime Diet Radio. See you at Comic Con this week!

Show Agenda

• (00:00–04:49) Introduction
• (04:50–16:56) News 1: Black Lagoon 3rd Season (and a few words about other action shows)
• (16:57–27:38) News 2: BONES memo leak
• (27:39–52:07) Roundtable: The Pros and Cons of Paneling
• (52:08–53:29) Conclusion

Show Notes

• –OP: “You’re the One” by Ichiko (OP to Zero no Tsukaima: Princess no Rondo)
• –ED: “Kaze no Kioku” by Aimmy (ED to World Destruction)
• –The ANN story about the new season of Black Lagoon can be found here (1). Likewise, Ray’s first review of the show, and mine, are here (2) and here (3). Ray’s post has the distinction of being the third ever on this website (note the year it was written in!), and his debut post. My review was my second series review after Welcome to the NHK!
• –More info is available about the BONES link at ANN (4). Check out their forums on the story too (5).
• –Makenai’s website is a Myspace profile here (6). Our partner Anime Genesis is here (7).

Link References for iTunes Listeners

• (1) http://tinyurl.com/5a996b
• (2) http://animediet.net/archives/10
• (3) http://animediet.net/archives/18
• (4) http://tinyurl.com/59pps6
• (5) http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/cms/discuss/23805
• (6) http://myspace.com/makenaiband
• (7) http://anime-gen.com

Walk like an Egyptian! Now!

So, anybody imagined En Shou (Yuan Shao) being a pompous, jouoh-sama tsundere-like character that talks like a spoiled ojousan? Me neither.

But, as a moe-craving Otaku, this show serves up everything today’s Otaku could ever want - girls, yuri, fan service, women in embarrassing situations (sumo topless with a…funny…sumo outfit)

Guess who?

When I realized the 2 girls next to Reiha (En Shou/Yuan Shao) were Ga Ryo (Yan Liang) and Bun Shu (Wen Chou), I was stunned and then I laughed my ass off.

My oh my oh my…Two of the supposedly dumbest and ugliest generals in the fictional novel in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms becomes cute but dumb girls that would do anything to keep their jobs. Priceless.

Both get to walk like an Egyptian, too. Oh and magical girls.

The crowd went…dumbfounded.

Yes, that's there for your feminine comfort.

Ling-ling I mean Cho He (Zhang Fei) decides to help out by entering a tournament because she played a clumsy girl at the maid cafe in ancient Chinese version of Akiba - wow, ancient China must be cool (yeah, right) - and she meets Ba Cho (Ma Chao). Both beat the crap out of other contestants (male contestants didn’t get any screen time) and then as a contest for spots on Reiha’s general roster, a contest with 3 tests is held. Yeah…Dumb and dumber and dumberer…

But for the fan service/yuri/girl action craving Otaku in me, this was a great episode!

Your run-of-the-mill crowd in Akiba

Don’t forget Sou Sou (Cao Cao) the little tsundere genius with the poisonous tongue.

Good for someone craving an anime diet with cheese and sugar, preferably made into cheesecakes.

Better late then never

It’s all about relationships. Ohgi and Villetta are the example of the unselfish relationship. Ohgi knows he is going to die but is willing to face that death for Villetta. He knows that he will probably die but his love is stronger then his desire for life. He even takes the hit for her so that she does not die. It is in his sacrifice that she finds her love for him. She jumps off of the cliff for him. The next question that she has to face is “will she reject him after jumping off a cliff for him?” Was her action just a reaction and will be overwhelmed by second thoughts, or will this be the impetus she needs to be in a relationship with Ohgi? I hope this is the point where she realizes her feelings for him.

C.C. loves Lelouch. We learn that “God” Charles was trying to kill is immortal C.C. That is not all that impressive. The back story shows the drive behind C.C. and what her main goal has been all along. She used her geass to find happiness in others. But as we could all guess that was hollow and shallow. Then the one person she thought she could trust ended up yelling “FOOLED YOU” and demands to be killed. So we see C.C. as the character that longs for death because she knows no love. Last season there was that one guy with geass who obsessed over her but did not love her. In Lelouch she saw something she wanted to protect. She did not want to force the pain of immortal life onto Lelouch. Lelouch responds by fighting for her. Working the crazy-ass brain machine, and calling her back from her intended death. But the C.C. that Lelouch knew was not that one that he saved. She reverted back to her childlike self before she had her geass. The developments will be interesting to watch.

Suzaku is not a complete ass. He is pretty close to it but did relent and did not force refrain on to Kallen. The beginning is awesome with Lelouch’s crazy eyes. He seemed to give up a little too quickly when he found out his father was immortal. “Well the geass does not work, and shooting does not help so I should panic” seemed to be the thought that ran through his head. This guy takes down whole countries and gives up when two plans fail. He really is dealing with some inferiority issues concerning daddy. Next time he thinks he wins I wanna see a fist pump or peace sign. Something that shows he is happy and cliché.

]]> http://animediet.net/archives/4202/feed http://animediet.net/archives/4194 http://animediet.net/archives/4194#comments Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:29:58 +0000 Mike http://animediet.net/?p=4194

I've got my eye on you, Comic Con

This year, for the first time ever, Anime Diet is going to go to San Diego Comic Con–the biggest convention of any pop culture kind in America! From all the bombardments of email that I and the other press members of our humble site are receiving, it is definitely on a totally different scale than even Anime Expo. For one, the vast majority of the events going on don’t have much or anything to do with anime, and plus, there are many, many more tons of events than any one organization can cover. So we have to be selective about what we attend.

But with that in mind, here are the list of things that Anime Diet officially intends to cover. The three of us who are going (Jeremy, Matt, and myself) also plan to go to other events for various sci-fi things that we are interested in as individuals. But this is what the website will officially be doing and will appear as liveblogs, posts, and (of course) videos.

Thursday (July 24)

• Afro Samurai Resurrection Panel (Room 6B, 4:15PM-5:15PM): I’m not really a fan of Afro Samurai. I gave it a rather mediocre review, for one. The only reason I’m even considering coming to this one is because Samuel L. Muthaf%!#@$% Jackson is actually going to be present! I suspect, however, we may not be able to get in the door, and probably not going to be taking any video. Which, if that’s the case, I’ll just head on over to the
• Bandai Panel (Room 4, 5PM-6PM): this year’s AX Bandai Panel had only one licensing announcement for Hayate no Gotoku. Will they announce anything else this time? After all, Funimation isn’t here to spoil the party like at AX…

Friday (July 25)

• Viz Panel (Room 2, 3PM-4PM): this is the main Viz panel, where licensing announcements and such happen. This, of course, is going to be overshadowed by

Saturday (July 26)

• Tite Kubo Panel (Room 7AB, 1PM-2PM): We are at Comic Con mainly because of this man, the creator of Bleach. Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to get a private interview as the slots filled up extremely quickly. However, we can at least try to get a question and signing in sometime during the week of the con. But we will definitely be liveblogging this at least, if not posting videos and pictures (depends on policy).
• Masquerade (Ballroom 20, 8:30PM-11:30PM): Let’s see how this masquerade is run compared to anime cons. Especially since this year’s AX one was so short.

I will be trying to get signing tickets early for the Tite Kubo signings as well, which are taking place twice during the con, in which only 100 people get a signature. It will help make up for a lack of an interview.

I will also be trying my best to put out the video diaries on the same day, if at all possible. My extreme weariness prevented me from doing the same at AX, and it cost us a lot of viewers as a result. I’ll try not to make the same mistake again. I will also try not just to interview anime/manga cosplayers, but some of the other nerds dressed up in other franchises too. We are all united, in the end, by our geek culture!

Anyways, I will be heading to San Diego on Wednesday to pick up my press badge and get a nose in for Preview Night–and then the festivities begin on Thursday. Stay tuned!

1st Live-Action Dragonball Poster with Son Goku Posted (Updated)

…posted the first poster from the Dragonball live-action film that features a main character on Friday. The poster portrays Canadian actor Justin Chatwin (War of the Worlds, The Invisible, Lost television series), who stars as Son Goku…

Ray’s take: Uh, animation can get away with a lot of things where live action films can’t. Don’t they get it? God damn it’s not a racing anime! I mean, I mean…Gosh, I just can’t watch this at all. The costumes look cheesy as hell with actual people wearing them, and I shudder to image the hair of Vegeta on a real person…However, Shoto-tan maybe thrilled to see it…But I’m seriously disturbed.