Look! It's the National Day Parade! AGAIN!!

Before it strikes midnight, i just want to say something on this, our 42nd National Day and NDP: How many hundred times do we have to watch a NDP flash Live or on our TV screens before we realise we've just been watching the same old-rehashed crap every single year??

I'm not trying to be unpatriotic here, but give me a break! I just turned on my TV and became overwhelmed by a feeling of deja vu; Didn't i see this last year? And when i think back of the year before i can remember myself thinking the exact same thing.

If someone can introduce me to a NDP Otaku who can tell me the subtle differences and improvements from this year, last year and the 36-40th editions, please do. I really want to shake his hand. Makes me wonder why we Singaporeans are so hard-up for those tickets. I guess it just reflects our 'everything free must grab' mentality.
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Drama: Ushi ni Negai wo - Love & Farm (Episode 1 - 3)

This will probably one of the last J-dramas i watch before i fly off next week. Basically there are only 2 things you need to know about this drama, 1, the plot; 6 university students from Tokyo go to a farm in Hokkaido for a farming internship program (this drama is supposed to be 'educational') and 2, Toda Erika is starring in it.

Words of wisdom suddenly ring in Kazumi's head: "Don't have a cow, man!

Annoyingly, EVERYONE from the university is either a loser, spoiled or just a plain jerk EXCEPT for Toda Erika's character, Chiba Kazumi. And i'm being totally unbiased (hard as it may be to believe) when i state that. The show's supposed to semi-educational but i don't really want to know (or care) where my milk and meat comes from...

A quick run-down of the cast and characters:

1 : Toda Erika as Chiba Kazumi: Clumsy but hardworking. The friendly cute girl next door amd the only normal person in the group. If this was a harem this will be the girl you should probably choose to end up with.
2 : Koide Keisuke as Mano Tohei: 101% Jerk. His father is some bigshot and he loves to act like the leader of the group and boss people around. Hates it when someone else upstages him.
3 : Nakata Atsuhiko as Wakamatsu Ryuta: The silent weirdo (read:loser). Loves to draw pictures of people when they aren't looking.
4 : Aibu Saki as Fujii Ayaka: Spoiled, irritating city slicker. She gets jealous over another girl flirting with a guy who is not her boyfriend, even though she has a boyfriend.
5 : Karina as Suenaga Mihoko: The spoiled rich kid who does not want to do a single thing around the farm.
6 : Tamayama Tetsuji as Takashimizu Takashi: His family owns the farm and he wants to run away from inheriting it. Wishy washy and weak-willed.
7 : Extras

Ultimately, what's gonna keep me watching this series will definitely be Toda Erika. The show is low-average 6/10 material at best and unless you got a fetish for cows and farming then you'll probably not care what happens to any of the dumb cows. Watching all the crying and arguing over cow-care just made me hungry instead.
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Found this funny Borat video on Youtube. Quite old stuff but great if you couldn't get enough of his brand of humor from the movie:

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I finally decided to cut my hair before flying to Japan. With a good chunk of my hair off, i feel at least 5 years younger and it's much more cooling, especially since it's been very hot this past few days. No prizes for realising my new 'do looks the same as all my previous haircuts.

There Goes My Hero

Drama: My Boss, My Hero (1-10 Complete)

This is a super hilarious series i just finished watching in one sitting. Nagase Tomoya (lead singer/guitarist of TOKIO) simply steals the show as Sakaki Makio (27), known in the region as 'Tornado Makio', the strongest (but incredibly dumb) Yakuza and next in line to be Boss of his father's clan.

"I'm gonna kill ya, bastard!"

After ruining a 30 billion yen deal (because he couldn't figure out if 25+5 is bigger than 27), his father, the head of the Yakuza clan issues him an ultimatum: graduate from high school with a diploma or he will name his (smarter) younger brother Mikio as the next Boss of the clan. To fulfill his dream of becoming Boss, Makio reluctantly heads to St Agnes High School.

Won the match, lost his shorts.

From being extorted by the class bully, volunteering to be the class representative (the "Boss" of the class), to playing basketball (and losing his shorts), everything Makio does is made extra funny by his super versatile vocal and facial expressions. Tomoya really puts alot of energy and enthusiasm into his performance. His stupidity and wild Yakuza imagination (and instincts) are just priceless.

Man of a thousand expressions.

In between, he falls in (and out) of love for the first time with classmate Umemura Hikari (17), played by Aragaki Yui, who was actually the main reason i caught this series in the first place, but she got easily outshone by Tomoya. Quite a sweet performance from her though.

Buying a ring for his first love @ 27 years old.

A quick sideward glance while she's preoccupied with her phone.

I highly recommend this series. Very good, quick pacing (didn't want it to end though..) plenty of laughs and very likeable characters. If i wasn't a fan of Nagase Tomoya before this, i sure am now. And Aragaki Yui gets + points in my book just for co-starring with him.

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Something i need for the next Guitar Hero guitar that i buy; firmer springs for the strumming thingie! The whole thing went soggy after mine and Brandon's 'jamming' the past few nights.

And i finally bothered to find out what the chorus lyrics are for 'Hangar 18', it's "Possibly I've seen too much/Hangar 18 I know too much". Couldn't make out what he was singing before. And Herbert, i was wrong, this song's riff IS very catchy.

Today is also Independence Day! Happy 4th of July to my cousins the Wilsons, in Mississippi!

Up and Coming

Some interesting dramas to look out for come July. And by 'interesting' i mean the actors/actresses i like or just know are starring in them:

-Ushi ni Negai wo: Love & Farm (official site; starring Erika Toda!): Makes me mad to see her name listed 5th in Dramawiki... Start Date: July 3rd Tuesday

- Yama Onna Kabe Onna (official site; starring Misaki Itoh and Kyoko Fukada): Been a long time since i've seen a Kyoko Fukada drama. Start Date: July 5th Thursday

- Papa to Musume no Nanokakan (official site; starring Yui Aragaki): Still deciding whether or not to track Yui Aragaki's shows.. Start Date: July 1st Sunday

- First Kiss (official site; starring Inoue Mao (from Hana Yori Dango) and Ito Hideaki): No screenshots or promo pic! Start Date: July 9th Monday

- Doubutsu 119 (official site; starring Ichikawa Yui): Ichikawa Yui's back! Or is she? It's only a one episode special like her last drama.. Air Date: June 30th Saturday
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Another all-too-cute Erika screen capture...from Bomb Vol 6 DVD.

Lost Post

It just pisses me off straight when after i spend a good half an hour writing a post and then clicking the 'save as draft' button when Blogger gives me some server error crap and i lose everything i just typed. Don't think i want to write everything out again so i'll just summarise some of the things i wanted to post originally:

A) Guitar Hero 2 (Xbox 360). Bought today. Funz Centre. $134. Fun. Getting hang of it.

B) Drama: Proposal Daisakusen (Episode 1-3 ongoing). Yamashita Tomohisa/Nagasawa Masami. Time travel, love story etc Very nice.

I'm not sure what you can infer from this picture about the story..but try to..

C) Erika Toda. New photoshoot. Sample:

Just imagine the original post that was lost with more details and more pictures. That's about it. Bah..stupid blogger! Note to self to Ctrl+C everything and paste on a notepad before submitting anything.

TOW No Pictures

If it's not one thing it's the other: been wanting to update for the past few days but some stupid script error on Blogspot has prevented me from doing so. Even downloading Firefox failed to help. So until something on someone's end (and if you believe me it's Blogspot's fault!) gets fixed i'll be stuck posting just unformatted text, since i can't even hit the edit HTML button.
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After much uneventfulness, i managed to gather nearly all of the signatures for my ORD clearance form. What a letdown for my final 'quest'. I actually thought (hoped actually) that filling up the form would be harder than this. Sort of a final hurdle before they release me. As it stands now, the final hurdle is covering the Navy Open House 2007. I don't wish to put my waning medical skills to the test.

Went bowling with Nigel and Melvin (2 fellow ORDers) today after my dental FFI at TMC. I managed a pretty respectable (to me) average of 129.6 over 5 games (TP: 648, L113H153). Nigel is a pretty good bowler once he finds his spot! He had a low of 92 and high of 182 but lost in total pinfalls to yours truly. He managed to coax me into buying a bowling ball after our next payday. Saw a nice pink ball for a straight bowler like me for $125 at the CSC shop. I don't swing 'that' way but i think pink really stands out from the usual black balls. Anyway, we'll have a lot of free time on weekdays to go bowling once June comes around.
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True to self, i have nearly already overspent my entire next month's NS allowance. Besides some bowling, some pigging out (Cafe Cartel w/ Alex on Saturday, Swensen's w/ Nigel/Melvin today) and some taxis here and there, i also bought 5 X360 games this month (Dead Rising, N3, Spiderman 3, Test Drive Unlimited and Splinter Cell Double Agent) not to mention some DVDs (Nada Sou-Sou, Spiderman 2, Little Britain and Spring Snow).

And to top it off, Guitar Hero 2 is finally confirmed to be released on May 14th (Monday). The odds of me tightening my purse-strings looks to be pretty slim till at least after this purchase. It's not just PS2 Guitar Hero 2+new songs+HD graphics, MOST importantly, it's Guitar Hero 2+new songs+HD graphics+1000 shiny ACHIEVEMENT POINTS! Oh yah, i added my XBL gamercard underneath my profile.
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I thought the day would never come again: my BT download list is finally empty! And vice-versa, my 550GB HDD is nearly full! I usually take my time to re-encode and burn my stuff but this time round there's too much new stuff so i'm going to have to practice watch and delete for those 'average' dramas. Even Ishihara Satomi wasn't a big enough pull to stop me from deleting Nurse Aoi off. Gonna finish the last 2 episodes of Nodame Cantabile

One last side note for this update: Liar Game 4 is out! Gonna watch it tonight!

Back to the Future

Went to IMM yesterday to look at more furniture. I didn't know that the majority of the upper storeys were dedicated to furniture retailers. And unlike Ikea or Novena, they don't sell stuff off the shelf, the furniture can be customised to a certain extent. Amazingly i managed to decide on almost all my room items on that 1 day, and even more amazingly my father actually agreeded with my choices for once! Last thing i'm missing for my room is a 2-seater sofa bed, probably will get that at Ikea. Maybe when i tell people about what i'm planning to do for my room it may sound like boasting, but from my POV i'm just plain excited: after 22 years of sharing a room with someone i'm finally going to have my own space. Sweet peace and privacy is within my grasp!
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Drama: Liar Game Episode 3

This will sound redundant but yes, i really like this series so far. And believe it or not, it's not just only because Erika Toda is starring in it. The story is very intriguing as well. And furthermore every episode ends on some sort of cliff-hanger (albeit a very short cliff) and makes me all excited to watch the next one (incidentally episode airs tonight 11pm in Japan). Too bad the episodes are so short (36 mins) and a good 5 mins of it is spent on recaps at the start, previews at the end and the OP for the show.

The episode picks off where the previous one left off, with 'Jigsaw' about to explain the rules of the 2nd round. Among the 22 of them, 1 person will be randomly chosen to ask a question that can be answered with only 'Yes' or 'No'. Then all 22 will have to submit a ballot with their answer. The people who chose the answer in the minority advances to the next round where the process is repeated.

A trial round is held for the contestants. The question posed is, 'Are you a woman?'. Nao does a count of the women in the room and there's only 9 of them, so she's confident that balloting a YES will see her in the minority. Of course, she doesn't understand the concept of lying so naturally she loses, with the majority of the votes for YES. The LGT announces the real game will commence tomorrow.

Worried and unable to sleep, Nao approaches Shin'chi for help to get her out of the game. Shin'chi tells her to go grab intel from the other contestants as to why they decided to come to the 2nd round. He then devises a plan so that 8 of them will manage to get through the game without being in debt. The integrity of the plan hinges on the trustworthiness of the 8 people and that after 1 of them eventually wins, he/she will split the money with the others.

I run to you for your help and you want me to play chess?

Nao eagerly goes to find 6 more male volunteers who she deems trustworthy (she's probably the worst judge of character)and the next day of the game they put their plan in action. (The question asked is, if you could go to the mountains or the sea, would you prefer to go to the sea?) Seeing the voting results later on which follows too perfectly to his best case scenario plan, Shin'chi suspects that there is a traitor within their group. EPISODE END

Time Goes By..

Did my 2nd last duty yesterday! 1 more last Sunday duty before i lose another chunk of my NS obligations (my medical knowledge/ skills were the first to go). Was fussing over what to pack for duty (in terms of entertainment) and in the end didn't bring anything extra. Dennis introduced me to this fun flash game site GameGecko and that's how i blew my afternoon away.

Ended up watching Miss Singapore Universe 2007, a program that i would never normally watch while at home. But it turned out to be quite entertaining. Some of the contestants were downright...'unpleasant'. Call me biased against local girls (i don't think i am but the beautiful ones are few and far between) but hey, i call it as i see it. I was looking forward to the question and answer round because i thought there would be some funny stuff but suprisingly the girls were quite well prepared. Ok, some of the answers were crappy (and so were majority of the questions) but at least there was nothing cringe-worthy.

In the end it was down to Joey Feng (Kang Wei's pick) and Jessica Tan and the latter won. Personally i though Joey looked sweeter but as Fidelis expertly pointed out, the girl with the bigger boobs always win. And with half the contestants having smaller cup size than Kang Wei (or Dennis), it was not that hard to guess the winner based on his theory.

Well since it's over and done with i'm gonna refrain from further badmouthing our Miss Universe 2007 representative but i sincerely hope she does something about her hairstyle because it looked awful. Good luck (you'll need it) carrying the Singapore flag to Miss Universe 2007!

(Dis)Honorary Awards:

Most Forced(fake) Smile: Cadenze Koh (MSU03): think she will have trouble returning to her normal expression after forcing that smile for the entire show
'Auntie' Award: Judy Lee (MSU18): it's a wonder she passed through the age checks prior to the compy (she pulled out of the finals due to work commitments...right..)
Ah Lian Award: Carol Chin (MSU05): she just has the typical Ah Lian look
Best Answer Award: Peggy Chang (MSU04): she had a perfect (ie exactly what i would have said) answer for the 2nd question round
Worst Figure Award: Angelina Tay (MSU15): she has broader shoulder than me! Brr! OR Christabel Campbell (MSU01): she's so tall that it's a little freakish, even Adrian Pang felt intimidated
Sweet Heart Award: Joey Feng (MSU09): Kang Wei has good taste, pity she didn't win

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Drama: Liar Game (Episode 2)

Just as last week, the raw + subs for the latest episode of Liar Game is already out! Episode 2 continues with more of Nao's foolishness and concludes Round 1 of the Liar Game.

Despite winning the first round, Nao gives up her share (50million yen) to Mr Fujisawa (her opponent) to help him with his debt. Shin'chi gives back his share as well, claiming that the deal was for him to get half of Nao's prize money (now 0 yen). Nao starts thinking that he's not such a bad guy after all and wonders why he became a swindler.

Nao invites Shin'ichi to her house to cook for him as a thank you gesture but they find another video tape inviting Nao to the 2nd round of Liar Game. Shin'ichi tells her to just ignore it and to call him if there's any problems. Next day, Nao meets a policeman who offers to accompany her to the meeting place of the 2nd round to formally tell them she wants no further part in the game. She calls Shin'ichi to thank him again and says she doesn't need his help this time.

Turns out she gets tricked again as the policeman is working for the Liar Game people and he only brings her there so that she will participate in Round 2. There's 22 people involved and at the last minute before the door closes, Shin'ichi walks in and declares he will take part as well. The 100 million yen this time is in the form of a diamond attached to the nametag of the players. Since there's 22 players, the maximum amount of money the winner stands to win is 2.1billion yen. The episode ends just as 'Jigsaw' is about to announce the rules of the game (something to do with Minority Voting) and with Nao looking worried (as usual).

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Caught Somewhere in Time

Spent my Saturday getting the Perfect Ending Achievement for The IdolMaster. Took me about 4 hours + to reach the end of my 52 week stint and then the hardest part was the farewell concert at the Dome. Failed 20 over times before i decided to sleep off my frustrations. Resumed when i woke up and passed it on my 2nd try. Hmm, I guess i would attribute the earlier failures to fatigue. That clears 20% of the achievement for the game. I have my eye set on at least 4 more achievements this week for this game.
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Drama: Kekkon Dekinai Otoko (The Man Who Can't Get Married) 1-12 (Finish!)

Wow~! This is definitely the most enjoyable (2006) drama that i watched this year. Abe Hiroshi gives a stellar performance as Kuwano Shinsuke (40), a nit-picking, cynical architect who enjoys being alone and can't understand why anyone would want to be married. His HR skills (or total lack of it), blunt and insensitive remarks and inconsideration makes you wonder why anyone would put up with him. (ans: he's a famous and highly regarded architect). It's not HA-HA funny but the subtle humour and interesting character relations make this a must-watch. Word of warning: If you are looking for a show with many Highs and Lows and twists, this isn't it. Most of the episodes are just re-affirmations that he dislikes social interactions and people in general.

Kuninaka_Ryoko

And did i mention that his neighbour Michiru (Kuninaka Ryoko) is really cute as well? I think she sort of resembles some MediaCorp artiste.
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Drama: Sexy Voice and Robo (Episode 1)

I'm very disappointed with this manga->anime->drama adaptation. Watched it cause Matsuyama Kenichi was in it but the first episode was a big disjointed mess. The first case feels really draggy and its hard to feel for the over-the-top Otaku(there are some funny moments though) played by Kenichi or Ohgo Suzuka as the middle schoolgirl who cares too much for other people. Especially after seeing Kekkon Dekinai Otoko i find it hard to swallow that someone would actually care so much for strangers.

I'll watch a couple more episodes before deciding whether to drop this series. Probably the only draw now is that 14-year old (born Aug '93)Ohgo Suzuka is extremely cute and sweet.

Shidou Nakamura makes an appearance in the first episode as well. Haven't seen this 2 in a show since Yamato.
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Guilty by Association

Finished watching 2 seasons (9+11eps) of Hana Yori Dango today! In case the title sounds vaguely familiar, it's the Japanese version of Taiwan series Meteor Garden (starring F4), which was in turn based off the manga series. Liked the comic when i read i back in poly but never watched Meteor Garden because i hated F4 back then. Was very undecided about picking up this series but the clincher was knowing that Erika Toda appears in the last 2 episodes of Season 2. So, loyal fool that i am, i started watching the whole drama from the beginning and suddenly i couldn't stop. Back that up with a cast of up and coming teen stars (Inoue Mao as Makino Tsukushi, Matsumoto Jun as Doumyouji Tsukasa, Oguri Shun as Hanazawa Rui, Matsuda Shota as Nishikado Soujiroh, Abe Tsuyoshi as Mimasaka Akira) and this is one of the better romance comedies i've seen this year.
Rich Kid/Poor Girl.
And of course one big advantage about watching HYD first is that i got used to Matsuda Shota's face, so i didn't have prejudices when i watched the first episode of Liar Game, which was much better than i dared hope for Erika's first lead role. She plays Kanzaki Nao, a much too honest and gullible girl (she went to the police to return a 100yen coin that she found on the ground; she fell for the same prank 42 times ..). Somehow or rather she get tangles up with the Liar Game(hosted by none other than Jigsaw(SAW) himself) and ends up getting swindled of 100million yen. Desperate, she enlists the help of swindler Akiyama Shinichi who is just released from prison and agrees to help her for half the share of the prize money (50million yen). Eagerly looking forward to Ep 2 airing next Saturday.
Toda Erika
Matsuda Shota
A very flustered Nao.
How did Jigsaw escape into this show?

Liar Liar pants on fire

If my life were to be measured by how many X360 achievement points/day i earned, these past 2 days would be considered seriously inefficient by any standards. The problem is that i have too many new games to play and not enough patience to sit down and complete one at a time. So i've been jumping every hour or so to another game after game. What a vicious cycle. On top of that i keep getting disturbed by my family who want me to make MY room comfortable for THEM to come in to play games. (....) I don't really see why i should bother to entertain them. I think out of spite i'm going to make my room so ergonomically uncomfortable that none of them will ever step in.

On the bright side i caught up with some updates for Miyazaki Aoi's upcoming new movie, Virgin Snow; Toda Erika new drama, Liar Game and in addition both Aya Ueto (here) and Ishihara Satomi (here) also have starring roles in new dramas this Spring season.

LEE plays Min, a Korean university student who is transferred to Japan when his father, a professor, gets posted to Kyoto in an exchange position at a university. There, Min meets Nanae (MIYAZAKI), a high school girl, and promptly falls in love with her. Initially indifferent to him, Nanae soon warms up, and their relationship grows, surmounting the linguistic and cultural divide, until one day Nanae mysteriously disappears.

As per normal, i always have high expectations when it comes to a Miyazaki Aoi movie. Mainly because she usually accepts quality scripts (that's why you don't see her in many dramas). The last line of the sypnosis has a feeling of deja vu because i've just seen Tada, kimi wo Aishiteru but i'll reserve my comments till i've seen the show. I'm not so keen on the actor Lee Jun Ki (even though he's supposed to quite popular) because well, i don't like his slitty eyes but that's just me. Hope this makes it to Singapore cinemas. Release date is May 12th in Japan.

Based on the manga series of the same name, Toda Erika plays an honest college student, Kanzaki Nao, who receives a million dollars one day, along with a card saying she has been chosen to take part in the "Liar Game". The aim of the game is to trick the other players out of their one million dollars. At the end, the winner gets one million dollars and the loser is one million dollars in debt. Horrified, Nao tries to contact the game organizers to give them their money back. Her old high school teacher offers to help, but it turns out he actually is her opponent in the game, and easily tricks her out of her million dollars. Coincedentally, Nao notices a newspaper article one day regarding an ex-swindler named Akiyama Shinichi. Desperate, she contacts him for help.

To be honest this series will be worth watching to see Erika alone, but it's based on a manga so i'm expecting it to have a good storyline as well. I'm not expecting a fantastic performance from Erika since this is her first lead role, but i just pray that the story doesn't do a Kurosagi (ie swindling stories). Not to sound repetitive, but the male lead's face kinda irritates me as well. He's the brother of Ryuhei Matsuda (Ren in 'Nana'), another actor i can't stand. To be aired starting 14th April in Japan.

Of course Spiderman 3 is also going to be released in a month so i'd say that there's plenty of quality shows that's on the way. Here's to an entertaining 2 months before ORD!

Look Alike (NOT!)

My cool celebrity look-alike collage from MyHeritage.com. Get one for yourself.

Thanks to Ee Wei i amused myself tonight by playing around with MyHeritage.com Face recognition program. Registration is quick and easy. As you can see from the picture above, the software is not very accurate because I don't think i look that girlish in that pic! Good for laughs though. And as expected, Brandon got matched with Takeshi Kaneshiro. Ee Wei saved most of the collages of pictures he played with and i'm gonna bring them to work tomorrow so that we can laugh at each other.

Finally got a copy of Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru! Thanks to Cheng Wei for the heads up that it's already out. I'm trying not to let myself be disappointed but actually my expectations for this movie is pretty high, considering that Miyazaki Aoi declined her role as Hachi in 'Nana 2' to star in this show. Already got it on DVD so yup, the plan is to watch it tomorrow morning! And if it's good then i'll rewatch it in the afternoon when Herbert comes back because i believe he enjoy watching Aoi as well.

My Night in a Bag

Corspe in bag.

Went out with Alex yesterday to shop in town. Bought a sleeping bag and case ($36) for my Ja-plan. Slept in it last night and it was pretty cosy. Probably need some padding for my tailbone though if i'm sleeping on hard surfaces.

Bought a new game as well, Bullet Witch ($60) for X360. The reviews aren't very good but i'm just in the mood for some mindless action/adventure game. Heard from the boss at Funz Centre that DDR Universe won't be released for Asian X360s. Anyway i'm not too upset because i'm not that big of a DDR fan anyway. However, good news is that Guitar Hero 2 (X360) will be out (US) on April 3rd and the reviews are fantastic! Looking forward to burning my next allowance on it!

Finished watching Kurosagi on Friday night. I feel that it's too episodic in nature and that most of the swindles aren't really that ingenious to be interesting. And somehow Kurosaki (Yamashita Tomohisa) succeeds too easily so there's not enough tension in the story as well. Most of the drama comes with his relationship with tenant Tsurara (Horikita Maki) who likes him but opposes his swindling because her dream is to be a prosecutor. Ichikawa Yui again appears in a minor role as spoiled rich girl who's also in love with Kurosaki. I have to say she's much more natural acting spoiled then acting sweet in H2.

Much better at acting silly than at acting cool.

Kurosaki's pesky neighbour (L) and pesky neighbour's irritating friend (R).

Started watching Nurse Aoi today, starring the slightly chubby but extremely cute Ishihara Satomi. If you are thinking that i'm watching this series because i want to see Satomi in a nurse uniform, you are exactly 100% correct. After becoming a medic i usually shun hospital shows because 1) i can't stand to see improper medical procedures being acted 2) i don't want to learn incorrect medical stuff from a TV show. From the first episode, doctors in the show's hospital are all just worried about their image and promotion, and there's only 1 'good' doctor and nurse who actually cares about patient wellbeing, so i can conclude that it's quite realistic in that it's more or less like my real life workplace.

Aoi (Satomi) knows better than to let this idiot-face handle the patient.

Th3P-Law

Pain, Pleasure, Pointless. Any activity that i do in the SAF can be associated with at least one of these 3 Ps. Duty on a Saturday? Painful. Day off? A pleasure. Digging up my No.4, SBO and forced to go on a midnight route march? Painfully pointless. Usually i get some satisfaction out of completing a march, but asking me to go on one without carrying anything while everyone else has a MOP or field pack on just hurts my pride. To see Joseph and Jordan carry a field pack full of water bottles hurt me more than the post-march blisters on my heels.

Had a nice nap when i got home in the afternoon and watched finished H2. Maybe Ee Wei is right in saying i'm a sucker for 'friendship' drama because i really like this series. Especially when the (girl)friends look so hot. And i'll say it again: i really like the ending sequence and song by "Over" by K. Gonna start on Kurosagi tonight, another Ichikawa Yui drama.

Care to guess who Hiro ends up with in the end?

I'm very happy to discover that there's at least one more game i'm looking forward to on PS2: Sengoku Basara 2: Heroes, which is my favourite hack n slash title on any console. The HnS is so good that i don't mind not understanding a single word of the story (it's only in Japanese). Capcom is probably the publisher that i trust the most when it comes to quality game releases. Big news to me is that Kojuurou (Toshiyuki Morikawa, VA for Sephiroth, Kazuya Mishima) and Oichi (Noto Mamiko, VA for Yakumo (SR), Enma Ai) will be playable! PS2 is not dead yet!

This is how a special move should look like..Dynasty Warriors, eat your heart out!

3 games announced for PS3 looks really interesting to me, Brave Arms, Chain Limit and Second Season 01. Nice to see some original games and hope the reviews are good so i can justify getting a PS3. I will always be a Sony fan at heart but of course now my brain(and wallet) is on the X360 side.

Heard of Low Ji Wen? He's the Singapore National Cyclist who's going to France soon to begin professional training. (appeared in Strait Times a about a week ago). Well anyway after reading the article Brandon couldn't believe that anyone his age could be as strong as him in cycling (not exactly what he said but i just summarised what he actually intends to say) so somehow he got his email address and invited him to go for a ride with him this evening. I can tell from his expression when he came back that it was 'no kick' (summary). Me and my brother (and father) are pretty prideful when it comes to things we feel we are good at. And cycling is pretty much in my family's blood. (my elder brother happens to be a former national cyclist as well). I think Brandon intends to go overseas (France) to train as well. Well good luck to him.

A case of 'Glassy' Elbow

Started watching H2 last night at about 2am and couldn't stop till episode 4 (about 4+am already then). A interesting drama has to have either 1) good story, so-so cast or 2) so-so story, good cast. H2 falls under the latter description. Story revolves around baseball but it's mainly about friendship, love and rivalries, pretty average story, nothing to get emo about. But i really like the cast: they've got Takayuki Yamada who can pretty much carry any drama on his own(Taiyou no Uta, Sekai no Chuushin de, Ai wo Sakebu), Ichikawa Yui (Forbidden Siren, Nana 2) and the adorable Ishihara Satomi (Nurse Aoi).

Satomi plays Haruka, the klutzy manager of Senkawa baseball club who loves baseball and falls in love with ace pitcher Hiro (Yamada), who's in love with childhood friend Hikari (Yui), who's the girlfriend of Hideo (Tanaka Koutaro) who just happens to be Hiro's best friend and baseball rival. Yup, it's a typical love quadrangle. Bottom line of the show is...Ishihara Satomi is extremely cute in her role, the same type of cute innocence as Hachi (Miyazaki Aoi) in Nana and steals the main female role from Yui without much effort. As for Yui, well... i regard her as the actress with a 1001 faces, cause she looks different from every camera angle. But one thing's for certain, she's got really pointy elvish ears ! (see 3rd pic below) Thought she could cover them with her hair but they just poke right through it.

If you're wondering why this baseball show is called H2, i'm guessing it has something to with how all the main character's name all start with 'H', Hiro, Haruka, Hikari and Hideo. Ending theme song ("Over" by K) and video is very nicely shot as well.

"Cheese!" Haruka (Satomi) and Hiro (Yamada)

That guilt-ridden face says it all.

I'm flattered by your compliment!

The most interesting news i found today was that Erika Toda will star in the manga to drama adaptation of 'Liar Game', which i personally haven't read but i've heard some comparisons of it to Death Note (battle of wits). I always like to enjoy manga to anime/drama adaptations (because i like to compare differences) but having Erika Toda play the lead character is a super bonus! To be aired in Japan starting April 14th! Now the only problem is should i read the manga before or after catching the drama..

And speaking of Erika Toda, found another short 1 episode drama starring her, Tsubasa no Oreta Tenshitachi. I have the entire 8-episode series (it's a series of 1 ep short story about girls in the city) and so far i've only watched the Aya Ueto episode. Not bad. There's Ishihara Satomi (H2) and Horikita Maki (Nobuta) in 2 of the other episodes as well. Anyway i just scanned through the episode and Erika looks fantastic with glasses!

Actually she would look good with anything on. (Erika from Season 2 ep 2)

Somehow i don't think she's receiving good news. (Satomi from Season 2 ep 1)

Slacking on the job. (Aya from Season 1 ep 1)

Another Saturday out of the way

Not a Saturday well spent because i just kept going back and forth between getting up and going to sleep the entire afternoon. Feeling very sickly and lethargic the entire day and my nose keeps leaking 'stuff' out.

Was bored so i popped in my Nana: Special Edition DVD into my player and watched the movie again but with the commentary on. The 3 people commenting on the movie are the director, Mika Nakashima and Miyazaki Aoi and there was some really amusing remarks they made. It's especially funny to hear them saying candid stuff during the emotional scenes. Really good stuff. Worth all $12.90.

Scene at Jackson's Hole (commenting):
Director: Hachi said something very insensitive to Shoji but she can't be blamed cause she's too cute.
Mika: (laughing) Yes, she's just too cute!

In Hachi's room (commenting):
Mika: I wasn't wearing socks in this scene at first but i remember someone saying, "I can see the soles of her feet" and "It's dirty"..
Director: Eh, someone said that? Was it me?
Aoi: (laughing) It was me..
Mika: It was you??

Ren calling Yasu after the Trapnest Concert
Yasu: (movie)If you don't want to see Nana, i'll take her.
Mika: (commenting) Yes! Please take me!

New show i picked up today was History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi.

Shirahama Kenichi is awalys bullied by the classmates. One day, he sets out his mind to become strong, following an advice of a beautiful girl, Furinji Miu, he goes to a martial arts school. However, it was a tremendously hard school where the strongest martial arts masters teach... from Animenfo.com.

Saw the PS2 game about it in Gamewave and thought i would check out the anime. First 5 episodes were pretty funny and just what i needed to brighten my dreary day. Hope it doesn't get caught in the same old joke cycles (as many comedy animes tend to do) and i'm looking forward to some good fights in the later episodes.

Finally figured out where i've seen Yu Aoi (Alice in "Hana and Alice") before. She plays Hagumi in the Honey and Clover live action movie (old promo news) and also Tanyuu in Mushishi live action (old promo news). Ordered a movie with her in it (All About Lily Chou-Chou) as well as the Death Note Limited Edition Box Set (both movies in a box). And suprise suprise: Found that YesAsia has added Nana 2 movie onto its pre-order list. Expected release date is June 21 though. Hope a HK edition makes it out sooner.

Knew i seen her before somewhere..

Here's to a good Sunday and hopefully getting cured of my persistent sickness!

All That You Can't Leave Behind

Watched the last 2 episodes of Kanon last night. Kanon was originally a Japanese Visual Novel by Key, which also produced Air. Both these anime adaptations really made me cry alot. For some reason i tend to get more emotionally attached to animes than dramas or movies. From my Air anime experience i was already preparing myself to be emotionally scarred at the end but thank goodness it was a bittersweet ending. I can honestly say i have never been so glad to see a 'happy' ending before. Both Air and Kanon are very good dating-sim animes but i still prefer Air because the ending was so sad i remember not being able to sleep after finshing it.

Yuichi Aizawa returns to this city after seven years. In his childhood, he often visited it, but something happened in the past which caused him to block out his memories of the events of seven years ago. On the day after he gets settled in, he meets a girl carrying a backpack with wings on it. Her name is Tsukimiya Ayu and he begins to recall the memories he had lost. - from Animenfo.com

I'm looking forward to Clannad, the latest adapation of a Key visual novel. The teaser trailer was aired after the ending credits of Kanon and release is sometime in October '07. Maybe i can catch it airing while i'm in Japan.

L to R: Ninomiya Kazunari as Asai Shouhei, Yamashita Tomohisa as Iwasaki Kengo, Narimiya Hiroki as Udagawa Hayato and Oguri Shun as Enami Kouji

Screenshot from Stand Up (ep1)! I'm downloading the series in English to rewatch again and so far only Episode 1 is done (it's @ low priority). Maybe i enjoy this series so much because it's damn funny and i can empathise with the plight of the 4 main characters. It's similar to movies like 'The 40-year old Virgin' and 'American Pie'.

The 2 standout actors from the 4 are Ninomiya Kazunari (Saigo from 'Letters from Iwo Jima') because he has the 'Ben Stiller' comedy aura, in that he has a very blur face and somehow all the unlucky things always happen to him; Narimiya Hiroki (Nobu from 'Nana'), pretty one-dimensional actor so far but he's gifted with the joker look and plays the part of the village idiot (fig.) all too well in both Nana and this series. Herbert gets a crack out of seeing him everytime.

Anne Suzuki as Oowada Chie

The main female lead is played by Anne Suzuki (Natsuki from 'Initial D') who looks terribly plain and homely. Everytime she appears Jay Chou's 一路向北 starts humming in my mind. Anyway she plays her role very well. If she looked too pretty all the 4 guys would be chasing after her instead.

If i have to compare myself to one of them i think i would be Enami Kouji (Oguri Shun) because i have difficulty conversing with girls i like. Sadly he grows out of it by the end of the show, i have not.

Update: Got my hands on God of War 2! I know how i'm gonna burn my free time this week at home and on Friday's duty.