Fruits Basket

I wasn't expecting much of the end of this series so I'm surprised to writing this with a somewhat aching throat. The transformation from light hearted series to encircling darkness took place in episode 24 with the appearance of the family's shishou, or more a surrogate father of Kyo. He brings about events that would eventually lead to a confrontation between Tohru and the true horrors of the zodiac - instilled in Kyo himself. Subsequently, much anguish takes place and for the first time in the series you actually see Tohru on the verge of breaking down - now this is the psychological pressure I want to see! The premise is a simple and profound one: to love someone despite their true nature; not to deceive oneself by putting that horror in the back of one's mind; not to love and accept everything, having eyes that see beyond the shallow surface of things, plunging deep into the tangle of human emotions. It would seem that Tohru is a deeper person that one originally thought.

The Chills of Ghost Hound

Last time I felt chills running up my spine was probably quite a while back - Silent Hill The Room was the most notable, especially as this was my introduction to the Silent Hill franchise. Now over a year or so later the Silent Hill franchise is getting a little tedious: the gameplay is the same and even the twisted plots tend to stick to the same formula and preference for emotional cruelty over fucked up cruelty that really does give shivers down your spine.

As you can probably guess, I rediscovered the delightful chills - that little indication you get that you are living in a truly peculiar world, even if it is entirely in your head. Episode 3 and 4 of Ghost Hound see the three main characters making their way to and around an abandoned hospital. This does sound like your standard haunt but the fear does not come from this preconception. The fear is borne entirely by the history of the abandoned town and hospital, within a dam that lacks water for most of the year for unknown reasons. Nobody knows where the water goes. As for the history, recounted through the rumours of schoolboys and girls, the hospital isn't an ordinary hospital. Prison cells in the basement. Not to mention those known to have perished, including Tarou's sister.

And when you see the little white feet in the corner of the screen as they are walking down a dark corridor...you do get those chills.

Ghost Hound even made a Silent Hill-esque corpse move like jelly.

Not so much a scary series though - a combination of Donnie Darko and Shinto. A peculiar and amazing combination. Hearing the fuzzy crackle of radio and then a minute later the beat of a drum reminds one of the melding of Far Eastern spiritualism and Western science. A feeling similarly exhibited in Japan before and after the war, a sea of confusion and hence, uneasiness.

London Expo

It's all in the planning and it looks set that I will greet the MCM Expo for the first time this weekend. Should be pretty awesome; I have never actually attended a full on event such as this before, only the tiny one in the Waterstones bookshop in Southampton. That was just a taster. In any case, should be amusing and hopefully I will meet some interesting people. Otherwise I will hopefully be cosplaying as Onizuka which would make it quite forgiveable for me to mess with the girls. If I am in a semi bad mood, it shall be the case.

On the other hand I started the Gantz manga, the real alternative to the series. Nishi isn't so badass but it is only the beginning. The mum came in and said I looked harrassed and well...she is right. Hasn't exactly been a great day and I chose to end it with a very grim and inhumane manga. I enjoy being able to influence my mood in such a way...

neon5 has been promoted

There is simply too much content on this blog. I cannot bear to leave it. *cries*

Back to http://adaemonium.blogspot.com btw. My bad.

The only question is...where did that Interpretation of EoE go? An important document, my own personal scripture.

So n5on has been demoted to fish bowl status

No idea why the fish bowl thought entered my head.

Blogger is no longer going to be my official blogging site, it seems wordpress actually has a decent template that I have adapted to my needs. It looks very neat with a vertical neon5 logo at the bottom. I originally thought to myself that I could take my entire activity over to wordpress but there seems to be a niggling feeling in my mind - I'm quite attached to blogger. Maybe simply because it feels safe and secure, I can chuck many a thing in without breaking it. But as for wordpress, it's sleek and sophisticated; you get the feeling that the readers are going to be refined and smart blog readers - any pandering is not likely to be forgiven.

It seems that I'm wary of posting anything there...so it would seem that blogger is not thrown aside yet. I may use wordpress for my artistic pursuits in the digital world in any case so this blog can remain my fishbowl.

The Art of Shiira

A collection of images on Sankaku chan took my eye: a gorgeous mix of colourful and often slightly surreal images with astounding cloud formations on the horizon. Worth a look; some of these images have a profound beauty to them, that remind me of the iconic image and poster of End of Evangelion.

And surprise surprise: Rei Ayanami is featured.

Sankaku chan's link

Cameo of the Chobits

This is just amazing, episode three of Kobato and guess who turns up at her humble apartment? Chiho and Chise - note the the absolutely very subtle play on the name, who happen to be the daughters of the apartment manager. It's like the spinoff 'To no Railgun' of 'To no Index'; a switch between the main and supporting characters except Kobato is a new character and the parallel world of persocoms is not present. Put simply, they are playing cameo roles in the world of Kobato (which is a little simpler than the parallel world madness). Picture~

This was such a holy shit moment. You should have seen my face - a mixture of delight and "bahahahaha I knew it xD" expression.

I've neglected to comment on my latest series completion of Kanamemo and Aria No. 1. I'm not going to type Aria: The Animation all the time so I'm giving it a styled No.1 tag. mmmm

Kanamemo -

Kana checks out a diary

so I was a little weirded out by the stereotypes and the yuri couple would have titillated if one of them wasn't so religiously devoted to the other.

But I do hear that in the case of same sex relationships, a big difference in personality is quite advantageous as there is no gulf of the sexes. The gulf of the sexes is the differences in behaviour due to gender and this almost always leads to conflict between male and females. In heterosexual relationships similar personalities work well in bonding, often overcoming the couple's gender differences. Contrarily in homosexual relationships, having similar personalities isn't so advantageous as the couple become too similar. But this is general observation of scientific research and does not always apply. Nevertheless it seems to be observed in Kanamemo.

So despite the weird yuri couple and the woman with a fetish for loli, the series was fairly well played. At first Kana was an irritating blob (who was more moe than I cared for) but as the series progressed, I started to appreciate the comic value she was bringing to the show. Her paranoid flipping out is ridiculously creative (the idea of an old man inhabiting the skin of Saki was classic). Hinata was the sanest character on the show and thanks to her physical similarity to Asa Shigure I felt compelled to like her.
The story was episodic and despite this, Kana had some serious moments of appreciation or uncertainty. Though it was hard for me to take her thoughts all too seriously, these were the musings of a young and naive girl! It was a good series, at first I really thought it was going to be bad but it started to mature on me. I was suspicious at the complete lack of yuri between Kana and Mika given the show's blatently lesbian content...but a little bit came along in the last episode. So I can laugh at myself for being an oracle of anime plots.

Though it worries me that I watched a show like Kanamemo. Have I strayed from the flock?!

Aria - The Animation -

The sweet and pretty Akari Mizunashi

Put simply "beau~tiful". It feels good to watch every episode. No-one is going to bitch. Just soak in the scenery of Venezia and imagine what it would be like to watch the prettiest female gondaliers paddle your boat. I had to say that. Once again this was an episodic series but that is how it works best. The apprentices share similar personalities to their sempai'; despite this they have their own character traits - the sweet and open-mouthed Akari, the hardworking and shy Aika and the quiet and moody Alice.

This series is hard to explain so I'll leave it to people to watch themselves. If anyone ever asks about Aria (since I do get questions all the time...yeah...) then all I can say is "It's lovely. Watch it yourself and you'll see."

Bedtime.

Silent Hill III

It's 3:30 and I've finished Silent Hill 3. Good game. A few hair tingling or peculiar moments:

The only mannequin with a head in a room of headless mannequins. Shrieks as you walk over to the other side of the room. You return to find it beheaded.

You walk into a room with a mirrored wall. Blood starts to seep out in the imaginary world of the mirror. You yourself, bloodied. It seeps up towards the sink into the tap.

The tap on your side starts to bleed too and the blood starts to seep into your world. You rush to the door and it isn't budging. Blood is seeping up the walls and soon the room turns a dirty red.

Could vaguely see a massive monster through grating. It was carrying out some sort of task at what appeared to be the mouth to hell...woooooo~

Next up is...

The three voices of Rain of Brass Petals:

I am the first
a shadow at the end
of the hallway
I spin the carousel
the laughter recedes away
my finger on your lips
I stole something precious

I am the second
alone in a faceless crowd
a human caught
in monochrome dreams
I scream to wake up
my voice drowns deep underground
only the dead can hear me
see me

I am the third.
a master
a sentinel of awakeness
I hold truth like a torch
shadows flicker before me.
rapid eye follow the
chain of thought
until the silence ends

It seems to be debated that it could be the three main characters of Silent Hill: Henry, James and Heather. It also could represent the three plains of the Silent Hill universe: Real World, Misty World and Otherworld. The best suggestion put so far is: Pyramid Head, Valtiel and Samael. Some people have even suggested the three: Alessa, Cheryl and Heather though I'm not convinced...

By the way...the three reincarnations of Alessa. Doesn't it smell a little of...the three reincarnations of Ayanami?

Top 50 Anime of the Decade

Japanator has just updated the last of its list and it's worth a look to see if your favourite animes are in there as well as checking out the ones you forgot. Cannot be perfect, for instance the list is missing Minami-ke, Noir and Great Teacher Onizuka in my view :| But opinions will always differ. I am chuffed about quite a few entries for the top 10 - particularly the films we all know and love. Links:

#50-41

#40-31

#30-21

#20-11

Top 10

Been watching Aria The Animation - fantastic slice of life series, just so heart warming - human nature at its sweetest, in the beautiful city of Venezia.

And Kanamemo... Just odd. They burst into singing in episode four. Cringe~