I decided to head up to Balboa Park today, to visit the Japanese Friendship Garden.  I've been meaning to do that for a while now, but the need had finally gotten urgent enough for me not to forget, and, in a stroke of luck, there was nothing keeping me home and I don't work for anyone today.

In accordance with the plan, I first headed over to Barnes & Noble to replace my copy of Negima vol. 14, which seemed to have disappeared, and then went to downtown.  Once more, I have reason to worry if Borders is going out of business.  I can get things cheaper at Barnes & Noble, but their selection of manga is rarely as good (I was looking for the latest Hayate the Combat Butler).

There's...not really a whole lot else I can say.  I wound up ordering a curry chicken bento at the tea pavillion, which was all right I suppose (I know to get beef or tofu next time), and reading through the beginning and the Ako Izumi-themed chapters of my manga.  I'd never actually been in the Garden itself, so I was gratified to find that it was almost empty while I was there.  I just wandered around the area, straining to connect my surroundings with what I remembered, until I finally sat down (seiza position) in front of the koi pond and read through the next few chapters.

And it worked.

I don't know how, but it did.  While I was there, for a half-hour at least, I managed to forget and remember.  I forgot that I was in San Diego, that I had to work tomorrow, that I had to perform in the church choir on Sunday. 

I forgot all of that, and just for half an hour, I felt like I was back in Japan, some time during the transition of spring to summer, just after sakura season but just before rainy season, sitting outside and reading, knowing that I had nothing pressing I needed to do, knowing that after this, I would walk back home to my room and feel

*************

I guess I should finish this entry.  Would have done it earlier, but by the time I recovered enough to, I had to go do something for several hours.  Damn, and now I've forgotten.

Well, I guess I'll get a chance to try again when I start to replay Tsukihime.  Since I started on June 8 last year (I'm assuming, since that's the earliest saved game I made), I should do that soon...should.

((H-san, going to bed conflicted))
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Well, the semester is almost over, and astoundingly it hasn't sucked.  I'm actually looking forward to summer break with emotions other than sheer dread.  In spite of that, what do I talk about?  Well, it's a little late, so I'll mention two other things for my future recollection.

First off, I finished Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World a few days ago, and I absolutely loved it.  Might write up a general impression later, but since that's not likely, I'll just note that I rather liked the main two characters, thought the voice acting was wonderful (except for Zelos and Lloyd), and the story had me in shock and in tears, and filled with joy or grim determination...never all at the same time (except maybe once...it was kind of confusing).  Mercifully, I knew how not to get the bad ending (which I read up on later, and it would have destroyed me for a day), and I had even done well enough to get the good ending!

Also, I'm going to import a copy of the upcoming PS2 port of Melty Blood: Actress Again.  If my readers recall (*crickets chirping*), Melty Blood is once of the games I miss playing in Japan in the arcades (since I'm clunky with the PC versions).  I'm especially regretful that I left Japan before Actress Again came out, since I was looking forward to playing as Roa (for reasons unknown).  Normally, this wouldn't be enough to get me to desperately want a copy, Fate/Unlimited Codes aside.  But, I just found out something extremely cool. 

Shiki Ryougi is going to be in it.  I repeat, Shiki Ryougi is going to be in Melty Blood!

I know!  "Who the hell is she, and why should I care?!"  First, she's the main character of Kara no Kyokai, which predated Tsukihime (thus, she'll be the only non-Tsukihime character in the game), and she's the original character with the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.

And second, shut up.  You're interrupting my geek dance.  And since it's somewhere in between the Caramelldansen, Hare Hare Yukai, and Motteke Seifuku (or, alternately, a cross between a rodeo clown waving and an epileptic seizure), I need no interruptions!  Begone!

((H-san, hasn't done the geek dance since Ike was announced for Smash Brothers))
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Akira: "Hiiiiing! Tohno-senpai is horrible! A devil! Not even human!"
Akiha: "Oh? That's unexpected. You only just now notice it after having been at my side for two years?"

- Kagetsu Tohya

As the title probably suggests, I recently started watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.  Though I'm only about 1/3 of the way through the series, I'm actually really liking it so far, which is kinda surprising.

I'm not usually a fan of mecha shows... but this show doesn't have the same feel as Macross or any of the Gundam series.  It feels closest, strangely, to Evangelion, but with a completely opposite attitude.  Whatever it is, it clicks.

I really don't like female anime characters who wear maybe a square yard of clothing and have D-cup breasts at the same time.  It's fanservice, I know, but...just...why?  And yet, Yoko, despite easily fitting that description, doesn't bug me that much.  I'm not sure if it's just that I like her character, or if it might be because, despite being a fanservice character, that's not her only purpose.  She's not completely ineffectual like Mai Shiranui was in the Fatal Fury movie. *pauses a moment to shudder with rage*

Finally, I'm aware over-the-top action and character appeals to some people, and Kamina certainly embodies both.  He's loud, kinda stupid, reckless to the point of suicidal insanity, and possessed of unbelievably huge self-confidence, almost to the point of narcissism. 

And I love him for it. 

He's so far over the line of cheesy annoyance , he breaks right into the category of "unbelievably awesome."  His speeches don't usually make sense, but he delivers them so awesomely he's even halfway inspiring.  He is the manifestation of pure determination who refuses to back down or go down, the epitome of manliness, who embodies his philosphy of forgetting common sense and accomplishing the impossible as a result.  Even in his proclimations of complete idiocy (see:the episode with the bathhouse), he's so incredibly cool one can't help but laugh and cheer.


( Spoiler )

((H-san, Fighting the Power))
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"I'm going to tell you something important now, so you better dig the wax out of those huge ears of yours, and listen! The reputation of Team Gurren that goes far and wide... When they talk about it's badass leader, the man of indomitable spirit and masculinity, they're talking about me! The Mighty Kamina!"

- guess who

This page is halfway abandoned, it seems.  Maybe I should just forget about it.  I'm basically the only one who reads it.

Of course, that's kinda the point. 

No way am I not posting.  It's here when I need it.  When I want to be melodramatic for a bit.

That said, I just finished volume 22 of Fruits Basket, and I'm not being melodramatic when I say I started crying about halfway through, and continued sobbing off and on until the end.  The whole thing, first with Kyo and Tohru, and then the whole cast.  Seeing Kyo and Tohru hug each other for the first time, coinciding perfectly with the end of "Only Time" by Enya was just the beginning.  The bittersweetness of the curse finally breaking completely was made sweeter by moments like that.  For the first time, I actually started to like and feel sorry for Akito.   The final pages with the real story behind the Zodiac curse, coinciding with, in a perfect mirror of the beginning, Yuki and Machi confessing their love to each other, rounded out with a first kiss/embrace...not sure I can describe it without resorting to poetry.  So I won't; Atatakai knows how bad my poetry (especially my love poetry) is.  ^_^

Overall, I have to admit it's not the hardest I've cried at a happy ending (that distinction goes to Tsukihime, with a certain happy ending that caught me completely off-guard)... but I'm once again reminded of why this was the first manga I ever really got into.

There's still one more volume after this, but it's going to be a volume to resolve loose ends and wrap things up.  I'm still looking forward to it, but I'm willing and happy to wait for it this time.  For now, this volume ended the series...and I couldn't be happier.

((H-san, hontou ni...shiawase))
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Cry with me...like when you were first born in this world.
 
   - Akito Sohma

A couple of months?  Wow, didn't think I was that lazy.  Okay, then let's see...

Got a Wii for Christmas.  Don't have anything for it yet besides Wii Play and Wii Sports, but I haven't really felt much desire to get other things yet.  At least, not until I can afford to buy either Twilight Princess or the Tales of Symphonia sequel.  Besides, I technically share it with my dad, who loves Wii Sports (as do I, really, we've both reached pro level in different games, he in golf, I in boxing).

My copy of Fate/Unlimited Codes came!  I've only been able to play it four separate times, though.  I'm using Swap Magic and a flip top to get past the Japanese region lock on the game (it's imported, after all), but the DVD-rom is rather temperamental.  Overall, it's been an exercise in both happiness and frustration.  The controls aren't anywhere near as easy to use as an arcade joystick setup, and the difficulty level of some of the missions and on Normal in Arcade mode are often an exercise in frustration.  This culminated in my completion of Shirou's arcade mode, where it took me (I swear) an hour and a half to beat his final boss, Kotomine.  I guess I could have given up and set it on Easy difficulty, instead...but I wound up resorting to "Operation: Fight Like Dirty Bastard" instead (of no relation to "Operation: Fight Like Girl"), once I learned that the D-pad makes it easier to perform special moves.

Oddly enough, I'm actually fairly active on the F/UC board on Gamefaqs, but that's another story.

Anyway, I've also expanded my game collection to include more games it will take me a while to play/finish.  I still have yet to even touch Skies of Arcadia and Kingdom Hearts (and now add Final Fantasy X to that list), and I've barely even started Tales of the Abyss.  However, I'm working on Devil May Cry 3 at the moment, so...

I'm having a blast reading a couple of Let's Play things (basically, people playing through games and putting together commentary in the form of a story), for Might and Magic 2 and Pokemon: Fire Red.


In non-video game related news, my friend Ed is living at my house for a while.  It's working out well so far, especially since it looks like he landed the job he was banking on.

I still have to apologize to Atatakai, since I have yet to give her her Christmas gifts... ;_;

It looks like my school schedule is exactly the same as last year.  One class is even the same (the second semester of a Japanese communication course).

Waiting impatiently for the next Negima, Hayate the Combat Butler, and Lunar Legend Tsukihime manga to come out.  I've kind of fallen behind in some series...

((H-san, has talked himself out))
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I need to write here more often.

*checks box next to "lamentation"*

Let's see...the joystick isn't working out as I'd hoped.  It's a little too big to be reliably used as an arcade joystick, though it does make performing special moves easier...as long as I go out of my way to do them.

The new Dragonforce CD is pretty good.  "The Last Journey Home" is easily my favorite song, though "Strike of the Ninja" and "Inside the Winter Storm" come close (the former, aside from being Dragonforce's shortest song ever, at three and a quarter minutes, is also the one I find myself singing to most often).  "Heroes of Our Time" and "Heartbreak Armageddon" have grown on me.  In fact, the only song I really don't like is "A Flame for Freedom."  Let's see... "Reasons to Live" and "The Fire Still Burns"...still ambivalent.  "On the Warrior's Side" and "Scars of Yesterday," slightly less so.

But "The Last Journey Home" is definitely the most awesome.  Maybe because I start thinking of Fate/Stay Night whenever I listen to it...

Speaking of, my Fate/Stay Night reflection is still on the backburner, along with my reflections on Tsukihime and Ai Yori Aoshi.


In fact, as for that last one...it's been almost a year since I finished the series.  I think I'm due for a re-reading.  Mostly because I'm back in the environment where I originally read them: in my room, on my futon, with just the lamp next to my bed lit.

Environment means a lot.  I learned that kinda painfully when I went to look at a scene in Kagetsu Tohya the other day.  On a whim, I decided to read up to the scene normally.  Then the music started...and I suddenly felt I was listening to the thing through headphones, watching the light through the blinds behind me splay out on the wall separating my room from the toilet, listening to the air conditioner, thinking "Okay, just a few more repetitions, then I'll go to sleep.  Got judo in the morning..."

Naturally, that's the last time I played the game, laying in my bed in Yokohama, some time in the late night.  In fact, that's always how I played both of those games.  I typically get flashbacks when I listen to the Tsukihime soundtrack in the car, where the conditions are closest to what they were (the noise of the car like the noise of the air conditioner, the sound quality close to that of headphones).

It's almost like Tsukihime anchors me to Japan, at least the Japan I can remember the best, the last two and a half months.

Eventually, I'll play/read through it all again...possibly in the summer.  Not sure I could make it through, otherwise.  In the meantime, I can engage in other nostalgia, reading by the light of a small desk lamp on the floor next to me, while the fan blows down cool air and the CD player plays something New Age and calm...

((H-san, waiting for the TV to go off in the other room))

I've recently found the torrent for the first two Melty Blood games, the fighting game sequels to Tsukihime and the game I played second most often in Japan's arcades (not counting the UFO Catchers).  The only real problem with playing them is that they're fighting games.  Or rather, that they're fighting games, and I'm playing them on a laptop.  That, combined with a non-reconfigurable keyboard layout, adds up to a slightly frustrating gameplay experience. 

To rectify this situation, I managed to locate a joystick at Best Buy, something called the Attack 3, by Logitech.  Ultra-creative name aside, it's usefulness has yet to shine through clearly.  However, if I can find some way to calibrate the thing's sensitivity, and find some way to glue it in place (never realized how violently I used arcade joysticks, which are, of course, attached to giant chunks of wood and plastic).  As soon as I figure that out, I should be fine.

I also bought the latest Dragonforce CD as an impulse buy.  I'm liking it so far...two tracks in.  Late night isn't really the time for power metal, so I'll get to the rest in time.

((H-san, wasting time))
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Hideyoshi: "What are you doing still alive?!"
Shingen: "I appear to be beating your soldiers to paste."

 - Battle of Nagashino, Samurai Warriors 2

I just finished reading Fruits Basket volume 21.  It wasn't as flat-out suspenseful as the last volume.  That's a lie, of course.  Even when I have an idea of what's going to happen, I don't think about it.  There have been instances where I come across spoilers that I know are true, but I can't make myself believe.  The result is that I rarely divorce myself from a sense of suspense, regardless of what I'm reading.

( Therefore... )


That was an eye-opening scene in other ways, too (for example, the literal sense).  I was kind of surprised, in fact.  I felt strange reading the scene, but I was wondering why my eyes weren't watering more.  It felt kind of odd that I wasn't crying at such a tearjerking scene, and that distracted me for a couple of pages.  Long enough to realize and wonder why my breathing was so irregular, and why I seemed to be sniffling.  Enough to realize that even though my face was dryer than expected, I was actually sobbing.

I think, what with finishing the Heaven's Feel route of Fate/Stay Night, watching the "Tales of Ba Sing Se" episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender (specifically, the Tale of Iroh), and reading this, all over the course of two days...I've run out of tears!


Granted, this revelation that I am likely to be an emotionally stunted man for a while will seem ridiculous in the morning.  There's a reason I write these at night, after all.

Besides, it's all that's keeping me from screaming about the five-month wait before the next (and likely final) volume of Fruits Basket comes out...

((H-san, going to bed vaguely worried))

Gah.  Well, assloads have happened in the past...

*checks*

Coupl'a months or so.  Classes still going on.  Meetings with friends (some involving a weird version of D&D).  Playing the hell out of Samurai Warriors 2.  Finding a flavor of Fanta that I never encountered while in Japan (strawberry).  Working at a family-run fundraiser so my cousin and her daughter can go to Washington D.C. for my second cousin's eighth grade trip.  Finally watching the Tsukihime anime and realizing that most of the opinions I've seen are completely right (and adding some complaints of my own).  Catching up on manga.  Pre-ordering an import of Fate/Unlimited Codes, and trying not have my bank account overdraw (they won't charge until they actually ship the game, in mid-December).

I think the biggest thing that's happened recently, though, is my acquisition of a copy of Fate/Stay Night.  There is way too much to say on that subject in the time I'm alloting myself, though.  I've played through the first two routes in the game, Fate, and Unlimited Blade Works.  The translation of the third, final route, Heaven's Feel, just came out less than a week ago, and until I finish it, I'm likely to be a little too unstable to talk about much on LJ.

Rest assured, if I break down upon completing the route, like I very nearly did once in the middle, this'll be the first place I'll talk about it.

*waits*

Okay, that got rid of all potential readers.  Now I don't have to lock my entries.  Gotta love Livejournal's reputation for mopey angst!  Makes emotional recordings that much easier...

((H-san, signing off))
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"I ask of you...are you my Master?"

 - Saber to Shirou, Fate/Stay Night