I’m only starting to understand the intermittent updates by TheBigN, and that has a lot to do with the rigours of medical school. It’s actually worse than high school, because after you’ve stayed at school for more than a third of the day you also have to study for another third just to probably pass. There are also weekly exams, which don’t make things any easier.

With that said, I haven’t really watched any anime after finishing Shikabane Hime. I was irritated at the ending, primarily because it was classically Gainax, but it was, as a series, pretty good. I wished Makina and Oori became more than friends within the anime’s span, but I guess that wasn’t meant to be.

I have a few questions: which spring anime of 2009 have already ended? What are the good ones to watch, aside from Cross Game and Eden of the East? Has a poster for Summer 2009 come out yet? What are the anime to follow?

It’s actually a reality that I’ve realized a steep decline in my Internet use. From the more or less 35 hours a week in college I’m barely using five this time around.

Thanks!

While other post-graduates were busily preparing for what to bring the next day, I was on the computer looking at a red-and-black screen, dodging a missile at one point and ducking an alien at another. While they were excited to open a new chapter in their life, I was totally focused on vanquishing the ecclesiastico-military palette.

I was playing the Super Cobra (using the Adventure Vision BIOS) on the MESS and I sought to finish the game (by myself) without infinite Cobras to see whether the game would present an alternative ending or not. I was so besotted with the completion of the game because it would give me closure, a closure that I desperately needed to prove to myself that my lust for that failure of a handheld system was juvenile. I vowed to myself to finish it before classes would start primarily to prevent any distraction from my studies. While I had quite a few misgivings regarding medicine, I am a man who sticks by what he has chosen, and as I had chosen medicine I am going to stand by it (despite the fact that I barely slept yesterday and probably wouldn’t later). After about five days of persistence, I was finally able to finish the game with a limited number of Cobras and I also finally discovered that there was no difference in the ending whether one had infinite Cobras or not: the game kept on without end.

Having played as if demon-possessed for a few days, I could not help but notice the different flaws that the Adventure Vision system had. For one, it was very fragile: a short fall and the rotating mirror mechanism that allowed the game to proceed would break. There would be no more game, and no more system. Another flaw to its design was that it was primarily built with red LCDs. The VirtualBoy was merely an upgrade from this console: both have the same red LCDs that cause eye tiredness, headaches, nausea, and dizziness. Finally, the games other than Super Cobra have barely any replay value: the system possessed mediocre graphics at the time, and once one finished with Super Cobra there wasn’t really anything else left to do but to start all over again (or stop playing, which was what I did).

My finishing of the game came at the most opportune time, because after I completed it I could finally disassociate myself with the game and with the obsession that plagued me for a good few weeks. I could also finally focus studying for the medical profession that I have chosen; and while I am still not quite sure of the decision that I have made I am extremely certain on my commitment to my choice. I can only hope that I can surpass the obstacles that I am encountering currently and the even bigger ones that I will face in the future.

Thank you for everyone who has supported me throughout my stint of blogging. While I probably will not stop watching anime, and while I will probably still blog, it will most certainly be not in the same volume or length as before. Right now I have dealt with three-hour night sleeps: I will probably have to deal with worse.

As Samuel Beckett most aptly put it, ‘I can’t go on, I’ll go on.’

I only watched the first Rebuild of Evangelion movie a few days ago. It was on my computer for the better part of a year, and while I had time to spare I simply forgot about it as time passed. When my sister got sick, however, I volunteered to be there with her and the only thing I could do to prevent getting bored was to watch whatever anime was left on my computer (and that was quite a sizable amount). I decided to watch the first movie after recognizing its presence, and I didn’t regret the decision. Read the rest of this entry »

I have searched high and low in different Philippine cities for the Entex Adventure Vision. It’s an American-built quasi-handheld console that is purported to be the Holy Grail of all video game collectors. Now, I don’t really believe in or have faith in people who keep their rarest consoles boxed and sealed, unused. Whether rare or not, a console should be played, not stored.

It may look like that, but it's so cool!

I was taken in by the Super Cobra cartridge for the Adventure Vision; I thus wanted to get an Adventure Vision for myself, even before I knew of the exorbitant prices people paid for one. Granted, I knew I was most probably never going to find anything, but I simply wanted to reassure myself that I did everything that was possible for me in the attempt of procuring that console (except that I was without cash to burn).

As an alternative, I downloaded an imperfect ROM of Super Cobra for the Adventure Vision. It had flaws with both the sounds and the graphics, but I thought it would at least give me some peace of mind if I finished the game so that the pangs of desire would no longer penetrate so deeply. I set to finish the game with that in mind; however, the ROM being flawed, I played through an infinite regression of the final level of the game. There were no congratulatory messages; there was no return to the first level despite my time and effort put into the game.

So, yes, I still want the console and the cartridge. But writing my grievances out often makes me feel better regarding my bad lot, so here I am. I technically finished the game, so all I have to do now is to curb my obsessive nature and just wait and hope that the day I’ll finally have money to pay for a console will also be among the days where a working Adventure Vision still exists.

Until then -

After quite some time of not writing about anime I decided to return to it with a series I’m really fond of, and that is Spice and Wolf. I have watched a lot of anime series (although not as much as some), and I must say the dialogue in this series is one of the most scintillating I have ever seen in any medium. It’s ultimately still a tale of a quasi-forbidden love (a wolf-deity and a mere mortal), but it doesn’t really focus on that aspect and instead centers on the dynamic exchange and the nuances between the two protagonists, Horo and Craft Lawrence. There is none of the puerile, sophomore, and angst-ridden romances characteristic of most high-school anime: there is only the maturity and insight by a wolf-deity captivated by love yet reined in by intelligence and (dare I say it) age, and the aloof, human, yet insightful nature of a considerate merchant.

It is ostensibly a tale of economics: a tale of exchanges, of trades and commerce. However, beneath the veneer of market powers lies a wonderful, character-driven story on two people who love each other yet are unwilling to admit it, one because of pride, and the other because of something more originary. Ensconced and entrenched in the dialogue, however (and of course in the expressions), is the love that these two beings share for one another. The Wolf and Amber Melancholy is no exception: in fact, it is I believe the first time where the true nature of feeling by Horo towards Lawrence is exposed. She loves him, and indeed, she loves him very much. Of course, being a series directed at more cognitive and refined viewers, there is little epiphanic rejoicing and no anxious scene of confession. There is merely the realization and understanding of Horo that she has been taken in by the charms of Lawrence and yet could not express it because of her stature. It is most evident in this statement of hers:

Yes. She loves him.

This could only mean that she is quite besotted with Lawrence: the ‘illness’ is the both damning and redemptive idea of love. The reasons are implied with her dream-sequence: she will live, while Lawrence will die. Somehow, 25 to 50 years appear short and quick to an entity that has lived at least six times that long. Yet she has already chosen. She has chosen to be with Lawrence, and despite her teases and bickering with him she recognizes that he has a stake in her heart, and a very sharp one at that.

I believe the rest of the series will revolve on their continual journey to the place of Horo (and the OP of the first season puts it excellently), where they would have to make their choice: face the fact of Lawrence’s oblivion together, or finally part ways after their most meaningful journey, and that journey is their journey towards themselves.

I have been snooping around the Internet these past few days for older handheld gaming consoles. By older, I don’t mean the DS Lite or the PSP Slim. I don’t even pertain to the Game Boy Advance. What I’m talking about are handheld consoles such as the Atari Lynx and the Sega GameGear, perhaps even the QuickShot Supervision. These are the consoles of many a yesteryear that I could only yearn for when I was a child. Read the rest of this entry »

Even when I was still a child I had always been admiring of pens in all shapes and sizes. I sometimes admired some pens so much, I stole some of them when I was still very young. While I no longer steal pens at this age (I’d like to think I’m a wee bit more mature), I still have the same admiration and quasi-obsession for these objects. I bought three pens at two American dollars primarily because they were aged and comparatively antique (two were probably at least ten years old). As expected, the ink dried out within a week, and I had wasted two dollars on white elephants. They barely even wrote. Read the rest of this entry »

As I’ve said in my previous posts, I have been busy chasing and dealing with the requirements of medical school. That doesn’t mean I have done absolutely nothing as regards anime: on the contrary, I have observed and watched a significant number of movies and series (both anime and live-action).

This is an OK film.

Other than the recent stub, I haven’t really been writing much: I have had to deal with more pressing matters, such as the choice that would dictate all my future endeavors. Writing was among the least of my priorities, if you catch my drift.

I have lately been reading, however, and within the past two weeks (barring my failure with Barthes‘ S/Z), I’ve finished reading Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy and a textbook on neuroanatomy. While more insights could be obtained from Jude the Obscure with most people (and it would also probably be more relevant to them) I rediscovered something in my choice of reading Neuroanatomy instead of other literary texts: in a statement, taste is simply incomprehensible. While I would like to have blown my horn and say that I did it in preparation for medical school (hyuk hyuk), the truth was that I purchased it and read it primarily because the cover appealed to me (it was purple). As most people say, don’t judge books by their cover. There is some truth, however, in that despite my utter lack of understanding with the content as I read the book, it has prepared me for the grueling task of reading a few hours everyday, something I would have to be very familiar with when medical school comes, and something that is currently alien to me (I haven’t exactly been an excellent student in university). For all the reading that I’ve done I could honestly say that I only understood about 10% of the book; and that may even be a gross overstatement. Despite that, at least I could also honestly say that it has somewhat contributed to me honing my patience and perseverance in reading more academic texts.

I think the same can be said with regard to my tastes in anime. I do think that Honey and Clover, Cowboy Bebop and Ocean Waves are great anime, and a lot of people would agree, but I also appreciate and like ToLoveRu, something that erudite and elevated individuals would dismiss as rubbish. I sometimes prognosticate wrongly, like what I did with Toradora (by comparing it to Honey and Clover). I can even bear finishing series like Gin-iro no Olynssis, and I think I’m among the few people who did. It’s ultimately puerile and stupid, not to mention hypocritical trying to comprehend the tastes of others; yet I admit I am sometimes that. Biases just inherently exist within us, I guess, and Roland Barthes explained (in the twenty pages I’ve attempted to understand in S/Z) why subjectivity and objectivity don’t really exist for the most part in reading, or in the appreciation of media: the I who reads (or watches, or listens) is himself a compendium of texts (or music, or video, or movies, or anime). How he perceives a text is grounded in the texts that he has encountered before. Furthermore, reading (or any appreciation of media), isn’t actually a parasitic act. We also write something as we read it. This is why no two texts are appreciated by the same way with different persons. My reading of the neuroanatomy text was merely to complete what I’ve started and simply was due to an irrational impulse; to an aspiring neuroanatomist, however, the text may be a godsend. The difference in appreciation is among what ultimately makes us human.

I’ve been gone for quite some time because I’ve been deciding my future path in life, in addition to visiting my dying grandmother in a distant place. I’m not certain with my chosen path (becoming a medical doctor), but I think it’s the most sane given the economic crises of today. There’s a high probability I won’t make money teaching literature or biology, and while being a medical doctor isn’t an instant financial assurance, it’s ultimately more profitable. Being sick is one of the conditions of being human, and it’s the same everywhere around the world. Getting scholarships from two different schools certainly helped in the decision.

I was never excellent in rote, but I’ll try my best. I’m not really a guy who dwells on regret.

P.S. Regios kicks ass.