The kurosagi corpse delivery service

I initially didn’t intend to write about this. Too much laziness to get on (and here I am, putting more work on myself by explaining that I’m dead lazy. Whatever). This is another manga written by Eiji Otsuka who also wrote MPD Psycho (which I really really like) and Leviathan (which I don’t understand what the hell is going on).

So, what is it about? It’s about a group of young people setting up a corpse delivery service. The tagline is “you bodies is their business” and what they do is that they deliver the corpses to where the corpses want. It’s kind of a collection of arcs with no real main plot going (there’s a subtle one though). The art is a nice mix between MPD Psycho and Leviathan (different illustrators for different titles). The story is very Eiji Otsuka-ish, which I think you can feel at if you’re familiar with MPD PSycho and Leviathan (I mean, look at the way they present the corps). They also make some references to MPD Psycho by having a character name Sasayama. They don’t explicitly say that he’s the Tooru Sasayama from MPD Psycho but you can pretty guess that much, especially since he said “It isn’t one of those things where I’m going to open it, and there’s going to this woman inside with all her limbs cut off, but still alive? Nothing, just something that happened to me once.”

And that’s the reason why I have to stop reading and write this post. I always like cross-series references so I feel quite interested right now. As for the manga itself, it’s pretty good, although it may tend to be wordy at times (But nowhere near the level of Leviathan and its difficult-to-understand-ness). After Kurosagi corpse delivery service, I’m gonna check out two more titles written by Otsuka - one my favorite writers, along with Hitoshi Iwaaki (author of Historie and Parastye. I love the his narration and presentation, depsite the fact that his art looks boring when not being used in the extreme cases) and Hideo Yamamoto (author of Voyeur Inc, Ichi the killer and Homunculus. I swear that this guy is a little bit so into sexual violence, but the psychological aspect of his works is awesome)

On a side note, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Another Story [Mission-2306] has been released. I listened to part of it (no use listening to the whole thing when I can’t understand anything) and still amazed as to how woman-ish Hiroshi Kamiya sounds when Tieria is disguised as a girl (assuming that it’s his voice that I heard). The CD ends with a commentary from the seiyu and I like Hiroshi Kamiya’s voice the best (for his casual real-life voice).

G00 scans and DVD covers

I put up some new Gundam 00 scans in the gallery section. Not really new stuffs, though, as I haven’t updated the gallery for awhile. Note that the numbers don’t necessarily reflect the “newness” of the scans.

Also, from now on, I won’t make a post whenever I update the scans anymore, as I see little points in doing so.

I won’t update Gundam 00 DVD covers anymore. However, expect something much much much better when I finish collecting all of the covers.

Gundam 00 season 2 pics

Normally I would have been too lazy to right about this, but it would be a total waste not to mention it here. These are scans from a magazine, July issue (New type, I believe). So, some interesting points here:

1. The uniform which I detested when I first saw them in the Newtype commercial (there’s a video on youtube, you can search it yourself) turns out to be quite good.

2. Lockon is present. Well, we don’t know who he really is, but at the very least, the code name Lockon Stratos is used once again.

And some information from Gunota headlines: Lockon Stratos - Expert marksman and Gundam Meister affiliated with Celestial Being. 4 years ago, he and his bitter enemy Saachez shot each other simultaneously and (*unreadable portion*) This Lockon (*unreadable*) heads to the battlefield together with his partner Haro and, as a Gundam Meister, pilots the Keldim Gundam.

I seriously don’t know who this Lockon is. I would be ridiculous if he’s alive, but in the other hand, it doesn’t get any better if this Lockon is Lyle. While I clearly want to see him in season 2, just pulling another Mu La Flaga’s case is not nice at all. Also, the director confirmed more than once that “Lockon is death”.

So… uhm… let’s just wait and see.

3. So generally, the cast remains the same. Even the Gundams don’t change much (they do get fatter, though). I leave no comment on the mech design for now. It’s better to see them in action. As for the meisters, they don’t change much after 4 years. All (more or less) retains their old hairstyle. I did want a more dramatic change, but it’s fine this way. At the very least, Amen looks better than before.

4. Setsuna looks so cool in the first pic. I’ll make a wallpaper when I have a higher version.

Toshokan Sensou (Library War) - final thoughts

Okay, just finished this today. Apparently, it seems that not many people watch this show. This is kind of the light show that I can enjoy without having any annoying feeling. It’s at the same level as Spice and Wolf. The story is quite innovative, I think, but too bad it was too short, only 12 episodes. I don’t know if there will be a second season, though the light novel is still on-going.

The show itself is nothing bad, but I don’t find anything spectacular or outstanding either. Everything passes my “acceptable level” but nothing else. The art, objectively said, is very nice, and stays consistent throughout the entirely show for as far as I can tell. But since it’s not really my style and I’m not really attracted to any character’s outward appearance, I’m not that impressed.

This is the kind of show that I have nothing bad to say about it and have very few good things to mention. I still enjoy it, but have no intention of rewatching it (in fact, except from Gundam 00 and Darker Than Black, my most favorite ones, I have never intended to re-watch any anime as it’s very time-consuming).

Recommendation? Well, if you have time, try out a few episodes. I don’t really know which demographic this show targets so I can’t say “if you like blah blah blah, you should watch this”. Just don’t expect an eye-candy, full of plot-twist and climax series as it is not. This is meant to be an light entertaining show with enjoyable plot and characters and it does well in that regard. I don’t regret watching it in the first place.

Rating: 7.5/10

New wallpapers

Check it out…

(I’ll write more about this when I feel like doing so…)

G00 June 2008 scans

(1), (2), (3): Mirrialia
(4), (6): Suemura
(5), (7), (8): Saa-chan
(Thank you for scanning those)

Also, DVD cover for vol 5 is up.

Two weeks late for Amen character card

“Ash Like Snow” was shipped from Play-Asia on May 9th and I’ve just received it today. Meaning that it was two week late (compared to when I received “Wana”). I don’t know whose fault it was (my local post office’s or Play-Asia / Hongkong post office’s), but whatever. The thing here is that I got Allelujah character card!!! (?) It’s supposed to come with first press only, and Play-Asia clearly doesn’t sell first press. What I’m saying is that there’s the possibility that you can get first press bonus even from Play-Asia .I think pre-order or order it right after it comes out will make the chance higher. I think I’ll try this when the singles for season 2 come out (on condition that I really love them). With this, I somehow forgive Play-Asia for being late. Now, all of sudden, I got first press bonus for CDs I purchased way too longer after their release date.

Edit: I forgot to mention that this may only be true if the bonus is sealed inside the CD (in this case, Allelujah). I don’t think it will work with external bonus (ie. poster) where they can take it off and sell for some extra money.

Gundam 00 textless OPs & EDs

Okay, I finally found it! Didn’t think it would be a pain to do so, as I believed someone would rip them right away when DVD 4 comes out.

Read this before donwloading:

The files MIGHT (or in fact, DID) contain viruses/trojans. My PC was infected and I had to re-format and re-install the whole thing (a tiresome task). The problem was that neither McAfee or Kaspersky caught any virus. However, I couldn’t upload the files onto Mediafire because it said that the files contained viruses/trojans. I extracted and re-merged them and it works now, but I’m not really sure about them being virus-free or not. So if you’re afraid of being infected, just don’t download.

Get them in the video section (don’t ask me where it is)

I’m not dead (yet)

Just dropping some words to say that I’m still alive, for those who care (if there’s any). Aww, I’m feeling like I’m abandoning this place since there’s nothing to write about.

- I’m still doing the screencaps. The speed is slow but I’m still moving.

- Gundam 00 DVD vol. 4 covers have been uploaded (yesterday).

- I’ve got a couple of Gundam 00 June scans already, but I won’t post them until I get them all.

That’s all.

Best soundtrack of 2008 Spring season: Code Geass R2

It’s is. It has been a tight between Macross Frontier and Code Geass ever since the beginning. But at ep 6, Code Geass totally won me over. I was shivering in excitement for the whole ep just because the music was so great! (no, I still like Gundam 00 OST the most). Anyway, don’t take this too serious, as I don’t watch many shows. The four main ones are MF, CG, Nabari no ou and Library War.

On a completely unrelated matter: I hate, hate, HATE cute young girls, and I got to see three in this Gayass episode: Kaguya (who shamelessly refers to Lulu as her husband), the loli Chinese empress (who is 100% a kid) and Anya the Knight (who might become a psycho bitch). Arr, I know many people will say they are cute, but I can’t stand them!

(hope that I will like Feldt a little better now that she’s 18 in season 2).