The digital loss & PCs in an online social world

Losing your PC can be a really painful experience... Similar to losing precious data like Uska did, losing a PC due to hardware being either broken or burnt can bu equally painful. My PC died around October, it was quite random too. Good news is that only the processor seems to have died and the data and other hardware is intact. Still, I've suffered from PC withdrawal for the last 3 months. Something that didn't happen since I had my own PC 4 years ago, so now I'm back to the sharing days. Right now I can say that it hasn't been as hard as I thought, due to my lack of online social life which is nothing compared to how it was in my teens.

My dead PC

Online social life is an important aspect in a world where the internet is everywhere, and so it was for me, especially in such years where one tends to be so emo and lame but still in need of social acceptance never the less. Whether it is online games or forums or IRC, I experienced all 3 of them, each with its own 'Golden Age'. The first one was PSO. Though I started with EQ and played other MMOs like DAoC, AO, AC2, Lineage2, etc; PSO stood as the pinnacle of online gameplay in a highly social environment. I, who was an outcast pretty much throughout all my junior high and high school life, found a lot of comfort, support and fun in such game. Then there'd be the forum and Sunday meetings which increased my interaction with new people. It also served as a means or me and Uska to spend time together when we sometimes couldn't meet up to hang out. PSO also stands out as the only constant online game that I played for around 5 years.

Now those were the days.

Forums and IRC came next, where I would spend there hours either being idle or chatting about nothing. Still it probably filled the gap in the more lonely years of high school, and overall, I had some good laughs in #Noated ^^; Plus there were the staff channels in Uska's fansub groups. I'd always be on standby for many projects but I had bad luck D: I timed two episodes, one having its release cancelled and the other being released even though they forgot to put my name in the credits -lol-.

Some of the conversations really were pointless.

Anyways after that came a sudden fallout of anything related to social interaction through online means. College had a lot to do with this, probably because it consumed more time and the drastic change of environment had its consequences, in a extremely positive way. So the need for social interaction lowered and after passing through so many experiences, I've come to a point where I lurk some forums sometimes, play some online games here and there and I sometimes chat with some old online friends.

Still thinking of myself today without such a techy based background in my teens and childhood is pretty hard. It's also interesting to note how I was able to experience the birth of the internet, online games and communities first hand one by one. Starting with the Sega Genesis and our first Packard Bell PC to having the courage to build my own computer and being fully inmersed in an online world. PCs and technology are in that way really amazing. It gave me the ability to socialize in many ways with people around the world in times where social anxiety used to pretty much dictate my life -hehe- Today though, I'm still a loner and I dislike being in big groups but not in terms of fear but in terms of taste really. I'm picky with who I hang out with but I enjoy having a conversation with strangers. The online social life helped me in acquiring confidence when it came to who I was and gave me the chance to have a social life that wasn't ruled by the same standards of the majority. If I were to lose my PC in those days, I'd be suffering a lot ^^; So yeah, technology is a big deal today, and its implications in the development of a person's personality and psyche are significant, for bad or for worse.

A real badass phone.

Oddly enough, nobody has reported on the sexiest phone I've seen to date, so I guess I will. I'm not talking about the iPhone, oh no this comes from Japan. Japan has always made the best phones, but lately it seems our market has been catching up and even matching what the Japanese market has to offer. Since I haven't checked out new Japanese models I decided to search the Softbank site thinking "Surely they have some awesome stuff in store for us for 2008!!" Afterwards, I got on the site and I was thoroughly sexed up.

On the main site I saw the Softbank 913SH G Type-Char, Char Aznables Custom Mobile. Now being a big fan of slider phones, the 913SH was already sexy on it's own, but this takes the cake. On the surface it has Char's logo, the Zeon logo, Mobile Suit ranking insignias, and of course is red. But while that itself sold me the product, it was teh Zaku head charger that made me covet it. IT'S A FREAKING ZAKU HEAD THAT CHARGES THE PHONE! How sexy is that!?

Besides the great aesthetic features, it has everything you(and by you I mean me) would want in a phone: 2MP camera, broadband speed browser, video conference, chaku-uta, e comics, media player + microsd expansion, and Bluetooth. Overall this is a great phone, it's only too bad we can't get it over here...

For pictures of the cellphone visit Softbank's site here.

Fansubs, downloading, and the industry

If you're up and about the anime scene, you most likely download fansubs. And if you also read AnimeNewsNetwork, you've probably read Justin Sevakis's open letter to the industry. If you haven't click here. Since he wrote so much I'm only gonna offer a small opinion.

Being from both the fansub scene and the world of production(not necesarily anime), I can see how much a fansub can help and hurt an anime. I agree with pretty much everything that Justin said, the industry does need a dramatic change. Let me tell yo what a wonderful thing it is to be able to download anime. I can watch a series entirely and then decide if I wanna buy it or not. I don't have much money so I am left drooling sometimes for DVDs. The new Death Note vol1 brings a very cool Ryuk figure, and the Suzumiya limited set was just awesome, so it's not like buying them is not worth it. The problem is that I am selective with what I watch and what I decide to buy in the end, I sometimes want to only watch a series, which would be like only watching the TV airing in Japan, and then not buying the DVDs. Therefore I agree the market needs to be more niche, the few people that like to go out and buy DVDs are likely as selective to buy stuff as I am.

Another thing is that we want our anime now. The industry needs to look for new ways to keep up. I know a ton of people who watch stuff on streaming sites, why not make a _good_ streaming site for the stuff you license, viewable in high speed and decent(not high) quality, and charge a small monthly fee for it? Maybe even ofer it next day from the original airing. I'd pay for that, and then buy the DVDs if I liked it, which is another alternative. Make DVDs limited editions.

People who download and never buy weren't going to buy the product even if he didn't have the download alternative, so it's not really a loss when those people only download and don't buy. Shrink up the market a little, and make DVDs more limited. The industry isn't dead and it's an industry we love, so for now let's buy the DVDs of shows we like and support them while they change. In due time they'll see that they have to change, Bandai has even noticed, so let's see what they have in store for us these following years.

Kouhaku Uta Gassen

It's that time of year again, the Kouhaku is back and just in time for my wanting to see a big concert. I've always loved Kouhakus, ever since I started watching it three years ago. This year I hope to see it live as we get NHK here, although I don't know if we actually get the live feed, or if it's another NHK programming all together. Either way, I'll find a way to get it. I wrote a very nice article about it, but I lost it in the hdd so I'll just point you to the Wikipedia post.

I've been between teams in the years, but this year I'm 100% red team. The team list is out, and here it is:

Red Team: (Girls' Team)
aiko (6)
Amin (2)
ayaka (2)*
Angela Aki (2) -hate-
Ishikawa Sayuri (30)
AKB48 (1) *
Otsuka Ai (4)*
Kawanaka Miyuki (20)
Kouzai Kaori (15)
Koda Kumi (3)*
Godai Natsuko (14)
Kobayashi Sachiko (29)
Sakamoto Fuyumi (19)
Tendou Yoshimi (12)
DREAMS COME TRUE (12)*
Nakagawa Shoko (1)
Nakashima Mika (4)
Nakamura Ataru (1)
Nakamura Mitsuko (12)
Nagayama Youko (14)
Hamasaki Ayumi (9)
Morning Musume (10)***
Berryz Koubou (1)*
C-ute (1) *
Hitoto Yo (4)
Hirahara Ayaka (4)
BoA (6)*
Mizumori Kaori (5)
mihimaru GT (2)*
Leah Dizon (1) *
Wada Akiko (31)


White Team (Men's Team):
Akikawa Masafumi (2)
Itsuki Hiroshi (37)
w-inds. (6)
EXILE (3)
Gackt (5)*
Kitajima Saburou (44)
Kitayama Takeshi (3)
Kobukuro (3)
Kome Kome Club (5)
Sada Masashi (19)
Sukima Switch (3)
Sugimoto Masato (1)
SMAP (15)*
Terao Akira (2)
TOKIO (14)*
Tokunaga Hideaki (2)
Toba Ichiro (20)
Baba Toshihide (1)
Hikawa Kiyoshi (8)
Hirai Ken (5)*
Fuse Akira (23)
Porno Graffiti (6)*
Maekawa Kiyoshi (17)
Makihara Noriyuki (2)
Mikawa Kenichi (24)
Mori Shinichi (40)
WaT (3)

NOTE- Big thanks to Hello! Online, from who I lifted this list of. Next to the names are a parenthesis with a number, which is the number of times that they've appeared on Kouhaku. And next to those numbers is a * sign, which means I am a fan.


As you can see, the number of people I am a fan of on the red team exceeds white team greatly, so go Red team!

I am really looking forward to hearing the live version of "SEN NO KAAAAAAZE NIIIIIIIIIIIIII" lol I hated that song at first but I loved it later. The dude can really sing. I also really look forward to some new comers, people who I've talked about in this blog. That's Leah Dizon(which apparently they're handling her career a lot better than I thought. I still say she needs stronger singles though), C-ute, Berryz, and AKB48(gogo pedo!). As usual, Morning Musume appears, although their appearance was kinda doubtful for me because of their decline. Hopefully this new appearance will further push them, and bring a lot more exposure to C-ute and Berryz, who really need it in order to become the success that they're capable of. Oh and get this, SMAP and Utaban's Masahiro Nakai is gonna be hosting for red team. That's a major breakthrough, he's the first male host for team red since like the 6th Kouhaku. Bahahahaha that's more reason to wanna cheer for team red, Nakai is with us either way!

This year should be really interesting for Kouhaku and I will fully cover it, so stay tuned!

Bad news

my hard drive with all the shit I planned to review died. So instead i'll review other stuff soon. Until then~

New reviews from my leave of absence

I'll be writing lots of these during the week, since I'm getting a new DVD-R, so I can empty out my hdd and get new things, probably including weekly Music Station reports. Anyway, some of my future plans are to order the new stuff coming out and review it top to bottom, whereas right now I have problems because I can only download stuff. I also plan to do some of it by video, so we'll see.

Today's topic is AKB48.
I'm really looking forward to their new album, which I heard contained the singles that have been released so far, which is good because I haven't bought any of them and that'll save me a lot of money. So far, I've gotten four of their singles. Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru, BINGO!, Boku no Taiyou, and Yuuhi Mite Iru ka?, and all of them have been solid singles. I've seen PVs for all of them, and also of Skirt Hirari, Aitakatta, and Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou. The songs are pure and utter win, and they're all worth buying because I seem to always load at least one of them to my phone to listen to where ever I go. Oddly enough, there's nothing like a huge group of under aged Japanese schoolgirls to brighten your day. I'll be getting this album, most likely, so keep posted for a full review of it.

Next time on Rubuska:
Leah Dizon's Destiny Line and KAT-TUN's KEEP THE FAITH!

New season!

A couple of new series have begun this fall and I'll be giving a run down on some of them...

First, let's start with Gundam 00

Ok, so after Gundam Seed ended, most of us felt like we wanted more, even though GS Destiny was not that good when compared to the original series. So now comes the new Gundam along with a whole new story. Its set in the same calendar we use only 300 years in the future. The Earth is divided in 3 factions and since fossil energy resources have been depleted, the world has organised itself around three giant pillars that serve as a means to solve the energy crisis by obtaining solar energy from space and bringing it down to Earth. Though I appreaciate the fact they added the use of solar energy into a Gundam series, its still kinda unrealistic that they had to make giant pillars to be able to bring enough energy when there are already houses that are solar powered in the 21st century... Anyways that's really minor and the concept of power through control of the pillars is a good idea. The first episode leaves you in awe since the series boasts amazing quality. To top it, the series is being broadcasted in HD so good luck playing it in a not so new PC and also enjoy if you can ^^;. I'll be honest, though I liked a lot of things about it, the story has been moving slow, and I mean SLOW. The first episode was really... toned down (with the exception of the 1st scene) and the following episodes 2 and 3 followed the same pace, even though there was a little action. But in episode 4 and 5 you finally see the story going somewhere as they start to present the classic mysteries you'll be trying to solve till the very end. The character design is nice and the mecha design is something I liked a lot, especially the FLAGS which are used by the A.E.U. . The main character's gundam, Exxia looks a bit too ordinary for me and the other ones seem to shadow him in a lot of ways, still all the gundams have really nice designs. If you haven't started the series already, I suggest you do it now so you can watch 5 episodes in a row instead of the first slow ones only.

Now for a crappy series: Myself Yourself

It follows the same line as any clichéd 'japanimation' (word used intentionally) that follows the formula waaay too closely, presenting stereotype characters that you usually don't mind but it here it seems SO forced that its annoying. Unless you're a weeaboo or wapanese... The story is about this group of kids who were childhood friends and how one of them had to move from his hometown. He comes back a couple of years later but while he was away, he didn't contact any of his old friends... Like always there's the bait for the lolikons with your avarage childhood friend/next door neighboor who grew up but looks just the same, only taller and with big breasts but with the squeeky voice. Now I'm generally not too severe with these clichés, I've seen a lot of series that all share similar elements but here its done too much and really bad. So point no.1, the series has really bad voice acting. In fact, perhaps if it were dub I could at least laugh a bit but the jpn voices are just too bad. Then there's this other gy who was his childhood friend who looks like a 16 year old but has the voice of a 28 year old man, really creepy. Then him having a twin sister makes it even creepier. Point no.2, bad quality and pretty much bad storyboarding. And finally there's this hinted fated love theme as the main character didn't recognize or remember the girl he liked when he was little, and naturally, she got mad and slapped him. By the beginning of the second episode I couldn't stand it and stopped, deleting the episodes shortly afterwards.

Another good one: Ghost Hound

Ah! Finally, I've been waiting for a series that would give me the same feeling Serial Experiments Lain did, and its here. If you see the opening theme alone, you'd think its something a bit kiddy and aimed for kids. Wrong... this series is quite creepy, and eerie... It has nice quality and above anything, a nice concept. The main character seems to be experiencing weird out of body phenomenon after the death of his younger sister a couple of years ago. They were both kidnapped and apparently, only he survived. Every once in a while when he falls asleep, he is able to exit his body and travel different places. Though these 'trips' he goes on ressemble more dreams than anything and its too early to try to decipher them. The series reminds me a lot of Zettai shounen, only not even close is creepiness. It probably reminded me of it because its set in the countryside. ^^; Anyways I really recommend.

So there you go, I'll be adding more previews afterwards, that is, if finals don't ruin it haha.