Resurrection

After so much time, I decided to get back to this blogging spot.  I have my university assignments running and work's gonna start again this summer so time will be limited again but whatever.  I'll try to post something sometimes.  So what was this about anyway?

This is a personal space.  It's not animexxxxxxwhatever blog where episode reviews follow one another, nor is it a "let's review everything that's out there".  It isn't even a solely dedicated review site to begin with.

So... what is it about anyway?  Besides being a personal space (meaning I could post about anything I care about posting), it's also a review site with a purpose, and that is throwing out all hype from an anime series or movie I've watched or advertise what I consider a diamond in the rough.  While this should have been obvious by the few reviews already posted, I'm not going to chime in with the rest of the reviewers (good or ill) out there.  If reviews are justly good, there's no point in adding my voice to it.  If reviews are bad, and I feel like that, too, there's no point in reviewing anyway.  If reviews are scarce, or the above do not apply, then yes, adding one more review in this chaos that is the Internet serves a decent purpose.

Having said that, this site is not only about those reviews, so if you see multiple posts without reviews, it's normal.   And so, I welcome myself home.

Have fun everyone.

PS I can't keep up with way too much anime series these days so a number of reviews (like the ones already posted) don't seem to have a reason.  If the anime has ended a while ago, everyone has already seen it or formed an opinion based on the reviews already published, so what's the point writing a review like that?  Well, I want to voice my thoughts about something, I want to give people the different opinion they could be searching for, and I want to give new anime fans (unlike many, I believe there will always be a good amount of people new to anime) a perspective they may not see under the load of hype, misinformation and ridiculously subjective reviewing.

A tribute to a friend.

This little blogpost is dedicated to someone I hardly knew yet still consider dear.

Goodbye Meg.

I hope we will get to know each other in that happy place you must have gone, when my own time is up. I'm looking forward to it.

Thoughts on Fate/Stay Night anime

Yes, I know it's not fresh, but so are the rest of my reviews anyway. So what could this be? Another eroge-to-anime conversion? Well, I can't say I don't watch those. Is it like the rest of the eroge conversions? Well... Yes and no. Fate Stay Night has its strong points, which are numerous, and its weak points, which, while not so many, are strong enough to be seriously considered. So, why now? Well, first of all, I didn't get the time to write a review about it earlier. Then, it's getting some strange ratings which I feel are unjustified. And things need to be put in the right perspective, as people tend to give ratings too much credit. I haven't played the game but I'll do my best with the anime. Obviously anyone who's played the game will have different experience than someone who didn't and was or wasn't informed about the game differences. So I'll skip the rest and get down to business.

A bit of a summary
While being more or less an eroge, Fate/Stay Night had certain differences from a number of the lesser eroge. It had a pretty decent script, an interesting concept and was rather action packed. All those made it to the anime. Unfortunately, as an eroge, it also had a number of flaws, which also made it into the anime. This of course includes some rather ridiculous occurences leading to intercourse (a.k.a. Let's "recharge" our servant's mana, oh and throw some yuri, too, so we'll get better ratings), which makes me feel ridiculous when I expected something much more refined that this idiocy. Oh, yes, let's not forget the CG Dragon during intercourse, shall we? And that dragon wasn't even in the game. Not that the rest was acceptable, but anyway, at least when you play an eroge, you come to expect stupidity creeping from every corner to damage the script.

The anime was atmospheric, dark and mysterious, with decent amounts of action and revelations, the culmination of which was episode 14, known as Archer's episode, by far the best episode in the entire series, if we exclude the last episode, which was good but can't redeem the second half of the series. After ep 14, the animation went downhill, the weaknesses of insufficient character development started showing, the CG dragon made its horrible appearance, romance seemed to be budding out of nowhere, and generally a number of things that makes you doubt that it's the same series after episode 14. But then, behind the lowered animation quality, you notice that they are still the same characters (although with all the new ones appearing here and there one can never be too sure). The most the anime makes of its characters, besides the core ones, is in the form of vague flashbacks, which, as the game players inform, is just there for the players to understand. Many events are only explained when you have played the game, otherwise, there are holes here and there that one can't fill without prior knowledge and it usually involves characters. What I found amusing though, is that, contrary to other eroge adaptations that mix all the game arcs together, Fate Stay Night was more or less set on one particular arc. And the funny part is that it SHOULD have combined as much of the other arcs as it could. As it is, valuable information for a lot of things was lost because it appeared on other game arcs, along with information that couldn't make it to the anime for one reason or another, which makes the loss even greater. And since the story was actually decent, the loss of information doesn't act in its favor. I should be glad that at least some characters got handled decently.

Concept

I'll try to keep it short. There's the Holy Grail. It apparently can make your wish come true, or so everyone believes. It appears at some points in time. There are human mages, who wish to get it, so they employ the use of Servants. Servants are heroic spirits (heroes mythical or otherwise) who make a contract with one of the Masters to help them get the Grail, on condition that their own wish is fulfilled as well. Each servant has a Noble Phantasm, a weapon of repute, sometimes quite distinguishing for a Servant's identity. There are various rules governing the Holy Grail War and the relationship between Master and Servant. A Master may come to help multiple Servants as the war progresses. The Last Master standing has access to the Grail through his Servant, since he can't directly touch it. During each Grail War, only 7 pairs of Master-Servant may participate. Each Servant has a specific class, which more or less describes his/her abilities. Servants are known by their classes. To know a Servant's name is to know his weakness, so Servants always try to guess each other's name while keeping theirs secret. The previous Grail War annihilated a part of the city when the final battle took place. There is one survivor however, and the story evolves around him.

Characters

The characters are an interesting blend of different individuals. All the secondary characters are shoved to the side most of the time and even Servants besides the core characters are given little notice and are taken care of pretty quickly. There are hints for the viewers here and there, while some hints are only for the game players, which is really frustrating as we had them explain some things in the forum back then, otherwise it felt incomplete or incoherent. At least some of the main characters get a decent development and Archer still remains the most interesting character of the bunch. The characters are many so I'll only report a few. You can find more, and more accurate, information out there anyway, but I thought I'd give a bit of information about some characters.

Emiya Shirou (a.k.a. The Hero, the Stud, The Champion of Justice, the Recharger of Servants, The Harem Lead, Mr Naivete, I'DBeDeadAHundredTimesIfNotFor[SPOILER]) is tha main character and the only survivor of the previous Grail War devastation. He lives alone in his adopted father's house although he's lucky to have Matou Sakura prepare his breakfast, lunch etc etc. He's the self procclaimed champion of justice, he's nice, naive, reckless and all that "I'm a stupid hero" characteristics. He has the magic ability to fix things but he's not that much of a mage. His Servant is Saber.

Saber, the other core character (a.k.a The King, The Drag Queen, Master of the CG Dragon, ShirouYouHaveEnteredMeSoManyTimes) is... well, Saber. Although it become pretty apparent who's the heroic Spirit behind Saber, I don't like it one bit. She carries an invisible great sword around. She's your usual knight figure, stern, loyal, protective and powerful. She's considered one of the best classes, but due to Shirou's lack of magical abilities, she's weaker than she should.

Tohsaka Rin (a.k.a. Oujo Rin, the Real Mage, Red Jewel, Harem Mistress, IShouldHaveGottenSaber) is Shirou's classmate. She is regal, intelligent, composed, authoritative and determined. They only get closer (too close if I might add) during the Grail War. While sometimes appearing cold and calculating, she is nice and considerate. She's F/SN's tsundere character. Her family is one of the 3 major mage families in the city and she's left with the legacy of winning the Grail War for her house. She tries to summon Saber, but she ends up summoning Archer instead.

Archer (a.k.a. Unlimited meme Creator, The Cynical Hero, The Future Man, The Star of the Show) is Rin's servants. His identity is a secret, and unless you've played the game, the hints given here and there won't reach you, so his identity will remain a secret till the end of the series. He claims to have lost his memories due to the incomplete summon. He's the coolest character around, reprimands Shirou for his recklessness in his attempt so save others, is cynical about the whole issue, is a worthy fighter and always follows his Master's commands, who he seems to like from the start. His battles are the best the series has to offer and episode 14 is his time of glory.

Illyasviel von Einzbern(Ilya for short, a.k.a. The Loli Grail), the loli of the series and a pretty powerful mage, too. She comes from another of the 3 major mage families in the city. Cruel, cunning, lolicious, she's not as evil as she seems, but she's bad enough to do serious damage. She's Berserker's Master. She somehow seems reluctant to kill Shirou despite having no qualms about killing anyone else.

Matou Sakura (a.k.a. FSN Childhood Friend, Harem Slave, Tortured Imouto) is one of my favorite characters in FSN. She cooks and does other chores in Shirou's house. It's apparent she likes Shirou from the start. There is quite a story behind this character so I won't bother saying too much. Unfortunately she's mainly used as a victim in the series, while the Heaven's Feel arc in the game has her in a totally different role.

Matou Shinji (a.k.a. Mr MustDieIHateHisGuts) is Sakura's older brother. Their family is the last of the 3 great mage families. As unfortunate it is that he is Sakura's brother, it's also unfortunate that he... wait, I can't tell. So anyway you'd want this guy dead for a number of reasons. He's supposedly Shirou's friend, but with friends like him, you know how it goes. He's as slimy as a slime blob, if you don't love to hate him, you'll just hate his guts, like me.

Now, imagine fourteen characters at least, 7 masters and 7 servants. Add a number of secondary characters, and you'll get the result. It really could use 2 seasons to flesh out everyone. As it is, the first season did little justice to all those characters.

Various aspects of productions

The animation was really good up to ep 14. Actually some people were complaining about the animation in previous episodes, but I thought it was pretty good. After episode 14 however, even I could notice the decline. Unfortunately, it was a decline in every aspect... The recharge incident, the appearance of the CG dragon (who wasn't good either), secondary characters with potential going to waste... The music was good most of the time. I believe it's one of the few aspects of the series that stayed intact till the end. The insert songs were good, the two OPs were good, but the ED was even better. So, as far as music goes, I was satisfied.

Plot Handling
Some people were complaining that half the episodes were boring. Some people were complaining that the pacing was uneven. I must admit the pacing for each episode was a bit awkward. You knew that half the episode was going to advance the plot and explain the mysteries and the other half would be battle. Sometimes the analogies changed, but I believe it was half and half. Personally I'd rather have them do it like that. They already had too little time to explain everything, so if they could make the battles shorter to advance the plot, I'd be content. But that worked, too, for as long as it did anyway, since the time needed to flesh out everything just wasn't there. Some romance issues were poorly handled, at least that's my personal opinion, but otherwise, the plot advanced as it should, although the game plotholes remained in the end.

Conclusion

So, was it worth it? Let's see. The music was good, I don't regret it. Everything up to episode 14 was good, episode 14 itself I believe was spectacular. The last episode was also very good and touching. The rest... eh... Well, if you could somehow skip it and get to the last episode, it'd be great, but it so happens that unless you've played the game (more or less), you can't do that and I believe that, besides the final episode, the second half isn't really worth watching if you, like me, wanted to see a serious and well made anime for a change. The atmosphere was really spoiled after episode 14. I did expect the next 2-3 episode to not be as powerful, but after that, it became obvious that the plotholes will remain there and the characters won't get appropriate treatment. The episode with the CG dragon and the recharge must be one of the worst things I've seen in my life (besides Akira and the End of Evangelion). So, do watch until ep 14, after that, it's your decision entirely, but take heed that it's just not the same series anymore.

RSS multiple updates notice

Whoever has subscribed to the RSS feed may be getting regular updates on previous entries. This is just me reading through the reviews on a regular basis and spotting spelling and grammatical erros. There's also the rare occasion of adding something, but most of the time, I'm just correcting minor errors that the RSS counts as updates.

Thoughts on Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (a.k.a. The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi)

It must be almost a year since I watched the last episode of Suzumiya Haruhi and I must say that at that time I was impressed. But time can be cruel. Time changes us and our new experiences shape our perception and that can have unpredictable results.

I don't remember KyoAni publishing anything noteworthy since their adaptation of Air. Apparently they thought time has come to change that. So they decided to have a take at the novels of Suzumiya Haruhi. The rest is history. Suzumiya Haruhi had tremendous, unprecedented success, merchandise is still selling like crazy, the series got licensed this year and KyoAni gained a grand following of rabid fans and devout Haruhists, who praise them for anything they do and pray to the new god known as Haruhi Suzumiya. As the dust settles, it is starting to become apparent what Suzumiya Haruhi First Season is. And it is neither a be-all-end-all anime nor a miracle.


A bit of a summary
So, what is The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya? Is it slice-of-life? Is it a harem anime? Maybe sci-fi? Comedy? Action? Well, it's a bit of everything. What is more prominent then? Comedy, first and foremost, from the hilarious and sarcastic narration to the various incidents that take place. Harem? Sure, you've got three moelicious girls all of whom express at least a degree of interest in the narrator, Kyon. Sci-fi? Well, you've got an alien data entity (Data, how we all miss you), a time traveler, a procclaimed deity (or some form of universal anomaly, choose your poison), and an esper, what more do you need (oh yes, and some laptops and an online game)? Action? Not that much, it's usually all about moe levels, but there are also those huge blue blobs going around in closed space, along with a detective story. And there are some particular episodes that are obvious slice of life with the chronologically last episode and the festival episode being the best examples.

The series may seem disjointed and the first episode doesn't help, as it is totally different from the rest of the series and is actually the amateur movie Haruhi's group made for the school festival. You can imagine our surprise when it aired as a first episode. I can remember people still running away from the series. If you manage to survive the first episode which is full of deliberate amateur camera shots and of course high moe levels (it's Mikuru we are talking about), the rest of the series is manageable, although the episodes' chronological order is purposefully messed up in what appears as an attempt to close the series on a high note. So, does Haruhi work as a genre mix? Not really, those who can't take slice-of-life will get bored by the relevant episodes. Those who don't care about sci-fi will not feel at home with most of the series. Those who like comedy will probably be able to survive the whole thing. Those who just want moe will get it as it is freely and abundantly given. Those who want a serious plot and a decent character development... Eh... Well... Pick something else, really. Under the eye candy, the ludicrous moe levels and a small amount of character development involving Haruhi alone, the first season at least is devoid of both meaning and purpose other than to make you die from moe overload and give you something light and funny to spend your time while throwing some sci-fi here and there to make you feel like you're watching something serious.

Concept
Three years ago, something happened to the world. And at that the center of that anomaly was one person, Suzumiya Haruhi. A number of organizations are interested in what is this anomaly and how was it caused. There is a time traveling organization, entities of a higher level of existence known as the Data Entities and an esper organization, all of which send one or more of their agents to monitor Haruhi. Kyon is, seemingly, the only normal human that accidentally got involved with Haruhi, who tranferred to his school at some point. This actually summarizes the whole thing...

Characters
The narrator, Kyon, is probably the most noticeable character, since we hear his thoughts most of the time. His main personality trait is his sarcasm, and that actually sums up his personality. That and being an average guy who drools over Mikuru on more than one occasions, but no one will blame him. Unfortunately, he suffers from what every other character, except perhaps Haruhi, suffers, and that is non-existent character development. You could watch ANY episode and you won't see any difference.

However, Suzumiya Haruhi (a.k.a. Haruhi-sama, God, Chaos incarnate, SOS Dan dictator, Mikuru abuser, Freak), who is the heart of the SOS-Dan, the club she created, whose purpose is to make the world a more interesting and entertaining place (more likely entertain Haruhi), does change as episodes progress. From an relentless, extorting, totally inconsiderate, that-girl-must-be-high-on-something individual who takes pleasure in abusing others as long as it fulfills her needs (or just for plain fun), her change, although minimal, is noticeable, particularly during the festival episode. Other than that, she abuses Mikuru to no end despite the protests until the very end of the season. Some people just revere Haruhi's weird and eccentric character and how much character development she gets. Now, before I ask those people to define "much", I'd say that on first look, Haruhi may be in need of psychological treatment. Her will to abuse and total lack of empathy towards others is both prominent and disturbing during at least half of the series and by the end of the season it has only slightly lessened. Of course, if we assume that SHnY is first and foremost comedy, then all of the above is forgiven and welcome. However, I'd really like people to actually pause and give it a thought before labeling something as either "worthwhile/eccentric character" or "serious character development".

Asahina Mikuru (a.k.a. the Time Traveler, Moe incarnate, Moe megami, Haruhi's toy, Loli with big boobs, the one with the Mikuru beam) is moe. Whenever Mikuru appears on screen, it is time to cast all thoughts aside and let yourself be lost in the endless ocean of moe. Whenever you think of moe, you cannot but think of Mikuru. Repeat after me :

"Let there be moe.
There is no plot. There is moe.
There is no character development. There is moe.
There is no thought. There is more moe.
There is no pain. For there is moe.
There is no fear. There is protecting Mikuru.
There is no shame. There is drooling over Mikuru.
Mikuru is moe.
Moe is Mikuru.
Let there be moe.
And so there is Mikuru."

I believe that sums it up. And I believe that unfortunately sums Mikuru's role in the series. Mikuru is a comedy and moe device, and that's that. Pity really. Mikuru could be so much more besides moe. No character is more obviously deprived of character development and significance than poor Mikuru. Then again, if it's moe you want, look no further. This IS MIKURU!

Nagato Yuki (a.k.a. Data Entity 1, Johnny-5's cousin -MORE INPUT-, Invincible Machine, Haruhi's Rei-clone, SOS-Dan Extreme Hacker) is the silent ex-member of the Literature club and one of the agents of the Data Entities who is charged with observing Haruhi. Besides being a decoration character and a comedy device, she informs Kyon about her mission and Haruhi's importance, saves Mikuru from the Mikuru beam ability imposed by Haruhi, and saves Kyon on some occasions. You should be glad she actually DOES something that seems important, in contrast to poor Mikuru. Novel readers promise a tremendous character development in the next novels, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Koizumi Itsuki (a.k.a. the Esper, Buddha, MaybeILikeKyonToo, Vice President of the SOS Dan) is a serene, always smiling, obedient fellow who always does what Haruhi tells him, and gives Kyon advice at times. And that's the end for this character. He is as unfortunate as Mikuru, but at least Mikuru is moe. Then again, I'm a guy...

Asakura Ryoko (a.k.a. Honor Student, Class Rep, IWishICouldMarryHer). Not much can be said without spoiling anything, but unfortunately, her stay in the anime is short. Poor Ryoko. Oh yeah, she is moe.

Kyon's Sister (a.k.a. The Original Loli-in-a-bag, The Character without a name, Loli moe) is... well... Kyon's sister. Probably the only unnamed character that almost reached the finals in Saimoe 2006. Having absolutely no depth whatsoever, and rarely appearing in the novels, this is purely a loli moe device and she does her job pretty well. Are you detecting a moe pattern anywhere?

So, is there anything besides moe going on for the characters? The sad answer is "mostly no". As delightful and lovable as most of the characters are, their use is restricted to making comedy and being moe.

Various aspects of production
As expected from Kyoto Animation, the animation detail went through the roof. Everything is drawn for maximum eye pleasure and the series is a wonder to behold. The music... Wait, was there a background music? The OP, ED and insert songs depend on one's taste. They aren't bad, but they aren't high art either, their tune is catchy and while many people just love to listen to them, my preferences are different. They can be enjoyable at times, but I'd rather listen to something else.

Plot Handling
Wait, plot?? Besides the concept of the story that gets revealed fairly early, talking about a plot in Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu involves advanced philosophy about the concept of a plot, its levels of existence, and how such a thing can be perceived by intelligent beings. But you can save yourself from this tedious procedure and just accept that there is no plot in this series. Then again, a number of slice-of-life anime also lack a plot and are still a worthwhile watch, like my personal favorite, Genshiken. And since Haruhi can be considered partly slice-of-life, it can have no plot. The pacing however is uneven and the shuffled episode order doesn't help. The series feels random in that order, although it's still interesting and fun to watch. The chronological order is a valuable fix to both the pacing and one's understanding of the series, but the mixed genre means that the pacing remains uneven, ranging from very slow slice-of-life moments to fast action-packed sequences.

Conclusion
Haruhi was a phenomenal anime at the time it was airing. The animation was stunning, the moe levels were godlike and the comedy was hilarious. And rightfully so. It is no wonder the series has such dedicated and large fanbase. However, people should revere it for what it is. It is an excellent example of a mixed genre series, a very good comedy series and an extremely adequate moe fix series. But worshipping the depth of its characters, its amazing story, its incredible plot or the numerous underlying philosophical questions makes one question whether those fans have ANY knowledge of those concepts. Then again, those might be the same people who bow before the "intellectual" might of Evangelion and have a huge poster of Akira to whom they pray before going to bed, so it's no surprise. Yes, The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi is a very enjoyable series and it's one of my personal favorites, but being the best anime ever means growing beyond your comedy base and beating all those new and older series with enchanting stories, incredible and deep characters and mind-numbing or at the very least interesting plots, and that is something Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, with all its eye candy and hilarious moments, can't possibly do with its first season.

Thoughts on Fantastic Children

The last pair of reviews were somewhat negative, it must have been obvious. There are probably a huge number of people that won't like Kanon's review. Not that I care. And after all, an opinion's worth is measured by how much it differs from others and how much it contributes to the pool of collective thought. Repeating what other people say makes you feel warm inside and gives you credit but it hardly means anything. It is through disagreement and conflicting viewpoints that one may derive the best possible conclusions. And an argument should follow this basic truth. When someone shapes an extremely positive argument (like the one that follows), you would do well to search for other people who don't share that opinion, put all points together and judge for yourself.

So I decided to share my thoughts regarding one of my personal favorites, which is not popular and I can bet most people don't know it exists. It all started when my anime-to-watch list got empty. The usual procedure involves going around anime review sites and looking at genres of interest, reviews, user ratings (not really taken into account since user ratings are by far the most useless statistic regarding an anime's actual worth and appeal to me), introductory text and deciding on the series I am going to watch. And through this procedure, I came across Fantastic Children. I checked a few more sites about it and decided to give it a try. I have never regretted it ever since.

A bit of a summary
How does one describe Fantastic Children? It is more of an adventure kind of series and, although romance is prominent and important at least during the second half of the story, it is not the real issue and it is given only as much attention as is necessary. The series has no backing up manga or relevant material. The supernatural (although from a scientific perspective to the point where you can't really decide whether it's supernatural or plain science) takes the lion's share in this series. This is a serious, emotional and powerful series and I can't even remember a humorous occurrence, but I haven't watched the series for some time. Whether the lack of comedy is for good or ill is up to the viewer but personally I feel that it would have ruined the ominous and tragic atmosphere the series preserves so well.

In the beginning, one might think that this is closer to a slice-of-life anime than an adventure/sci-fi anime. Indeed, the first and some of the subsequent episodes seem to progress slowly and I doubt you will spot any reference to some sort of sci-fi element. As multiple groups of heroes and villains progress, join, interact, split, and rejoin, the story unfolds and most of the looming mysteries are explained somewhere near the middle of the series. And while one would think that there's nothing else to watch, the writers have various aces up their sleeve which include agonizing battles and heart-tearing revelations that might surprise many people. The sci-fi element is encircling the story, and includes some unusual mecha, various gadgets and a theory about the universe of the series. The supernatural is tied to the story through the scientific discovery and utilization of a special dimension that holds many mysteries and dangers, but its use is precise and justified, and that's what distinguishes Fantastic Children from the rest of the scientific/supernatural series that many times invoke some sort of Deus Ex Machina, which, while being an interesting technique that can serve a story, is used poorly most of the time. The originality of the story (that lies not in extremely novel ideas but in the excellent blend of various common concepts and its original take on various story aspects) is one of its strong points, managing to keep the viewer guessing (and being wrong a number of times) until the last moment.

Concept
There is a mystery surrounding the appearance of a group of white-haired children who came to be known as Befort's Children(the spelling of the town may vary, I've seen it written in different ways in a number of sites, I'll be using the name as it appears on the official english site). There are indications that these children have appeared at various points through time at what seems to be regular intervals. Most disregard this notion as false but a few people keep searching for those Befort's Children, some trying to link them to the disappearance of several children, while others seeking the hidden secrets that they might possess. In the beginning of the story, Thoma, a simple boy living on an island, meets a girl, Helga, becomes entranced with her and joins her and her friend Chitto in their escape from the orphanage. Meanwhile, Befort's Children have an agenda of their own that must be met and travel the Earth in search of one specific individual, while being attacked by mysterious entities and losing some of their members during their long journeys through space and time. And if those groups weren't already enough, what appears to be a renegade member of the Befort Children, Dumas, hunts his former comrades for his own reasons while a sinister presence looms above them all.

Characters
If there is one thing that needs to receive extra praise in Fantastic Children is its cast of characters. I will not go into detail about any of the characters but note that my personal favorite is Agi, the leader of the Children of Befort, and Thoma and Seth (who shine during the last episodes). Having said that, I have rarely seen such a masterful utilization of every character available throughout the various groups that make up the strong cast of Fantastic Children. You will never feel that a member of a group is useless or devoid of personality. Although you can distinguish certain characters as being more central to the plot, the writers must have gone to great lengths to ensure that every character has at least a moderate amount of depth and it shows throughout the series. Character development is consistent and realistic and that is a marvelous feat considering the number of characters and different groups the writers had to take care of. The level of details will make you understand and/or sympathize with most characters, as they display fear, doubt, anger, need, dedication, love, hatred, apathy, with the characters at the heart of the story constantly evolving. Maybe one of the few gripes I have is that I can recall at least one character who doesn't develop and that is Helga. Although the story doesn't need her to evolve for a number of reasons. Near the last episodes someone might think that Helga doesn't need to evolve, since hers is the role of a catalyst for a number of other characters to evolve, but everything can evolve, so why not her? And I must congratulate Thoma's Japanese VA for an excellent job in the last episodes.

Various aspects of production
I can see some people crying murder at the character designs. Yes, this is not your bishounen/bishoujo god designs. They have their own unique style which does seem old and takes some time getting used to but considering how well the rest of the animation and backgrounds are, not seeing moe girls running around in a great story hardly matters. The theme of Befort's Children is the prominent theme and it can hold its own as a wonderful piece of sad melody (although the whole 7min piece as it appears in the OST can be rather tiring). The rest of the background music has too classical a feel even for me and this may put off some people since this goes for the whole series, but, other than that, it is more prominent that your average background music, although many times it fails to impress. Thankfully it delivered when it mattered most. The OP and ED is up to people's tastes. Personally I find them nice with a particular liking for the ED, though both adhere to the spirit of the story.

Plot Handling
The pace is slow during the initial episodes but picks up gradually while focus is constantly shifting between the various factions. We get a decent amount of necessary flashbacks as the story unfolds and all pieces are slowly brought together. Then, once the majority of the mysteries has been addressed, there is a good number of open issues, conflicts and character evolution to keep the audience's attention locked until the very end.

Conclusion
What more to be said? My personal belief is that not watching this series is a serious loss, especially with so many celebrated trash floating around. If you want your moe fix, there are countless series out there for that. If you want irrational, arbitrary and out-of-context character development, stagnant characters and a ridiculous plot, I can direct you to many popular series. If however you want to see a story that does justice to the medium and a rich cast of interesting characters that can stand on their own, by all means, Fantastic Children awaits.

ATi, nVidia and a graphic card odyssey

So my 7900GT cards started failing due to overclocking coupled with som factory defect after one year and since ATi was releasing its new 2900xt I thought I must get one of those. The recent reviews talk of a card with potential, so I thought no big deal, the price is logical and I have 3-4 years since my last ATi card, time for a change.

I ordered one Sapphire ATi HD 2900xt. It arrived pretty quickly and I was overjoyed. I bought a 1000w Enermax Galaxy PSU just in case, installed everything and tried it out. It was pretty fine for 3 hours at which time all hell broke loose when Vista drivers started resetting and artifacts made their way to the Boot up sequence... After all sorts of troubleshooting steps which involved testing other cables, other PCI-E slots, etc etc, I got my old 6800GT out and sent this card for a service check. Apparently it was defective. However, the card was out of stock and it wouldn't be available in the near future, and since getting my money back and go find it in another store was too much of a wait, I ordered an 8800 GTS 640 which should be arriving in about 2 days and it better work right away or I'll get seriously pissed.

Which means back to nVidia for at least a year... Oh well... At least now I'll be able to install Linux again if I get seriously bored of Vista. And the performance is ok (ATi apparently needs a number of driver modications for 2900xt) so no real harm done... But still it's kind of frustrating wanting an ATi and getting an nVidia again :p But you have an SLi motherboard, so you could install another one of those babies in some time and get more FPS. Well yes, but from my experience, SLi isn't worth the time and money, unless you are filthy rich and get 2 top-of-the-line nVidia cards. Many games offer little to no advantage in SLi, the PC case becomes too crowded and the SLi setup is a power eater. Those applications that do offer some noticeable advantage in SLi rarely go beyond 20% of extra performance from what I recall, so there's no point again.

I could sell it on ebay, since it's brand new and get an ATi, but everything happens for a reason, so I better keep my 8800GTS until such time when I'll naturally change graphic cards again. Nvidia has a contract with God apparently.