Dissidia: Final Fantasy

I must be living under a rock lately, since I hadn't even heard of Dissidia: Final Fantasy until today. I was more excited for Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon until I learned about Dissidia through the video below.


I don't play many fighting games, I tend to stick to either Mortal Kombat or Tekken, but a fighting game with old Final Fantasy character in it? Sign me up. RIGHT NOW. It's killing me though that I don't own a PSP. I really don't want to buy a system to play a handful of games. What can I say, I'm biased toward the DS. I'm sure there's other games on the PSP that I'd play, I'm just being stubborn really. Plus I don't really have the extra money for a new system right now.

And then there isn't even a Japanese release date yet so who knows when we'll see it here. I suppose it'll give me some time to convince Jesse to buy me a PSP.

びっくりした!

After the torrential downpour this afternoon, there wasn't that many people out and the traffic was light so it really felt like the perfect conditions for a bike ride. I've got a route now that I go on that's about 6.5 miles and I can do it in a little under 40 minutes. I'd like to go longer, but there's just not that many bike friendly areas to ride through. I get sick of stopping for cars and traffic lights and all the bumps in the sidewalk when I can't ride in the street safely. I found out on Tuesday that the sidewalk on the side of Wyandotte Shores Golf Course is actually one long strip on asphalt without any breaks. I wish all sidewalks were like this, it's a dream to ride on.

Anyway, getting to my point. So I had just turned down Biddle off of Pennsylvania when I saw this truck pulled off to the side of the road. I thought it was weird since I don't think you're supposed to stop on Biddle like that. So I look over to my right to see what they were looking at and . . . there were a bunch of deer! How crazy is that? There were about two males and maybe six or seven females. They were just chilling behind this fence eating the grass. It's such a strange place for them to show up.

The satellite images below are from Google Maps, while the other three picture I took with my phone. I actually got pretty close to them before they got skittish. You can see my shadow in the last picture, I thought that was cool.

If you look at the satellite images you'll see the golf course to the north, factories to the west, the Detroit River to the east and some big brown building to the south. I tried using Google Street View to try to figure out what that building is, I think it's another factory or something. So . . . why are there deer in this one little patch of uninhabited land? I wonder if they've ever gotten onto the golf course. That would be hilarious. As far as I can tell though, that entire area that they're in is fenced in. So it really makes me wonder how they got there. It's just so strange.

As I was sitting on my bike taking pictures, more people stopped to watch the deer eat so I guess I wasn't the only one who thought it was cool.

Oh, and if anyone's wondering the title of this post reads as bikkuri shita! in Japanese which means: I was surprised! >_<

Wednesday's Book Haul

Not really a haul, just two books. They actually came on different days but I forgot to post until now.

Honestly I don't know why I still buy the Buffy novels. I haven't read a single one, and I own a ridiculous amount of them. I've got to stop this obsessive compulsive collecting. I suppose there's worse things I could do with my money though.

Found another figure that I want

So I found this figure of Konata a couple days ago and I realized that I really want her.

I found a place called Otaku Fuel that has her for only $23.95. They also have free shipping if you spend $99, or the shipping is a little over $9 for UPS ground. So I feel like I need to find some other things to order to reach the free shipping threshold. But Konata doesn't come out until 9/30 so I've got some time. It's also possible that TRSI might list her on their site as well and I'd rather order from them anyway. I guess I'll just have to sit and wait, but it's good to know I found somewhere to get her cheap. Yay.

New Manga Release List 6/25

I took a look at the new releases this week, and it looks like the only books I've got preordered are from Del Rey so it's a short list. Currently, they're my favorite manga publisher so I guess that's a good thing.

DEL REY
Alive GN Vol 05 $10.95
Le Chevalier dEon GN Vol 05 $10.95
Pumpkin Scissors GN Vol 03 $10.95
XXXholic GN Vol 12 $10.95

Oh wait, I just checked my TRSI orders and it looks like I've only got Pumpkin Scissors Vol. 3 and Le Chevalier d'Eon Vol. 5 on order. I think the only reason those were ordered was because the release dates got pushed back and I ordered them in with a bunch of April/May releases. Oh well, I'll just have to wait for the next studio sale for Del Rey to order the rest.

Here's the link for the entire list of comics shipping to stores this week.

Chocolate Underground Ep. 1 Impressions

I just finished watching the first episode of Chocolate Underground and . . . it was really stupid. The whole premise of the show is, it's illegal to eat any food that's unhealthy - especially chocolate. But really, what's more unhealthy: eating chocolate or having your house destroyed?
That's what happens to a couple in the first minute of the show. They're sitting at a dinner table with chocolate and these military guys and this giant robot destroy their house to get the chocolate. This is just a tad extreme. And unlike Toshokan Sensou which is somewhat plausible, this series so far is just ridiculous. Plus, the episodes for this series are only 5 minutes long so just as you're getting into it, it ends. I had a feeling this one was going to fall flat for me, and it looks like I proved myself right.

Oh well, one show scratched off the summer list, 7 to go.

It's Official

I have insomnia. I'm pretty sure it's because of the tramadol so it's my own fault for not listening to Winnie and taking it so late at night. But it helps my pain enough so I can sleep . . . but then I can't sleep because the medicine keeps me up. Seems kind of ass backwards, huh? I think I'm going to try to get my doc to put me back on vicodin, I don't have nearly as many side effects when I'm on that one for some reason.

Sigh . . . at least I can listen to my music loud because Jesse is in Canada. So I guess that's a plus. Last night I ended up reading The Harlequin in bed until after 8 AM. I kept telling myself to try to go to sleep but I didn't feel tired at all. Honestly, I'm wondering how late I could have stayed up. Gladly though I finally fell asleep and ended up sleeping most of the afternoon. I wake up a lot more now too I've noticed. I think I woke up maybe 4 or 5 times, but that could have been because of the thunderstorm. I'm glad it woke me up though because the windows were open and it was raining on the TV. Haha, whoops.

Anime License Wishlist

I've been getting caught up on a lot of series lately because I've been sitting at home so much. There's only so much I can do with my back hurting all the time so mostly I just sit around reading or watching tv, movies or anime.

Over at the AnimeonDVD forums they've got a list of the anime that everyone wants licensed. It's actually not that bad of a list, even though the top couple of titles I wouldn't watch if you paid me.

Well, after finishing Moyashimon last night and getting caught up with a few other series, I felt inspired to update my license wishlist. They only do a top 10 over there, but I'm going to post my full list. Because I'm just that bored. Ha.

1. Dennou Coil
2. Moyashimon
3. Nijuu Mensou no Musume
4. Spice and Wolf
5. Kure-nai
6. Special A
7. Vampire Knight
8. Wagaya no Oinari-sama
9. Hayate the Combat Butler
10. Nabari no Ou
11. Kekkaishi
    
12. Kaibutsu Oujo
13. Rosario + Vampire
14. Baccano!
15. Soul Eater
    
16. Inukami!
17. Itazura na Kiss
    
18. Sailor Stars
19. Saiunkoku Monogatari
20. Rozen Maiden: Traumend
21. Kyou Kara Maoh!
22. Karin
    

And . . . that's it. Hopefully some of these get picked up some time soon. I'm not holding my breath for Sailor Stars though, that's why it's so low on the list.

Everything below Sailor Stars was licensed by Geneon but not released in full due to the problems they're currently facing. I'm hoping either they come back and start releasing DVDs again, or at the very least another company comes by and finishes them. Otherwise, I'm probably just going to sell the couple of DVDs I have and finish the series via fansub. Hopefully they'll be released though because I'd like to own them.

Too Cute

I found something else today that I decided I want but probably shouldn't buy. I really just want Konata.

YesAsia has the set right now for $90, which puts each figure at $9 a piece (when you think of it like that it doesn't seem so bad.) But I'm pretty sure Jesse would kill me if I bought them.

What I'm currently obsessed with

I've been catching up with Moyashimon lately and I can't get over how freaking cute the little microbes are. They crack me up. I especially like how the dark purple one has such a deep voice. I keep looking on eBay to buy some little figures, but the people selling them want way too much money for bits of plastic. I did find some little guys over at JPQueen, but they weren't the ones that I wanted.

I really like A. Oryzae but he's out of stock. He's probably the most popular since he's kind of the main one that follows Tadayasu around.

I actually would love to have this set of figures:

But the guy that's selling them wants $46.20 for them plus $18 for shipping. I want them, but I don't want them that much.

This set of magnets is also really cool too:

They're from the same seller and this time he wants $80 for them! That's insane! PLUS $18 for shipping. Sigh. Oh well, I'll just have to keep looking I guess.

Enjoy the opening for Moyashimon below. It's hilarious, super cute, and probably one of the highest quality videos I've seen on YouTube ever. Why can't they all look this good?

Thursday's Book Haul

Came home yesterday to find 3 boxes from UPS on my front porch. I love getting packages. Here's what came:

Penny Arcade + Anita Blake = AWESOME

So, I love Penny Arcade. But I sometimes forget about it for weeks at a time and then go back and read 5 or 6 comics that are new to me. So when I saw the comic below, my head almost exploded.

I never thought in a million years that the Penny Arcade guys would write a comic about Anita Blake. And, on top of that, it's just so freaking TRUE! And what's hilarious is I finally started reading The Harlequin last night and even though I honestly think LKH's books have gotten really ridiculous, I just can't stop reading them. I'm kind of ashamed to admit that's she's got me hooked for life.

True Blood Pilot Impressions

So I watched the first episode of True Blood tonight and I have to say that I absolutely loved it! The only cast member I'm not too sure about is Tara - she seems just a little too bitchy. But Anna is super cute as a blonde. And I can't believe how well they cast everyone. Sam is hotter than I pictured him but I can deal with that. Jason was a little sleazier than I remember him being but I don't think it's that big of a change. The sex scene in the beginning is a little over the top but I guess that's HBO for you. Arlene is exactly what I had in mind. And I was never sure if Merlotte's was pronounced with a hard "t" or not, so I'm glad to have finally heard it said aloud.

And man, knowing what I know, I can't help but hate Bill right off that bat. It kind of sucks going into the show with so much knowledge of everything. But the actor who plays Bill really fits what I had in mind. It's just hard watching Sookie and Bill together when you knows what's in store for them. I'm sure I'd feel the same though if I ever sat down and reread the books (like I plan to sometime in the future.)

I'm really glad that they're sticking to the plot from the books and not veering off and doing their own thing like what happened to The Dresden Files. It's uncanny how they've managed to recreate Charlaine's world, and you can tell she had a lot of input.

The only thing I'm kind of upset about is everything I've been reading about what other people think of the pilot. Most say they've never read the books and they don't like the premise of the show. They also don't like how you're thrown into the world without really any background info. This sucks because if people that haven't read the books can't get into it then it's not going to have a lot of mainstream appeal and then it's possible it won't last past one season - which would break my heart. (Oh, Moonlight, how I miss thee.) Now granted, the pilot that was leaked is obviously a rough version seeing as there's scenes missing, so it's possible that things could get fleshed out more when it officially airs in September. I hope so, because even though it's about vampires and supernatural stuff I still think it has broad appeal. Plus the books are fantastic and I hope it gets more people to pick them up.

Here's some other news. Pam got cast recently. Her name is Kristin Bauer. I think she fits well.



For some reason though I always imagine Angela from The Office when I think of Pam.



Now I seriously am going to have a hard time waiting until September!

Fear Itself Episode 2 Thoughts

So I watched the second episode of Fear Itself tonight, mostly out of boredom and because I couldn't find anything else I wanted to watch. I downloaded it the other night but I'm not even sure what day it airs to tell you the truth.

I'm just going to copy the summary from NBC.com for those that don't know what this show is about:


"Fear Itself" is a provocative, new 13-episode suspense and horror anthology series set to push the boundaries of this classic genre through a host of provocative talent, both in front of and behind the camera, including award-winning, sought-after directors John Landis ("An American Werewolf in London"), Darren Bousman ("Saw II, III and IV") and Ronny Yu ("Bride of Chucky"); actors Brandon Routh ("Superman Returns"), Shiri Appleby ("Charlie Wilson's War"), Elisabeth Moss ("Mad Men"), Cynthia Watros ("Lost"), Eric Roberts (NBC's "Heroes") and John Billingsley ("Star Trek: Enterprise"); and writers, including Joe Gangemi ("Wind Chill," the novel "Inamorata"), Steve Niles ("30 Days of Night") and Dan Knauf ("Carnivàle," "Supernatural").

Tonight's episode was about a cop who ends up killing a young man while he's interrogating him. With the guy's dying breath he "curses" the cop telling him he won't let him forget this or some nonsense to that degree. Well it turns out this cop has gone too far on a number of occasions and he loses his badge and pension, yet serves no prison time, for killing the criminal.

So now the cop is a private detective. He gets hired by this lady to find evidence that her husband is cheating on her. He sets up across the street from her mansion-like house in this crazy old falling down graffiti-laden house. A lot of the grafiti is words like "death" and "murder" and happy stuff like that so of course the house isn't haunted or anything. There's also these paintings of kids that keep changing, their mouths open as if screaming, their necks get cut which honestly was about the only spooky thing about the whole episode.



With the show airing on network television it obviously can't be too violent or gruesome but this is the second episode of this series I've seen and they've both been kind of silly. The acting is pretty bad too.

I doubt this series sticks around past this first season, and if it does I'll be really surprised.

Also, interesting tidbit: Fear, Itself is the title of an episode of Buffy and Fear Itself is the title of a book by Jonathan Nasaw, an author I really like.

Thursday's Book Haul

On Thursday I went back to Barnes & Noble to pick up a few more books. I also special ordered and preordered a bunch to get the extra discount. It was cool because both Danielle and Jason were there so I got to talk to them.

Below are the books that I purchased on Thursday. Now I just need to find somewhere to put them all!

Monday's Book Haul

Working at Barnes and Noble definitely has its perks, especially when they have the extra discount week for the employees. Normally we get 30% off books but this week they bumped it up to 40% off. I've been on short term disability the last two month (and still am) so I haven't been buying as many books. Normally when I worked I'd bring home at least 2 or 3 books a night, but that number has dropped off dramatically since I've been spending so much time recuperating at home.

I went in on Monday to give the managers my updated doctor's note and to pick up a few things when Julie let me know that it was extra discount week. Thankfully my brother Phil was with me so he could carry my basket! I ended up spending about $160 after the discount. This is what I ended up with:



The links aren't working at the moment because LibraryThing is down for some reason. I'll try to fix them some time tomorrow.

UPDATE: LibraryThing started working again so the links are fixed.

New Comic Release List for Week of 6/11

I was looking over the list today and I thought I'd post the releases I'm looking forward to.

Dark Horse
Penny Arcade TP Vol 05 The Case Of The Mummys Gold, $12.95 - I actually preordered this one for Jesse but I'll probably take a look at it too

Digital Manga
Red Angel GN Vol 01 (of 2), $12.95 - it seems like everything that Makoto Tateno has ever written is getting released lately, which is good because I like her stories a lot, and with this being a vampire series I'll have to check it out

TOKYOPOP
Blood Sucker Legend Of Zipangu GN Vol 07 (of 11), $10.99 - I need to get caught up on this one
Faeries Landing GN Vol 19 (of 19), $9.99 - is this really the end?!? I hadn't really been paying attention
Tactics GN Vol 05 (of 8), $9.99 - another one I need to get caught up on

Not a whole lot this week for me. The only thing I actually preordered isn't even for me. But I'm going to post the list of books that I bought this week so it's probably good that there wasn't much manga I wanted.

2008 Summer Shows

Here's my list of shows that I'm following this summer.


Name: Chocolate Underground
Airing: 6/12 - Thursdays

Japanese Name: チョコレート・アンダーグラウンド

Official Site: http://www.choco-bar.jp/index/next.html

Number of Episodes: 13

Summary: Based on Alex Shearer’s novel Bootleg, in which a new political party called Good For You takes over and bans unhealthy items, including chocolate. In response, a group of kids start moonshining– chocolate, that is. They set up their own factory and create bootleg chocolate in order to undermine the new government (giapet)
Thoughts: This is actually an internet series and I'm not sure if it's going to be subbed or not. It also sounds a little silly but it could have potential. Plus I like the character designs.


Name: Telepathy Shoujo Ran

Japanese Name: テレパシー少女 蘭
Official Site: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/anime/ran
Airing: 6/21 - Saturdays
Number of Episodes: 26
Summary: Ran is a bright and energetic first-grader in junior high school who possesses supernatual abilities. Together with her two friends who also have supernatural powers, Midori and Rui, the threesome are constantly embroiled in mysterious circumstances. The threesome team up to solve these mysterious events. (AniDB)
Thoughts: I think this could be a really interesting series, but the fact that the characters are so young could be a turnoff. I guess I'll watch a few eps and see how it goes.

Name: Ultraviolet: Code 044
Japanese Name: ウルトラヴァイオレット:Code044
Official Site: http://uvcode044.jp
Airing: 7/1 - Tuesdays
Number of Episodes: 12
Summary: Ultraviolet is set in a dystopian future where vampires are used by the government to strike terror in the hearts of citizens and to keep them in check. Main character "044" is a female warrior who is genetically engineered with high combat skills and ordered by the government to annihilate a vampire army. (AniDB)
Thoughts: I'm probably one of the 10 people that actually liked the Mila Jovovich movie Ultraviolet. So I'm actually really looking forward to this one. Plus, I'll watch anything with vampire regardless.

Name: Antique Bakery
Japanese Name: 西洋骨董洋菓子店 ～アンティーク～
Official Site: http://www.fujitv.co.jp/jp/b_hp/antique
Airing: 7/4 - Fridays
Number of Episodes: 12
Summary: Tachibana, grandson of a rich businessman and newbie in the world of managing; Ono Yuusuke, famous pastry chef and even more infamous “devilish homosexual”; Kanda Eiji, a retired young boxer with a thing for pastries; Kobayakawa Chikage, servant friend of Tachibana and current romantic interest of Ono, who is clumsy yet serious and stoic to a fault (most of the time). Together, these four men maintain a small yet elegant cafe known as “Antique”, where they and all their customers can come together to cherish one of the few but truly important things in life: cake. (ANN)
Thoughts: I've read the first volume of the manga and I generally enjoy Fumi Yoshinaga's stories, so I'll definitely have to watch this one. I hope more people watch this one because it's not BL like one would expect.

Name: Ryouko’s Strange Case Files
Japanese Name: 薬師寺涼子の怪奇事件簿
Official Site: http://www.starchild.co.jp/special/yakushijiryouko
Airing: 7/6 - Sundays
Number of Episodes: 13
Summary: The story revolves around Ryouko Yakushiji, a 27-year-old multilingual investigator that graduated from Tokyo University's elite Department of Law, and the bizarre cases she faces while working for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. Yakushiji not only has to deal with supernatural beings in her line of work, but also her rival Yukiko Muromachi, another equally talented and beautiful police investigator. (AniDB)
Thoughts: This series looks awesome and I'm really looking forward to it. The character designs are really nice and the story sounds interesting. Plus, it seems to be one of the few more serious series this season so it'll be a nice change of pace.


Name: Natsume Yuujinchou
JP Name: 夏目友人帳
Website: http://www.natsume-anime.jp
Airing: 7/8 - Tuesdays
Number of Episodes
Summary: Natsume Takashi has the ability to see spirits, which he has long kept secret. However, once he inherits a strange book that belonged to his deceased grandmother, Reiko, he discovers the reason why spirits surround him. Containing the names of these spirits, a binding contract was formed between the spirits and the owner of the book. Now, Natsume is determined to free the spirits and dissolve the contracts. With the help of a spirit cat, his days are filled trying to return the names to these spirits. (ANN)
Thoughts: This one looks like it could be a lot of fun. Hopefully it doesn't fall into the spirit-of-the-week trap though. The spirit cat is really funny looking too.


Name: World Destruction ~Sekai Bokumetsu no Rokunin~
Japanse Name: ワールド・デストラクション ～世界撲滅の六人～
Official Site: http://wd.sega.jp/anime
Airs: 7/8 - Tuesdays
Number of Episodes: 13
Summary: World Destruction is based on– or at least related to –an RPG being put out in Japan by Sega around the same time the anime airs. The plot revolves around Kirie, a boy who has immensely destructive powers for reasons he doesn’t know. He meets a group of people including a woman named Morte, who is part of a terrorist organization aimed at destroying the world. (giapet)
Thoughts: I watched the teaser trailer for this one and it looked really well animated. This could easily be a mediocre series though but I'll give it a shot.


Name: Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu
Japanese Name: 乃木坂春香の秘密
Official Site: http://www.nogizaka-haruka.com
Airs: 7/11 - Fridays
Number of Episodes: 13
Summary: The main character, Ayase Yuuto is your average boy
without any special traits. He attends a private high school where he is one of the many and doesn't stand out, until, one day, he happens to discover the secret of the school princess Nogizaka Haruka, and his life changes drastically from there on. (AniDB)
Thoughts: More than likely this will get dropped after one or two episodes. A lot of times these otaku-pandering series just don't appeal to me. Maybe because I'm not a guy? I don't know. I'll give it a chance though, it might surprise me like Lucky Star did.

So, only a total of 8 shows. That's not a lot compared to what a followed this past spring. I guess it'll give me a chance to catch up a little, there's still some shows that finished a while ago that I never got around to.

Summer Anime 2008 - What I plan on watching

I noticed today over at giapet that she's got up a really great listing of the new anime airing in Japan this summer. This past spring I followed more fansubs than I'd ever followed before and with having all this free time I'll probably follow a lot this summer as well.

It's late, so I think I'll post what shows I plan on watching sometime tomorrow.

Last day of PT

Today was my last day of physical therapy and I'm feeling a little anxious. Part of me only liked going because I always got at least 10 minutes of massage. But the other part of me wonders if I'm going to have more pain without the therapy. It kind of makes me worried about the next couple of weeks before I see the specialist I was referred to. Hopefully she's going to be able to help me more.

New meds

So I went to a doctor's appointment yesterday and he gave me a new medication - tramadol. This stuff is messing me up. I actually think it's stronger than vicodin. It's like a mix between vicodin and one of the muscle relaxants I was taking. I ended up sleeping until 4 o'clock today because it knocked me out HARDCORE. And now I'm still feeling a little hazy. Hopefully it doesn't last long.

Thankfully though, it did relieve some of the pain. I guess that's good.

Added some stuff

I've added some links to items in my eBay store: Saru Shop. I actually just renamed my store today. Why Saru Shop? Well, saru is monkey in Japanese, and I love monkeys and the Japanese language. Why didn't I call it Monkey Shop? Well, it was already taken. >_<

My First Blog Post EVER

So I've decided to start a blog today. It'll be interesting to see how much I decide to keep this up because whenever I'd decide to write in a journal I'd write for a week and then come back to it a few months later or so. Maybe since I'm always on my computer I'll remember to update more often.

Right now I'm just getting the hang of this place. I'm trying to personalize things as much as possible. I'm really glad that I figured out how to add the LibraryThing widget. It's one of my favorite sites since I have an uncontrollable urge to catalog things. And when you own over 1400 books, it's probably a good idea to keep track of them.

I guess that's it.