Archive for the ‘Anime’ Category

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Final Year. Whee.

October 12, 2009

So here I am, back for my final year studying Computer Games Programming at Teesside University (not University of Teesside), and I’m glad that the summer’s over so I can get back into the swing of things. And although the work should be a lot harder this year, seeing as it’s quite independent, I’m looking forward to the modules I’ve chosen. I’ll be working with the GP2X systems (and maybe the PSP), learning a little Java and networking, AI, and some physics if I keep tagging along to the lectures. My independent projects for this year consist of a 2D adventure game, looking at LOD using DirectX, and on the side, I wanna try and code the card game Fluxx into a DS homebrew application – I think trying to implement all the rules would be pretty fun logic coding.

I’m looking forward to this year because I’m part of Anicom’s committee along with Bob and Morti. And it’s not just about the animu (although I’ve been running around frantically trying to get the show selection sorted the past two weeks) – It’s about making sure the first-years have fun, be social, and make friends. Most people are usually on games courses, meaning that sometimes they can’t be the most social people… so we try and help them along by introducing them to people with similar interests. And the more involved they get with the society, the greater the chance they’ll make more friends – yes, that means you, the fresher reading this. Join in and stuff. You won’t regret it.

The first few weeks of Anicom have gone surprisingly better than last year’s… well, disaster. We drew in plenty of people at during the stall, filled OL7 on the night, and ran a great games day on the Friday. Phil provided a great chiptune night in the second week, and the second session was just as popular as the first. So… yeah. Things are going very well, and I hope it stays this way.

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Back in the Red

April 15, 2009

So this weekend, Red Dwarf came back on our television screens for the first time in 10 years, and I’ve been looking forward to it since it was announced. It’s a shame that it was split into a three part special over the Easter weekend, because I feel that it would have been so much better as a feature-length episode, like it was filmed. The first episode felt very lacklustre because of this, but it seemed to pick up near the end – Sure, it wasn’t the best Red Dwarf we’ve seen before, but it’s pretty good seeing as it’s been so long since they made anything. And now they’re warmed up, I think it’s time for season 9 to be made… Please? Oh, and remind me to watch Blade Runner when I get the chance, then the whole thing should be a lot funnier.

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Time for some more anime opinions:

  • FLAG is a drama about a photographer covering a civil war, with the story told through still images and video clips – Very interesting technique, but I don’t think it appealed that much to me. The 3D elements were a bit crap as well, but at least the character expressions seemed good (reminding me of Disney at points).
  • Shangri-La, a fast-paced action anime about global warming, was quite amusing. It certainly had an eclectic mix of characters (lol, transvestite), and a magic skirt that despite being shorter than Edward Elric, never showed anything. Oh, and a exploding metal boomerang. I’ll keep my eye on this one.
  • Basquash! seems really good as well, and it reminded me a bit of Gurren Lagann in it’s style… maybe a little bit of Boondocks in there as well. But the idea of mechs playing basketball seems awesome, someone should give the creator a medal or something. Also, boob jokes and plenty of sexual innuendo, without straying into ecchi. Great stuff.

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Oh, and my second year ICA work is going alright. Thanks for asking.

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Drowning in A Sea of Moe

April 8, 2009

So here’s the deal. I’ve managed to take control of a session of Anicom (University of Teesside’s Animation & Comics society) at the end of the year, and I’m looking for 5 or 6 new shows that I can show the first episode of. After taking recommendations from a few places (including the 2008 ARC awards), I have 24 new series to watch the first episodes of within the next four weeks, to see if they’re any good. How I’m gonna find the time to squeeze these in, I have no idea. But I’m gonna try anyway, as well as running for Anicom’s treasurer next year so I can be the only guy on the committee that likes anime.

First up… K-ON!, a new slice-of-life school comedy from KyoAni’s studios, responsible in the past for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. And that show did the whole ‘crazy school club’ thing well, but this one doesn’t really seem to work. And the ‘music club’ thing just reminds me of Nodame Cantabile. Both of those are good anime, and in comparison, K-ON!’s falling a bit short. Oh, and the main character is the most stereotypical moe character in existence. It’s annoying. I’ll probably keep watching to see if it gets any better, seeing as the first episode only aired a few days ago in Japan.

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Another big new show that’s just been aired is the remake of Fullmetal Alchemist (known as ‘Brotherhood’), produced by BONES. I don’t really need to say much about it (most anime fans have seen the original before), but it certainly looks pretty. The major thing to keep an eye on is the new story (making the old plotline non-canon) which follows the manga a lot more closer than the original series. It’ll probably just confuse me, though, especially as it goes over past stuff again.. We’ll see what happens as the show progresses.

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Two more – I was recommended Trava – Fist Planet by some people, and it seemed to be done in a similar style to Dead Leaves so I thought I might enjoy it. However, the first episode seemed rather slow, and kinda put me off. Seeing as it’s only four 10-minute episodes, I might watch the rest of it and see if it gets any better later on… if I have time. I also checked out Freedom, an OVA done by the makers of the classic Akira. But again, I just couldn’t really get into it. The CG animation seemed a little weird, and I guess futuristic bike racing just ain’t my thing.

Expect more updates as the days go by, because I’ve got plenty left to watch.

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Three-Digit Television

February 1, 2009

The American TV schedule has picked now that the Christmas mid-season break is over, and with it brings the return of several shows non seen since the writer’s strike early last year. The seventh day of 24 came back with a bang, and you’d think that the government would know by now not to mutter those four magical words in Jack Bauer’s presence – “Do whatever it takes. ” – cue the protagonist leaping onto the suspect and attempting to gauge his eye out with a biro. Fantastic. There’s the usual conspiracy plotline that’s a bit predictable, but still highly enjoyable.

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Last week also saw the return of Lost, and LOL WUT TIME TRAVEL. I laugh at the confusion, whereas it turns most people away from the show… it’ll be interesting to see how this season turns out, because after refreshing myself on season four’s plot, fuck all happened in 13 episodes. More storyline plz kthx. I’m still watching Fringe as well, slowly getting more and more like X-Files, as well as the usual Sunday animation on FOX – American Dad, Family Guy and The Simpsons. Good stuff.

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I also recently finished watching Fullmetal Alchemist – great show. I didn’t like the movie as much, as well as the way it ended, but at least it’s being rewritten and the second season is starting in April.

Oh, and this is my 100th post. Nobody really cares.

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Classical Coding

December 14, 2008

I seem to have swung my sleep patten in the wrong way… rather than staying up until 6am and sleeping until mid-afternoon, I’m now sleeping around 7pm and waking up at 4am. Better than it was, but I still need to shift it forward four or five hours forward to be considered ‘normal’. So I found myself awake in the early morning, and I used that opportunity to finish watching Nodame Cantabile, a fantastic romantic comedy all about classical music. He’s super serious about being an orchestra composer, she’s all klutzy and lazy… but happy ending is happy TT_TT I’ve started watching Fullmetal Alchemist now, and I’ll probably go onto watching Soul Eater after that (in a BONES mood, methinks). Unfortunately, Soul Eater makes me think of Death the Kid, who makes me think of the Canadian girl at Auchinawa cosplaying her, which then makes me think of Rob Curtis. I love that guy.

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I have three and a half weeks to get my Games Software Development 1 assessment completed, but I’m feeling pretty confident after I managed to get my world model and entity drawing working in one coding session. The only things left to do engine-wise are the world tick, interpolation, and collision… then I can start importing graphics and gameplay. I’ve settled on recreating Yoda Stories for the PC, a top-down shooter – I’ll just need to screengrab the graphics, and all the sounds are provided in .wav format already. Now that I know I have a pass mark (40%) already, it calms things down a lot.

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