( If I lose you somewhere )
( If I lose you somewhere )
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( I still managed to ramble quite a bit ... )
( Guess what came today? )
The expected arrival date was Monday, but it made it here early~ (My mom even sent me a text at work because she knew I was waiting for it, but alas, I never check my phone at work, so I didn't find out until I got home.)
Needless to say, I hooked everything up immediately, and -- it all worked perfectly! (Well, it damn well should, I bought a brand new one this time, haaa.)
So, after the laborious process of setting everything up and updating (had to update TWICE, once to play Graces, once to merely access PSN) and waiting on the thunderstorm that was rumbling overhead, I got to play a small slice of Graces tonight.
Well, I've already played it in Japanese, so nothing was very surprising, haha~ But it has been a year. I'm only in the first few hours, in the children's arc. The children's voices are passable. Little Hubert (in general, not the voice) is just ... so .... MOOEEEEEEE! *_* Seriously. He's adorable. I would be pinching his cheeks too lol. Sophie is adorable too, of course. She cracks me up. Asbel is a little ruffian and I feel kind of bad for little sickly Cheria (Cheria: "You want to become a knight and move away?!" Asbel: "Yeah! Oh, do you wanna come live with me when you grow up?" Cheria: "YES! *Asbel walks off* *cough cough* ... I hope I grow up ...") And Richard just showed up~ Aww, Richard! So insecure T_T Don't worry, darling, you will grow up to be sexy and fabulous~
*ahem* Yes, I don't expect you to understand all of that; I just needed to fangirl a bit. I am extremely fond of Graces' cast. It's nearly impossible to choose a favorite between Richard, Sophie, and Hubert. (Pascal too! I didn't mention Pascal because she hasn't shown up yet!) It reminds me a bit of Eternia in terms of the cast ... the rash main character, the slightly naggy but well-meaning childhood friend, the "weak" one who can kick butt when he tries, the purple-twin-tailed girl who is a little "different," the elegant swordsman with long blond hair ... the crazy inventor and older dude. Haha. (Sorry, Chat and Max, I like Pascal and Malik waaay better than you.) Of course, these are not the same characters. They are similar "types," but very distinct unto themselves. Which is probably why I love the Tales games so much, haha.
Anyway. I know what I'll be doing tomorrow~
But this year I've been doing some preordering.
( Uh, where did all my money go? I wonder. )
Last night we opened "gifts" (which consisted of random new tools -- insulated screwdrivers, tape measures, etc., haha -- wrapped up so there was something to open, and a mini scavenger hunt for money for my brother and me). Today we're going over to my uncle's for Christmas dinner (which my mom is making most of, poor woman) for my mom's side of the family (though it'll only be us, my uncle and two cousins, and my granpa), and tomorrow we're going to my cousin's house for the Christmas gathering with my dad's side of the family (which will mostly involve watching my gramma and my cousin's kids open presents because the rest of us are too old XD).
But with people talking about "Christmas hauls," even though it's by far the least significant part of Christmas, I felt like posting pictures of all the crap lovely anime series I bought from pre-Christmas sales for myself. Spending Christmas money before I even had it, LIKE A BOSS~
( Click for the desu desu nyan~ )
( I don't think I'm going to go outside at all next spring )
( Fate is laughing at us )
Up to the last minute, I was having doubts about going. Alone? Ehhhh. BUT I MUST GO FOR TROY BAKER. So I went.
( Con extravaganza. Or not )
I had some time before work, so I was able to make my own Mii, play a game each of swordfighting and archery on Wii Sports Resort (I dunno if I'll play it much ... I think it would be much more fun as a group game), and start a file in Tales of KOR (Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World/Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk/Tales of Symphonia 2. Yes, I prefer calling it Tales of KOR). It's going to take me some time to get used to the Wiimote/nunchuck combo.
A preliminary list of Wii games I have some interest in:
-Muramasa
-Fragile
-Arc Rise Fantasia
-Wii Fit
-Okami
-Rune Factory
-Harvest Moon (Animal Parade, Tree of Tranquility)
-Endless Ocean
-Resident Evil 4
-Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Unreleased:
-Tales of Graces
-Xenoblade/Monado
-Last Story
I'm not sure how many of these I'll actually end up getting, but it's nice to have some focal points for my future buying.
Yeah, I finally broke down today and preordered a black Wii from Amazon :D
(Also, Tales of KOR, because it was in stock for $26 and I was planning on getting it anyway and I need to have something to play!)
I have wasted waaaay too much energy agonizing over this. I realized I was uncertain because I kept thinking, "What if it gets cheaper soon?!" but since this bundle just happened, I don't think Nintendo will do a price drop as well for some time. And anyway, buying a console is not the same as buying a game or DVD; the prices do not really fluctuate from MSRP. (As far as I can remember, I've always paid current MSRP for consoles/portables.) There might be a gift card deal at some store, or a bonus game at some other store (these sorts of deals have been popping up recently, but are equal to the new bundle), but it probably wouldn't save me more than what I'll be saving already by buying from Amazon (thus not paying the 9-10% sales tax I would owe at any local brick and mortar store). So once a new deal (like this bundle) hits, there's really no reason to wait if one has the money. Even though part of me keeps thinking of the number of unfinished games I already have XD
So yes, materialism wins the day, and sometime in the middle of this month, I'll (hopefully) have a Wii :D
After two weeks of working quite a lot (six days then five days), this week's four day schedule makes me feel a bit idle. ...
( The thrill of shopping )
( Chatterings and incomplete AMVs )
( Day 20 - A Hobby of Yours )
( Day 16 - A song that makes you cry (or nearly) )
(What amounts to a "real" entry?)
( Ikusen no hoshi no you ni )
Not only is this anime based on my favorite manga, but it's out of print, and all of my previous attempts to order it resulted in failure. I'd despaired of finding a genuine copy with everything intact for a reasonable price, but strangely, cheaper copies have been appearing on amazon marketplace recently. Now, I know there are bootlegs out there, but I can be careful and thorough when it's important, so I read about 9 months worth of good reviews for a seller before I purchased my DVD.
It's was worth the wait.
PSME (anime) adapts the first few volumes of the 21-volume manga pretty skillfully. The early 90s production has rich animation, lovely music by Hajime Mizoguchi (with an end theme by Yoko Kanno!), and, of course, the complex characters and plot of the greatest manga of all time. (Well, I think so.)
Unfortunately, it's only six episodes long. This means we have nearly three hours of fascinating material ... followed by snatches of scenes from later in the manga (that aren't really explained) in lieu of a conclusion. To be fair, it would be impossible to cram everything else from the manga in -- like I said, the manga's 21 volumes long, and the anime could only cover a fraction of that. Those who worked on the anime tried to give some semblance of what happened after; it's not that what they managed was bad, or ruined what good work they had already done. It just ... really makes me wish that the whole manga could be adapted, since they did such a good job on the beginning.
Anyway, so many anime adaptions of good manga fail hard that I can't really be upset when this one is otherwise so good. If it had been a TV series instead of an OVA, the animation would probably be cheap-looking, and they still may not have gotten through the story.
And now that I have the DVD, I will be sure to subject as many of you as I can to it ^_^
(The rest of my life treads from bland to frustrating. I had an absolutely wretched toothache for a while -- this as soon as my earache ended -- but one of my home remedies must have worked, because it has thankfully subsided.)