22nd Birthday

17/09, my birthday. Somehow 7 and 9 are my favorite numbers because it's related to my birthday. Frankly speaking, I don't really celebrate my birthday since last time. Since last time, my birthday celebration every year is just having a cake bought by my aunty after dinner, that's all. Last year, my 21st birthday is actually the first time I celebrated my birthday with my friends. Well, this year I didn't expect much too.

Unexpectedly, yesterday night I went out to celebrate with my friends. It's kinda special because we're celebrating 3 person birthday together. One person of course is myself, another two more is Jacklene and Keat. Jacklene's birthday is same day as me, but she's few years older than me. Keat's birthday is yesterday, 16/09, and he's 1 year younger than me. The connection between us is... Ragnarok Online. We played in the same private server and in the same guild. So, yesterday suddenly decided to come out to celebrate, about 9.45pm I leave my house and drive to SS15. They wanted to celebrate at OverTime SS15. I'm the first to reach and then found out that that outlet is closed for renovation. After discussion, we went to check the price at LoudSpeaker Karaoke, but it's full. After that we considered about going to Library, but at the end we went to OverTime @ Sunway Pyramid. Our friend bought 3 pieces of cake for us and we blow candle in OverTime. After that, the staff brought a Flaming Lamborghini to our table, saying that it's free for us. It's my first time drinking it, a lot better than my expectation. After that we just play same card game and chit chat, and we leave about 1.30am.

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latest hobby

Lately I had a new hobby, and of course, it's related to my interest, which is reading Light Novel. Last time I only read manga and didn't read light novel at all because it has too many words and only few illustrations. During my primary school days, I did read some detective novels in Chinese, because after watching Detective Conan, I'm interested in detective. However, those few novels are the only novels that I started to read on my own. After that, during secondary school, although I did read some novel, but those are because it's compulsory for me to read due to school and tuition center syllabus. Lately, I start reading light novels because of Sword Art Online. Currently, the anime is still at episode 10. I started to read Sword Art Online light novel when episode 7 of the anime, because I wanted to know the story so badly and the anime had to wait week by week. I spent 2 weeks time to read from volume 1 to volume 10. I read the chinese translated version of Sword Art Online light novel. At first I start reading with english translated one, but I realized I'm reading quite slow, so I try to read the chinese one and turn out that my reading speed for chinese is quite fast. However, I still had to refer to the english one for characters, items and places name because the chinese translated name are direct translation from the katakana of the original light novel, which is quite weird. After finish reading the latest volume of Sword Art Online, I know I had to wait for a long time for next volume to release and be translated.

However, I didn't stop. I continue look for other light novels that I'm interested for a long time but never touch. Firstly, I read Kizumonogatari from the Monogatari series by Nishio Ishin. After that, I wanted to continue on other Monogatari series like Nekomonogatari, Kabukimonogatari, Hanamonogatari and others, but somehow I didn't. The next one I read is To Aru Majutsu no Index. Actually I wanted to read this before starting Kizumonogatari, but I gave up because To Aru Majutsu no Index has 22 volumes. After that, I checked the title of the volumes and chapters of those volumes and found out that the 2 season of To Aru Majutsu no Index actually covered 13 volumes of light novels. Therefore, I decide to skip the 13 volumes and start on 14, although I know I will missed many details in the front 13 volume, because in anime, they will not include all detailed information of the light novel in it. I'm sure about it after comparing the story of Sword Art Online anime and light novel. I took quite long to read volume 14 and until now still haven't complete because I keep pause and totally forget about it.

Yesterday, I finally start watching Accel World anime. Previously I did not want to start this series because from the PV of Accel World, I saw the main character, Haruyuki and I don't really like the look of the character, which is the main reason I didn't watch. However, since I started reading Sword Art Online, I know that both Sword Art Online and Accel World are written by the same author, Kawahara Reki (川原 礫), so I assume Accel World story should be as excited as Sword Art Online, and I started to watch the series. I finished 22 episodes of Accel World within one night. 23 episode will be air on this Saturday, and I think 24 will be the last episode. After watching 22 episode, I start to read the light novel. I quickly browsed through the first few volume, confirmed the story are included in the anime and I skipped. 23 episode story should be in the middle of volume 4, so I started to read volume 4 from the beginning. Currently I reached volume 6, and I assume I can read till the latest volume, which is volume 12 by next week.

Okay, that's all. Actually I just wanted to blog about my new hobby of reading light novel, but didn't expect that I will write a long essay about it. Well, suddenly many things appeared in my mind and I just type all out. Sorry for the long post, I don't mind if someone "TL;DR", since my blog is not really meant to show other people, it's just like my diary.

here's some websites for reading light novel
Baka-Tsuki (English)
SF轻小说 (Chinese)
迷糊轻小说 (Chinese)

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.hack//Sekai no Mukou ni

I was looking forward for this movie for quite long since I first saw the trailer during December last year.

I was a fans of .hack series since 2006, when my friend asked me to help her download the series. Although I helped my friend downloaded .hack//Roots, but I didn't watch it immediately because I checked and found out there's a .hack//SIGN. I download and watched .hack//SIGN and then .hack//Roots and totally love their story and setting.

Ever since then, I read and watch everything related to .hack series:
Anime & OVA
.hack//SIGN
.hack//Roots
.hack//Liminality
.hack//GIFT
.hack//Legend of the Twilight
.hack//G.U. Returner
.hack//Quantum
Movie
.hack//G.U. Trilogy
Manga
.hack//XXXX
.hack//G.U.+
.hack//Link

So, I was waiting for this movie since December last year. It was aired in Japan during January this year, so normally it takes few months for the DVD/Blu-ray to release. Yesterday I felt that I haven't watch any anime movie for some time, so I check for awhile and realized this movie actually available for download since early August. Without hesitation, I straight away search for download links and start downloading. Today when I wake up, it's completed! and so, the movie begins.

The movie is a little different from my expectation, as I thought it would be full of in-game actions like .hack//G.U. Trilogy, but it's more about the real-life story. The story was really great even though not many actions. I like how Sora acts when she first login into The World, like a totally newbie playing online game. The characters in this movie are same with the other .hack series, but somehow it's totally different, for example Kite without the rare dual blade, blue flame and twilight bracelet. Balmung and Orca also having different name in the movie.

For instance, even if you never watch or read any .hack series, it's totally okay to watch this movie because it's not related to other series. However, I still recommend to watch all the series to know the story behind all series. I'm still downloading .hack//Versus, seems like it's a bonus OVA of the game that released together in the Blu-ray version of the movie.

The theme song of the movie was awesome too.
KOKIA - 光をあつめて (Hikari wo Atsumete)


here's a link for the movie for those who are interested. the other .hack series can be found here too.
and this is a review of this movie from my favorite anime review site.

here goes the spam of screenshots

the character "Kite" was created

gaming console "FMD"

newbie who don't know how to close windows

Aura appears!

Aura with imba barrier

in-game security guards

Aura plant seed into Kite

Kite keep talking NPC thinking it's a player

Orca and Balmung! in here is Gondo and Balder

Masaru Seven and Dasha

another console for playing The World

the confess scene

security guard lose to virus bug

Aura's seed power

Tanaka became unconscious

Sora's grandpa

reinforcements 

Balder like a boss

loli Aura appear

loli Aura evolving

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Code Geass

Finally, I started to watch Code Geass yesterday and just finished the last episode of season 2 just now. It was not bad actually. Last time I refuse to watch it because it looks so mecha-ish to me. Personally I kinda dislike mecha genre anime. However, ever since I listened FLOW songs during AFAMY concert, I'm in love with few songs, and they are the theme song of Code Geass. I always believe good anime will have good songs, and it's the same in the opposite way. So, I decided to watch Code Geass, since I'm quite free now after my exams and FYP presentation. I really hope to write a real long and detailed review about it, but I'm quite lazy, so I will just make a simple one, hope I'm able to express all my feelings toward this series.

The full title of Code Geass season 1 is Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. The first thing I like in season 1, the first OP, COLORS by FLOW. Second, the characters. Original characters created by CLAMP looks really nice. Third, the story. I really love the story of Code Geass, and many parts of the development of story are totally out of my expectation. Normally my assumptions of anime story are quite accurate, but in Code Geass I totally cannot predict what's gonna happen next. One of the example is episode 22, the death of Euphemia. I actually like this character and hoping she could stay till the end of the series. However, when everything is going well, suddenly Lelouch's Geass went out of control and lead to a tragedy. Although Lelouch didn't expect his Geass will gone out of control during that time, but it's his fault to use that example when talking to Euphemia. After the incident of Euphemia, many things changed and somehow makes Lelouch like a real badass, although he didn't intent to be.

The sequel, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2. Frankly speaking, I like the story of first season more than this, but in this season, many doubts were answered, although some are still unknown, for example C.C.'s name. In this season, one of the incident I dislike is the death of Shirley. I don't really like this character, but she shouldn't die so early and so wrongly. After she gets back her memory, she couldn't hate Lelouch even though he killed her father because she really love him. Too bad she didn't stay outside and ran in to find Lelouch, and bumped into Rolo, saying the wrong thing that triggered Rolo to kill her. That's why I always hate girls in anime that acts stupidly without listening other people's advice. Many unpleasant incidents happened because of misunderstand. Another unexpected incident is Rolo used his life to save Lelouch. After Lelouch thought Nunnally was dead, he scolded Rolo and tell him to disappear in front of him. When The Black Knights wanted to kill Lelouch, Rolo appear and protected Lelouch by using his Geass, and he finally died because of overusing his Geass. I actually feel sympathy for Rolo, even though he killed Shirley. And finally, the ending of it. After making the whole world to hate himself, Lelouch was killed by Zero, disguised by Suzaku, as what they planned earlierin order to end the chain of hatred. Since season 1, I'm always hoping for a happy ending at the end. Although the ending of season 2 is not bad, but somehow it feels different without Lelouch.

Now I'm waiting for the movie and season 3. Hope it won't disappoint me. So, that's all for Code Geass. Actually wanted to write more, but I'm really lazy.

OP1 of Season 1, COLORS - FLOW


OP2 of Season 2, WORLD END - FLOW

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Culture Japan Night Malaysia

Culture Japan Night was an event held by Danny Choo for comrades who share a passion on Japanese Pop Culture. If you don't know who is Danny Choo, you will need some reading about him. I also just know about Danny Choo like a year ago from Culture Japan.

Culture Japan Night Malaysia was held at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur Level 6, outside of Tonkatsu Japanese Restaurant. The event starts at 5pm to 10pm, and I arrived at 4.30pm. I park at Pavilion parking, which I know the parking fee will be damn expensive (first hour RM3, each hour RM2 and max RM15). When I arrived, they are still setting up the place for Culture Japan Night, but there are already some people queuing there already. I meet my friend Eddie there with his friend Alvin. They said they actually reached even early, but no one was there, so they walk around. They even spotted Danny in a restaurant being interview, and they went to take photos of him too. Not long after 5pm, Danny appear at the venue, and gave a short speech before we start entering the event area. We're like the first 20 person in the queue, and we were so exciting and expecting some freebies for people who come early xD well, of course, it didn't happen. When the event starts, Danny sits in front of the stage and all people can queue up to get his autograph and take photo with him. In a short while, there are 2 long queue at the venue area. I thought of queuing later as the later will have less people queuing. Unfortunately, my expectation is always different from reality. The queue is getting longer and longer, until 9pm still freaking long queue. So, I gave up and start queuing in the long queue. At last, I get to take photo with him, but didn't get his autograph because I help my friend to get Danny's autograph on his Racing Miku Holder, and one person can get autograph on one item. Well, I guess Danny will be having more Culture Japan Night in Malaysia in the future, so I will definitely get his autograph one day. I also get a Moekana card and Danny's name card from him. There's a lucky draw also, and I thought I won... For the Doraemon doll, when announcing the lucky person, "3... 2..." and I was thinking "OH MY GOD 32 THAT'S ME", but then it continues... "9! it's 329!" and I was like :okay.jpg: After that, it's already 10pm, and most people are leaving already. From last night experience in AFAMY, I learned that staying back in events sometimes will have good things happen, and this time it actually happen! Danny ask all the remaining people to have a group photo! Other than group photo, Danny also filmed us shouting "You're watching Culture Japan!", and he say this will be air in Culture Japan season 3! After taking the group photo, me and my friends also leave Pavilion and go home.

event area still setting up

the queue waiting for opening

photo of Danny Choo being interview by my friend

my friend getting autograph by Danny Choo

Danny's autograph on Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0

live performance of Mirai soundtrack by Jrock Tamashii

my friend with Mirai cosplayer

performer singing japanese song

performers singing japanese song

performer singing japanese song

Photo with Danny Choo! I was too nervous and awkward until hardly can smile

taking photo in Culture Japan booth

the parking fee

I also recorded video of 2 performances and Danny's speech

Tsubasa wa Pleasure Line by Lavena


Euterpe by Lavena


a short speech at the end of Culture Japan Night Malaysia
for more details of Danny Choo, refer to the links:
Facebook
Twitter
Culture Japan

and these 2 posts inspired me a lot
How I started to build my career in Japan
How Discovering Japan Changed My Life

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