Kazetenshi’s Weblog

I loved Persona 3’s Intro when I first popped in my copy. The song is catchy, and the Animation itself is quite interesting and awesome. Granted, I still haven’t beaten the game yet (Blame it on Siren and MGS: The Twin Snakes which I just beaten (Hooray!).), and with me planning on getting P3: FES (The “Expansion Pack” of Persona 3), there is no doubt I’ll be getting this also.

Ya know, I’m a fond believer that if you combine Japanese Anime with American Pop Culture, it would tear a rift within the dimensional time-space continuum, and everyone would be basically screwed. And after finding out that “AMV Hell” exists that combines these two, I’m thinking we’re one step closer to said scenario.

That being said, if you followed GHIII, you’d probably heard of “Through The Fire And Flames”. And probably you’re one of the many who believes that the song is pretty impossible. That is until a certain well-known Anime character attempts it.

36 Seconds long, but you pretty much get the drift that Haruhi will rule the universe, and it would be AWESOME.

There’s also another version that actually uses the entirety of the song. Some loops in the AMV are obvious, but it’s still damn good!

I just got done watching the second episode of Code Geass, and to be honest it’s starting to get really interesting! Only two minor gripes of the series:

1. Sympathy - Now, for everyone who knows the series really well (I’m just a newbie XP), Brittannians are pretty much racist towards the Japanese (or “Elevens” as they are called) that they pretty much ripped off a few pages on “WWII For Dummies“. Yes, they invoked a Holocaust-like attitude towards the Elevens; Ghettos and the such (excluding the “Final Solution”, thank goodness). But regardless, Brittannians seem to be arrogant, and self-righteous. Perfect Cannon Fodder for Lelouch! Ok, I’m veering off of course here. My gripe? Give a more sympathetic view towards the Elevens. The action being covered on the first two eps. and the brutality towards Elevens didn’t really strike an emotion out of me (Besides the fact that I’d join the Rebellion just for a good chance of punching Clovis. XD). I know the focus is on Lelouch and his own conflicts, but the background of the story is so promising that I wish they shed a little more light towards the hardships they endure.

2. Information Overload - The last two eps. (The first being the more intense one) bombarded me with so much information, to the point that I got confused on the first ep. one what is really going on. But thank goodness for VCRs (Yes, I still use it.). Hopefully though, that it’s resolved now since I know the background and everything. Just. No. More. Cramming. Loads. Of. Info. In. Three. Minutes. X.X;

Oddly enough, I usually don’t gripe about things like this, especially on Anime. This is probably my one and only time I’ll gripe in the subject of Anime…I <3 it!

Have you ever wondered, deep down, about the horrors that is hidden beneath the innocent-looking sheath that is everyday life? The experience of waking up from a horrible, yet really clear nightmare…drenched in your own sweat, and the goosebumps that accompany the bone-chillingly breeze from the window you’ve left open for the night…yet how gentle it is, it carries along the sounds of faint screaming coming from outside your own home…a mob of disfigured, macabre-looking villagers gathering at your neighbor’s.

As you discreetly watch through the worn-down blinds, confused, you see them dragging your neighbor out of her house…and into the growing restless crowd…you try to calm yourself down, yet both your heart and your mind is racing…as you want to get the hell out and try to help…but you know you cannot go against an angry mob yourself…

“What is going on?”
“What did she do?”
“…Am I in trouble…am I next??”

The crowd separates into two groups down the middle, as a masked man, distinctively carrying a large sword, or axe emerges…and all of a sudden, the scattered shouting becomes a well-unified chant of a language you never heard of. Tension and unsettlement begins to sink in your body, as it weighs you down…your breathing becoming shallower as you try to move your body…the sense of danger rises…yet the thoughts of the slightest movement would give away your hideout…that same thought cements you to where you are kneeling on your bed. Curiosity in itself can be a double-edged sword.

As the menacing crowd begins to calm down, concentrating on the chanting…a couple of the villagers forces your neighbor to kneel down in front of the masked man…after a few moments of uneasy silence…the sounds of screaming and wailing breaks the relatively peaceful night; the red moon contributing to the grotesque occasion…as the masked man begins to mercilessly hack away. But you never looked, for the moment that your neighbor kneeled down, subdued, you know his fate is sealed. Quickly you sprang out of your bedroom and through your back door, running away from the muffled screams, the begs of mercy, being drowned out with the chanting…as you try to make it to safety…anywhere…

Your stamina chips away each bare footstep, until you grow fatigued…yet you don’t stop. If you did, “they” would find you, and you would share the same fate as your neighbor. Taking refuge within a decrepit school, you take a few needed deep breaths. You are far away from your house…and “them”…yet the growing uneasiness never rests. As you look out of the second story classroom window, instead on concentrating if anyone noticed your desperate escape…the sea nearby glows an unsettling crimson red. As you sit down beside the teacher’s desk, trying to control your nervous shaking…hugging, rocking yourself, you try to piece together what happened…

A remote, isolated village…
Crazed Villagers…
Strange chanting…
A masked man…
Murder…

You lived mainly alone; none of the villagers are aware of your presence, aside from your neighbor…who gives you groceries each week. Then you remember, that she warned you the villagers are strongly Xenophobic. Did they find out?? Blankly looking at the old, rotten wooden floor, the sounds of a nearby Civil Defense Siren cuts the eerie silence in half. You wish that you were back in bed, not waking up from that nightmare…because what you woke up from, that terrible past in your head, is the only safe haven you will ever feel.

I’m actually pretty new to the whole Siren series. Although I was aware of the first title that came out in America, I didn’t pay much attention due to some of the people of the forums saying it pretty much sucked due to the voice acting and clumsy controls. I question that, due to the original Silent Hill and Resident Evil had all those, yet it still was damn sweet! So, right now I’m hunting for a new copy of the game, ignoring all the nay-sayers. What I want is the experience, and I really don’t mind the controls or VA as long is it immerses me into a state of desperation to survive. Hell, it could seem that the clumsy controls are maybe made on purpose, since the survivors in the game are basically ordinary citizens that never had any combat training or even use any guns aside from hunting (I’m looking at you, Resident Evil.)

That’s why I like Silent Hill. The incentive of an everyday person being caught in a situation that defies reality and shatters the perception of reality. While Silent Hill focuses on Psychological Horror, Siren looks like it focuses more on the aspect of traditional Japanese Horror.

Before those familiar with the Silent Hill series label this as a Japanese version of SH, the Siren series was created by the director of the original SH PS1 game. So Hanuda (Siren 1’s main setting; an isolated, mountainous village), is pretty similar to it’s Haunted American Town counterpart (Decrepit Surroundings, Dense Fog, and yes, even the Civil Defense Siren which NEVER stops getting old, or creepy).  And dare I say it, the new adaptation of Siren (dubbed Siren New Translation ) and its setting, the town of Hanuda, actually looks and feels scarier than Silent Hill itself. I mean, I’m still psyched to see what The Collective, an American Development team, will bring to Silent Hill V…but as of lately, due to the current dry well of SHV media, and the civil war of outsourcing the Silent Hill series, Siren definitely looks like a good alternative. And it actually scares the living hell out of me just by looking at the Debut Trailer.

Give me a ticket to Hanuda, I can’t wait to import this title (if it isn’t coming to the US), and happily buy a PS3 just for this game.

Current List of Places to Visit (WARNING: Links potentially contain Spoilers to its respective series. Do not read IF you plan on following said series.):

1. Hinamizawa
2. Silent Hill
3. Hanuda

Now I’m relatively new to the whole Shin Megami Tensei series; let
alone the Persona series, but Persona 3 hooked me right in. It’s one of
the best RPGs I have played in quite a while, and it’s pretty unique
(with it’s Dating Sim-esque gameplay. And before you ask, there’s no
“iffy” stuff.) Even though I haven’t passed the event in which me and
my class go to Kyoto on a class trip, I’m working up the courage to
actually play the minigame of dodging girls in the Hot Springs because
your best friend duped ya into thinking it was the guy’s turn in the
springs.

So, it’ll be common sense that I would be damned
excited for Persona 4 on the PS2 (No, I don’t care if it’s still on the
PS2, I dun wanna spend $600 on a PS3…yet.) And finally, we get some
juicy details on the game:

“The sequel to one of the best RPG experiences on the PS2 so
far moves the action from the city to the countryside, with the story
taking the form of a murder mystery, chock full of twists and turns
that will leave you guessing. The game includes a weather
forecasting system that indicates when a murder is going to occur.
Atlus is packing tons of gameplay into the new title, with 60-70 hours
of gameplay and over 180 Personas (Personae?) for you to play with.”

…”…countryside…murder mystery…twists and turns…”…

My goodness, it’s Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni in Persona version. I’M SOLD. I WANT NOW.

Akayuki Famitsu Persona 4 Scans & More

(NOTE: This post pertains to war. If you are sensitive about this subject, don’t read it if you don’t want to. =\)

I am an avid Linkin Park fan. My first album was “Reanimation” back in 2002/2003. Regardless of some of the pure rapping songs (which I do hate only if it’s about absolutely stupid subjects: *Cars, women, etc.* =\) it still was a great album. LP has a way when it comes to their music, capturing emotion and even providing deep thinking in the lyrics. Although the majority involves the pain and suffering of a person, it has such a deeper meaning, describing that raw emotion that the human being experiences throughout life.

Their latest album, Minutes to Midnight, from my own observations (which could be wrong) shook up things a bit in their fanbase. Some were definitely split about their new style, while others really like it. To me, although I’m on the fence, I did felt both opinions clashed, in my own mind. When I picked up a copy (Limited Edition), I glanced at the lyrics with the book it provided me, and I felt a bit alienated. The lyrics were definitely darker than their previous works, which also has cuss words (A first for the band’s originals w/o remixes) which I didn’t feel comfortable with. After that, I only quickly skimmed through the songs (aside from What I’ve Done, which is beautiful.) I didn’t find anything that I’d liked back during that day, through which right now I do regret.

I got clouded on what other people thought about the music, rather then focusing on my own judgment. For a while, this negative thinking did get a bit reinforced. One of LP’s videos, Bleed It Out, was “pretty good” to me, but it wasn’t thought-provoking or as creative as their previous music videos (Somewhere I Belong, Breaking the Habit, etc.), which left me thinking if LP really did make a good decision in changing their overall style. Well their latest video, Shadow of the Day, came out recently, and it leaves me really impressed.

Although not as artistically creative as their previous works, it still has creativity in the form of subtlety. It takes place in a war-torn, modern day setting in which a riot has broken out of town, in which Chester is caught in the middle of while he witnesses the horrors of what we humans can be capable of. It gives a direct nod to their album title (which references to the Doomsday Clock), with Chester waking up in the beginning of the video at 11:55….irony of which the Doomsday Clock is currently set at. Watching the riot unfolding shows how fragile the state of the world can be, which definitely is in real life as of right now. And from what Chester experiences is the chaos that follows before Doomsday, which when the video is over (about 4 minutes, 25 seconds), the Doomsday Clock would be at 11:59….one more minute till the world ends. Also worth noting is how Chester is the only band member to appear in the video, and how the music does not fully encase the video, allowing sounds of the riot to be clearly heard…which catches the viewer and surrounds him/her with that same chaos. It’s those touches that I’ve come to expect from watching a LP Music Video.

Before watching the video, I had envisioned the lyrics of Shadow of the Day quite differently then what I see right now. Before, I was thinking more of how a person, who is running away, wishes they can forget the past, probably another person, and it goes on how he “curses” that person saying that the sun will set for him/her, as he attempts to reassemble what he/she has left. Looking at what I though back then, it’s too much of a “direct” translation, which I always try to avoid…

After watching, I have a better understanding on what the lyrics truly mean. It captures the paranoia that the whole world faces. The meaning focuses that not every problem has that simple solution, often turning a blind eye…and it can lead in such tragic events. The sun indeed goes down…on the face of humanity, as the Shadow of “The Day” (aka Doomsday) embraces the world in Grey…hate…war…destruction…annihilation.

After watching this video, I have definitely learned not to overlook on the fine details, as it can be ignored throughout the chaos that ensues, which is ironic since I was caught up between the arguments that LP’s new album was not good at all…and I really regret saying that back then. I will definitely re-listen to this album with the fullest intention of finding the inner meanings…

And to the people who say that the new album is horrible…change DOES happen. It’s your decision to either like it, or don’t. Just don’t let immaturity get in the way of explaining your side of the argument…which I have seen throughout. Give it more of a good chance, rather then bashing on the negatives always.

…I wish it really WAS that simple…*sigh*

Shadow of the Day Lyrics

I close both locks below the window.
I close both blinds and turn away.
Sometimes solutions aren’t so simple.
Sometimes goodbye’s the only way.

Oh…

And the sun…will set for you…
The sun…will set for you…
And the shadow of the day,
Will embrace the world in grey;
And the sun…will set for you.

In cards and flowers on your window,
Your friends all plead for you to stay.
Sometimes beginnings aren’t so simple.
Sometimes goodbye’s the only way.

Oh…

And the sun…will set for you…
The sun…will set for you…
And the shadow of the day,
Will embrace the world in gray;
And the sun…will set for you.

And the shadow of the day,
Will embrace the world in gray;
And the sun…will set for you.

And the shadow of the day,
Will embrace the world in gray;
And the sun…will set for you.