The EU expansion is a bit like the introduction of the Euro: First everone’s against it (because, come on let’s face it, we are all conservative at heart, any sort of change is baaad), then people are slowly getting used to the fact and days&hours before the actual event everyone starts to become really enthusiastic about it (because, come on let’s face it, we all need our little everyday revolutions). Then a few days later everyone calms down and realizes things haven’t changed at all and everything is basically like before.
This isn’t meant to be sarcastic or anything, it’s just an observation. To me, it doesn’t really make a difference whether Poland, the Czech Republic etc. are joining the EU because… aren’t we all Europeans anyway?
The changes will be a lot more drastic for people living in the ‘new’ EU states, I think. Let’s hope there’ll be more improvements than disadvantages for these countries.

My creepy moment of the day:
I was looking at this Kagrra special and I read in Akiya’s profile that his current ringtone was BAMPU’s ROSUTOMAN just when I was listening to my ‘Lost Man/sailing day’ single (track 1!) by Bump of chicken o_O
It was almost like when you read something while the TV is on and someone says the word you’re reading in that exact moment.

I want a cat ;__; We have one, yes, but my sister is taking him with her during the week, so practically speaking we only have a cat during the weekends. And I want a cat all for myseeelf. *whines*

[♬ Sakamoto Maaya - Kuuki to hoshi]

My sleeping pattern’s been totally out of order since Prague. Need more sleep—
I’m missing my friends ;_; It’s so cool when you can be with everyone you like 24 hours a day like in Prague. Some of us were a little stressed out towards the end of the week but most of the time we got along perfectly. I’m really fond of staying up till sunrise, talking about what’s most important to you, what you want to do with your life, what is wrong with the world but still managing to be optimistic about it all. Then you hardly make it into your bed because you’re so warped&drunk&whatnot and when you get up in the afternoon everything feels so unreal. But when the people smile at you in a kind of knowing way, you’ll know everything happened the previous night like you remember it and everything’s fine.

I’m putting off Uni-related things again. I have to make alternative plans just in case things don’t go well with Frankfurt. Berlin would be nice, alas it’s almost impossible to get into any Uni there because just about everyone wants to live in Berlin. Oh well. I’m much more nervous about my sister and her boyfriend’s application at Bauhaus Uni in Weimar. It’s so much harder for them to get into an art school as it requires multitudes of entrance exams, sending in portfolios etc. But I’m sure they’ll make it, the two of them are so damn talented.

[♬ Hamasaki Ayumi - A Song for XX]

I’m feeling jet-laggy for no reason -_-;; Must be the cultural overload *haato* Too many things happened so I’ll just keep them all safe in my head instead of writing about them here. I’ve been keeping this blog free of things that were too personal in terms of my RL. And I’d like it to stay this way. I hope this doesn’t sound overtly cryptic because this wasn’t my intention.

I didn’t miss the internet; however, I did miss watching a few anime episodes once in a while. (That said, I rarely watch anime when I’m home or have my laptop with me because I’m too busy or simply don’t feel like watching anime ^^;)
I did manage to watch the first episode of Mahou Shoujotai Arusu (Tweeny Witches) by Studio 4°C today though! It was really short (about 9 minutes) and unsubbed but I highly enjoyed it. Studio 4°C also did about half of the short films on the Animatrix DVD and I liked theirs a lot more than most of the other remaining shorts. Tweeny Witches is a lot darker and weirder than its title might suggest. I hope there’ll be some fansubs for it available soon.

[♬ Kagrra - Haru Urara]

Got my Third Stage order today ^_^ It was a favourite band package: Kagrra + baroque + Merry.

The 2 Merry singles are a bit disappointing. I didn’t regret getting them only now. The songs are lacking both the trademark retro funkiness and the melancholy. Oh well. I don’t care. I don’t like them that much anymore.
I listened to Hotaru’s album yesterday and compared to the recent Merry stuff it’s so much better, much more diverse, less whiny and more memorable. Hotaru rabu.

baroque’s ila. is a CD single + DVD set. The cover&booklet design is really pretty and very… fresh. Yes. The first song on the single is the instrumental ’space cadet’ which starts as a sort of ambient trance track, then turns into drum’n'bass and then the guitars start and it’s full baro greatness, then there’s more space-y stuff, voice samples etc. What a journey in sound!
ila., the title track, is the kind of feel-good, gambarou-type of song like Uta, Cherry King. Only it’s much calmer… And I discover more elements the more I listen to the song. First I totally loved the guitars, then I noticed the awesome bass, then the drums… and Ryo’s voice is great (though, as always, he doesn’t sing very clearly, that’s why I HATE romanizing baro lyrics ^^;)! A really good song, I’m sure it’ll grow on me even more because it just becomes more beautiful with every listen.
The DVD contains the ila. PV. It’s very sunny, calm and pretty. The only strange thing I noticed was that it seemed too slow. You know how when they make music videos, they shoot it with faster background music to synch to so when the video is done all the movements seem smoother, slower? Well, it seems like the result in the ila. PV is actually a bit too slow… the movements kind of drag… Just a stylistic thing but it definitely looked strange to me.

The 2-DVD set by Kagrra is simply amazing. I watched it just an hour ago and I’m still in that neo-Japanesque mood ^^; I like the live DVD so much better than Hisai. Hisai’s stage sets were a little more beautiful and the atmosphere was quite different too, but I like the video of the AX show a little better because of the editing, the sound qualitiy and the setlist.
The video quality though… WTH? It looks like they shot in on digital video! Actually, it has to be DV because the video quality is not as good as it could be, quite grainy and all ;_; It’s not that bad but not perfectly clear either. Mou. They probably did this because it was cheaper.
I like the editing this time because there are a lot of fast cuts so you know exactly what everyone of the guys is doing etc. It also helped to bring the energetic atmosphere of the songs across perfectly. I LOVED ‘Haha e’ – I don’t even like the song that much but the sound quality for this particular song and its acoustic parts was just wonderful!
And they played ‘Tsumi to Batsu’, one of my all-time favourites ^___^ Like I mentioned before, I liked the evening’s setlist a lot because they played so many of their older songs! There were so many more cool, beautiful and/or touching moments… (Sarasouju no Komoriuta with that beautiful background projection, OMG that was so wonderful ;_;)
However, I missed the most important moment on the DVD – the announcement they got a major contract! Where is it?? They have just a very short clip of it, not the full announcement though ;_;
The backstage clip is totally cool, a little short but hey, at least now I know the profession of my dreams: I want to become the staff person who ties Aki’s obi *dies*
The video quality of the PVs is great. The PVs themselves aren’t that spectacular and I’ve seen all of them except the one for Oukaranman before. Nevertheless, it’s great to have them on DVD. (And I was almost positively shocked how red Aki’s hair was in Yume izuru chi. It’s been so long since he died his hair darker that I’d almost forgotten how beautifully red it once was *_*)

On a music-related note: I really thought this Hamasaki Ayumi fixation was just temporary and it would go away sooner or later. But damn, her new song (Game) is so good. There’s just this small part of it in a Panasonic commercial but it’s oh so wonderful ♥

In important personal news, I’m announcing my departure for Prague. We’ll be staying there over the weekend and maybe even longer. (I.e. as long as our money lasts ^^;) I’m glad I get to spend a few more days there. It is such a wonderful city and last year’s short visit didn’t provide enough time to visit all the places I wanted to see. I’m so happy!

April, as every year, marks the beginning of the spring season anime series. That means: mega-downloading sessions XD

What I’ve seen so far mostly made me squeal. Not in delight but in terror >_< Major disappointments everywhere. And why does just about every new show this season feature big -no!- abnormally large-breasted girls? I'm okay with the usual otaku fanboy service in a lot of anime, but why does just about every show have exclusively busty girls now? There's simply no escape, argh!

Kono minikuku mo utsukushii sekai, the new GAINAX show, features major fanservice. Major as in a barenaked girl, a girl dressing; the female main character clinging to the male main character’s back wearing a jacket ONLY.
The story? The first few seconds were awesome and I was hoping for something very deep. But no, they decided to turn this into some mediocre Mahoromantic-esque crap with just a few, minor bits that might save the show from being totally boring. So, otaku boys, keep watching this. I won’t though, thank you.

Boukyaku no Senritsu (Melody of Oblivion), also by GAINAX, features the worst backgrounds since about 1991. This is below TV-series standard. Even a six-year-old can draw more intricate background settings >_<
Apart from that, it was so-so. Apparently, there was a war between monsters and mankind in the 20th century, almost everything was destroyed. The surviving people slowly built up everything again and, through the years, forgot about the war, the monsters and the melody (? something religous I think?). But now new monsters are appearing, little boys are secretely sacrificed and our hero has the power to destroy the evil attackers. Nothing new here. Except for the monster in the shape of a bus transforming into a bull. Yeah right. And guess what: The protagonist’s love interest has big bouncing boobs. And the main evil guy is amazingly good-looking and has the ability of making big-breasted women faint.
Again, this is too stupid for me to keep watching.

What’s better than one big-breasted schoolgirl? Well, a bus with four scantily clad young ladies, of course! -_- Bakuretsu Tenshi is a GONZO show though, so no surprise here. The mechas fighting at the beginning of the first episode were kind of cool. Oh and the main male character is a young cook (or kokku, as the girls say o_O;;;). And that’s where the originality ends. Joe looks like Ayanami Rei (but is quite the opposite character-wise), Meg is an Asuka-lookalike. The plot and the BGM remind me of early 90’s action cyberpunk anime. It’s all been done before. The animation is really good though. I’ll probably watch one or two more episodes to see how this turns out.

Koikaze is the story of a 27-year-old salaryman falling in love with his 15-year-old sister. Only the Japanese can make a TV story like this one. I must admit I kind of liked it. It was very calm and had an almost ‘innocent’ atmosphere… I’m not sure if I want to see more of it, though -_-;; Even with the incest thing aside, it’s just another shounen romance title. And I don’t like those.

The only new shoujo show I’ve seen so far is Aishiteru ze Baby. The manga runs in Shueisha’s Ribon so this is a series for very young girls. It definitely has an appeal to an older audience too as the story is bitter-sweet and has its sad and mature moments.
Kippei, a high school student with a rather large female following, has to take care of his 5-year-old cousin Yuzuyu because her mother ran away. So far, the anime follows the manga quite closely and Yuzuyu is the cutest little thing ever ^^;
The show’s production seems to have been done very rushed. For example, the lip-synchronicity is non-existant most of the time, which happens very very rarely in Japanese animation. The chara design is very similar to the manga but nothing spectacular.
It’s funny and cute though and I’ll probably keep watching it.

Kenran Butoh Sai – The Mars Daybreak is a pretty average sci-fi series. Still good enough for me with so many bad shows this season -_-;;

My favourite new series so far is Madlax. It’s an anime by BEE TRAIN, famous for NOIR, .hack//SIGN and Avenger (which was really really bad). The story itself is exactly like a mixture of the aforementioned three shows. However, it has a lot of originality and I hope it’ll be at least as good as NOIR and maybe even as good as or better than .hack. The mystery, almost not having a clue what’s going on, the pretty chara designs, the cool BGM, it’s all there.

The series I like most ATM are those that have already been running for some time: Mujinwakusei Survive (Uninhabitated Planet Survive), Hagaren (Fullmetal Alchemist) and the genius Mousou Dairinin (Paranoia Agent). And I’m sure there’ll be a few more good new shows this series that haven’t aired/been fansubbed yet. We’ll see.

Easter’s already over ;_; I’m not that big a holiday fan and my craving for quality time with the family is almost saturated (time to leave!!) but it was cool nevertheless. We had the loveliest weather, all sunny and beautiful, slightly cold but in a fresh spring kind of way. We almost got lost in the woods ^^;
My chocolate supply will last till Christmas. Christmas ‘05, that is.
Yuuya = happy.

[♬ Nightmare - Tsubasa o kudasai]

My left cheek hurts like hell. I think one of the remaining 2 wisdom teeth on the left side wants to come out :(
My feet are ruined. Damn you, new shoes.

Which reminds me, I need to buy a pair of Onitsuka Tiger shoes. I’ll probably have a hard time deciding for a colour combination but I.need.them.now!

Combine this and a newly revived Nightmare fixation and you’ll get the sorry state of my bank account. Hello Japan? I’m not worried about you. You’re not like the US of A, I’m pretty sure you’ll still exist in 50+ years which should give me enough time to come and visit you one day.

Why is Ni~ya so sexy though? ♥
Nyan nyan.