Doubt anybody ever reads this thing, but I’m packing up and moving this thing. Won’t be updating at this blog anymore from here on out, though. Leave a comment or e-mail me if you want the new address.

So I couldn’t wait anymore, caved, and watching a cam rip of the second Rebuild of Evangelion movie. Now that I’m done watching it, I decided to write-up a notepad of sorts on things that caught my attention and/or my thoughts on certain things.

Anyway, I must say, I am enjoying the take on the TV series that these movies are presenting. As with the first movie, there’s been a number of significant changes – some good, some bad (at least to some people I’m sure… personally I’ve enjoyed all the changes). I can’t help but wonder what direction these movies are taking the story in. One of the major changes in the story have to do with the relationship between Shinji and Rei, and their (or their relationship’s) importance to Gendou’s plans. That, along with the introduction of Mari and the massive character changes in Asuka, as well as Kaworu’s Eva and earlier introduction, it’s extremely hard to picture the movies heading in the same direction as the TV series and original movies.

Things of note (Rebuild 1 and 2):

• There are two Liliths – one on the moon, one in GeoFront. The one in GeoFront has a mask that resembles Sachiel’s face, the one on the moon more closely resembles the Lilith seen in the TV series and original movies.
• Misato and everyone in NERV is aware of the Lilith in GeoFront and Misato even shows and names Lilith to Shinji early on – they are fighting the Angels to protect this Lilith.
• Kaworu is introduced on the moon, but is still in communication with SEELE. In the second movie, he is shown to still be on the moon when Fuyutsuki and Gendou make their way around the moon. He looks at the vehicle carrying Gendou and Fuyutsuki and says “Hello, father.”
• Ayanami is borderline moe.
• Shinji and Misato hold hands more than once and appear to be closer than they were in the TV series.
• Kaji and Shinji’s relationship felshed out, showing them as being fairly close. He teases Shinji by going as far as invading his personal space to get a rise out of him.
• Both Rei and Shinji are trapped (absorbed?) into Eva 01 at the end of the second movie.
• Kaworu impales an “awakened” Eva 01 with the Lance of Longinus to put a stop to the Third Impact. After doing so, he declares that he will make Shinji happy.
• Speaking of “awakened” Eva, the NERV personnel spoke as if there was a difference between a “berserk” Eva and an “awakened” Eva, even though on the surface, both appear to be the exact same thing.
• Eva 01 appeared to have become an angel after Shinji rescues Rei after she was absorbed by Zuriel.
• All in all, much of the second movie did not follow the TV series much (if at all, in some points) and most events appeared to only be loosely based on the TV series events.
• I could have sworn I saw what looked like the Alternate Universe Rei from the TV series during the preview for the next movie…

Shikinami vs Sohryu:

• Shikinami Asuka Langely is not Sohryu Asuka Langley… they are identical and share the same name and voice, but they are not the same. Shikinami Asuka is so vastly different from her original counterpart its instantly noticeable. One can only wonder why there is such a drastic change to her character (and why her surname was changed…)
• Shikinami is seen playing and speaking with a doll. When she is getting dressed in her Test Plugsuit after being chosen as Eva 03’s pilot, a doll is seen sitting beside her cell phone as she speaks with Misato.
• Shikinami seems a bit more childish in behavior than Sohryu Asuka and does not try to act “grown up” or “mature” as Sohryu had. Also worth noting, Shikinami never once tries to hide her true character from the adults around her.
• Shikinami does not have a crush on Kaji and quickly becomes attached to Shinji for seemingly no particular reason.
• Whereas Sohryu was much louder and fiery, Shikinami seems less so and more of a loner or introvert.
• Shikinami isn’t shown as being such close friends with Hikari, or as popular in school as Sohryu was.
• Sohryu closes her mind completely to the idea of needing others. Shikinami appears more willing to entertain the idea.
• Sohryu “attempted” to befriend Rei early on, shortly after her arrival in Tokyo-3. Shikinami has (a) and isn’t afraid to show her strong distaste for Rei from the start.
• Shikinami comes off as more “lonely” compared to Sohryu.
• The character of Shikinami seems much softer than Sohryu overall.

Needless to say… aside from aesthetics, they changed just about everything about Asuka’s character. Wonder if it’s an originally planned changed, or something they came up with the character due to problems with the seiyuu? I guess if the other movies don’t address these differences in character (as she is the single most altered character in the series), then it’s just a horribly random change.

The Angel fights:

• The fight with Bardiel was anti-climactic. It was just Shinji from the start vs Eva 03.
• Shinji knew the pilot of 03 (Asuka).
• All Bardiel did was approach, pounce, and strangle 01 before Gendou forces the Dummy Plug into play. From then, it was just fun animation of Bardiel/Eva 03 being completely brutalized by Eva 01.
• Eva 01’s brutalization of Bardiel/Eva03 more closely resembles its brutalization of Zuriel from the TV series. Zuriel’s movie counter-part destruction is nowhere near the TV series’.
• The Angel that I assumed to be Sahaquiel, which dropped from space and threatened to collide with Tokyo-3, had a much better animated fight scene that stayed very true to the TV series. The teamwork used to destroy it was a fairly awesome sight to behold.
• Zuriel is at least 5 times more hardcore in the movie than in the TV series.
• Rather than two razor tentacles, it has many and they change shape as well as length.
• Eva 02 is defeated in a similar manner as it was in the TV series, except more brutally and after putting up much more of a fight, as its pilot is Mari at the time rather than Asuka.
• Mari releases Eva 02’s humanity and activates “The Beast” to increase its strength. Eva 02 looks fairly cool in a weird, freaky, way like this. In this form, Mari herself also seems to change a bit and her eyes glow.
• After Rei fails to destroy Zuriel with the bomb, it eats Eva 00 and absorbs Rei.
• Mari happens upon Shinji in her damaged 02 and shows him the damage caused by Zuriel. After seeing Zuriel change shape after ingesting 00 and Rei, he decides to pilot Eva again.
• Cue the most bad-fucking-ass fight ever. As per the TV series, Shinji saves the majority of the NERV personnel at the last minute by crashing in and slamming Zuriel into a wall. His arm is taken off, but he continues to fight. The battle is taken out of the base and 01 soon after loses power.
• Shinji demands that Rei be returned and similar to Mari’s activation of “The Beast” in Eva 02, Shinji reactivates Eva 01 without power. His eyes are glowing red now and the green strips on Eva 01 glow red as well. He regenerates 01’s arm and it promptly fires a beam from its hand similar to the beams fired by the Angels in previous battles. Eva 01’s power is shown to have increased exponentially with this change and it easily overpowers Zuriel.
• After breaking through Zuriel’s AT Field and opening its core, Shinji proceeds to retrieve Rei while putting himself through hell. It appears his skin explodes off at some point before he grabs Rei’s hand. His dialogue is incredibly badass throughout in its delivery (even if much of it is screams and grunts.)

Needless to say, the fight against Zuriel was the highlight of the movie. A good second movie after the first, hopefully leading into a good third. There, of course, is still a LOT of things left up in the air:

• What’s up with the moon?
• Who is Mari?
• What’s with Kaworu’s cryptic bishie talk?
• Why is Shinji and Rei’s relationship so important to Gendou’s master plan?
• Howcome Shikinami Asuka is so different from Sohryu Asuka?
• Why is there two Liliths?
• How many Eva are there in the world? (the movie makes mention of them like it’s normal for a country to keep them… it makes note of a treaty on their usage, such as how many they can actively use/keep at a time…)
• Was the sea always red in Eva? (I recall it being blue in the episode Asuka is introduced and only being red at the end of EoE… so either I’m remembering things wrong, missed something in the TV series, or this is a change…)
• Who or what the hell is Mari?

That’s all I got… and seeing as it’s 6:15 AM as I’m about to post this, and I have a busy day ahead of me, I am going to get some much needed sleep…

Man, I’ve seriously been neglecting this blog. I’ve been really caught up in a bunch of other things, I guess. Been gaming a lot lately, but haven’t been really playing much eroge. I noticed Kazoku Keikaku came out a while ago but I’m pretty tight for money and my downloading is limited (so I can’t buy or pirate it), so meh… guess I’ll have to wait. I haven’t finished anywhere near any of the eroge I obtained earlier, either, so yeah…

For my 360 I been playing Tenchu Z mostly, tried Ninja Gaiden II for a while, but I was competing with a friend on Tenchu Z to see who could get the most points, so it got pushed aside. Before I could finish Tenchu Z I got into Oblivion, which I got for PC for the sake of (aesthetic, mostly) mods. Really addicting game, though. Currently playing two: a Crusader Nord and a Rogue Human, male and female. So far having more fun with my Rogue, as I decided to make her a hardcore felon and seeing how high I can get my bounty. Current high bounty: 8600, only 15 murders (I disappoint myself) but I have about 130 Assaults and 16 Infamy. Joined the Dark Brotherhood, though, so I can at least get some money out of this … hobby of mine. I ought to clear my bounty at some point, though, as I cannot even set foot into a city without Imperial Watches charging at me trying to arrest me. Maybe after I hit 10000? or so.

I also got Fallout 3… only booted it up long enough to take a look at the intro (up ’til you leave the vault) and shut it off. I’ll check out some mods before continuing I guess. Pretty cool game, though, nice graphics and gameplay seems fun. At least the vanilla character models look a lot better than Oblivion’s, heh.

And naturally I’ve been hooked on Mabi when I’m not playing Oblivion. I’m cutting back my playtime, though, as I’m having this ridiculous lag. Hard to tell if any of it is coming from just the game or if it’s on my end in some form. I got a brand new computer, very powerful thing (Intel Core i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz, 1.52GHz 3.26GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 260, and about 460GB on the HD… also got a $300 Gigabyte EX58-UD4P motherboard), so it shouldn’t be on my computer’s end…. so I’m guessing the networking somehow. Either I need to upgrade my ISP, get a new router, a different adapter, or keep the modem and router to hook up to my computer… I’m mostly guessing the router, as it’s a $60 router trying to support three computers daily, two of which game and download fairly often. The adapter is the best (and most expensive at about $100) available from the company who made the router we use, so it better damn well not be that…

Anyway, I’ve been keeping up with my anime and manga. Overhauled my MAL if you ever wanna check out what I’ve been up to. Been real into the Aoi Hana anime adaptation – I must say, in my honest opinion, that they’re doing a pretty good job of following the manga and adapting it for the anime format. It’s a pretty mellow slice-of-life type of yuri anime like Maria-Sama ga Miteru (without the tea time atmosphere), so it may not to be to everyone’s liking. They did a good job on the voices, too. I wasn’t sure what to think of Fumi’s voice, but in the end I found I like it very much and it suits her very well. Just took me a couple episodes to get used to it before I started to think “Fumi’s really cute…” Unfortunately the anime is really short stopping at 11 episodes, it seems, so I’m really curious as to where and how they’ll end it. If it’s where I predict they do (up until the final events towards the end of volume 2 in the manga) I really wonder how they’ll wrap it up enough to make it the “end” of the series, yet open enough to where they could make a second season (at this point, up to ep 7, I sincerely hope they do). Now I’m just gonna cross my fingers and hope they decide to do Hourou Musuko at some point.

Well, time to get back to uploading Cartagra’s OST to YT and be on my merry way. ^_^

P.S. My birthday’s on the 21st, send me a gift. Haha.

Starting to feel better, so I’ve been able to get up and do some of the things I’ve been meaning to get to. Unfortunately, my gaming will have to wait – my laptop is struggling in this summer heat and gaming just makes a bad situation, worse. Therefore, I’ll be post-poning any gaming updates – especially my eroge playing. Shooting for a new computer, something I’ve been trying to find a way to get a hold of for a couple of months, but no luck so far. I’m in desperate need of a desktop. Wanna donate? >.>

Anyway, with K-ON! wrapping up I’ve finally decided to take it up. I’ve been trying to avoid it due to my disappointment in the Clannad anime and KyoAni’s recent obsession with moe blob anime, but Mio finally managed to win me over. So far I’ve watched the first few episodes, gonna watch episode four next, which I’m very much looking forward to. It’s a fun anime so far, managing to be fun and cute without being plain ridiculous and/or too mundane, a problem I had with Lucky Star.

Getting into J-Drama again, too, so I’ll be watching some of that. Started Mendol… really ridiculous series, but it’s really entertaining. I’m about half-way through, hoping to finish watching that soon.

Kept caught up with manga, at least, while I was out of comission… so far, nothing much to complain about. Curious about the direction Hourou Muskou and Tsubasa are taking themselves, and Octave… well, I actually have no words to describe how that’s been going. I’m actually not sure what to think about it as of now, though I am still very much looking forward to the next chapter.

Finally got some 360 games, so I may be MiA for a while again just playing those.

Blah, there’ll be no updates for an indefinite amount of time due to personal/health issues. I haven’t been able to really get on anything I’ve planned on doing for the last month or two because of such and I dunno how long it’ll take for me to get to it. As such, lack of activity on YouTube, MyAnimeList, and my MMOs will go on ’til I get stuff sorted out…

Currently waiting on getting the funds for a new computer – a new gaming computer, something I more than likely will not be able to fry out or break. I’m looking at about $1,600, but hopefully I should be able to get it – I’m getting help from all around. I just hope it doesn’t take too long, since I’ve been fearing for the life of my precious laptop for about a month, now.

Either way, I should be able to play some games I got for PC in the meantime. I’m still debating with myself whether or not I should get Call of Duty IV for my 360 or for my PC – I know I’m gonna play Oblivion on my PC when I get the chance.

Still playing SSBB religiously. Avoiding using the computer for too long because it’s getting over heated way too fast.

Been kinda out of it, not really feeling like getting on the computer too often let alone doing the things I’m supposed to be doing to clear my queue. Haven’t played Mabinogi properly in almost two weeks, haven’t watched an anime in one, haven’t played an eroge in two and a half. Since I’ve been offline, I’ve been doing chores and over the last couple days, playing SSBB when I can. Since I main Sheik mostly, I made the mistake of looking up Sheik stuff (mostly for tips on new tricks I could use, but I’ll admit to looking for pics in my stupidity.)

Sheik fangirls give me a headache.  Sheik is female in male clothing. If a guy chose to wear a dress, stuff it with something to give the illusion of breasts, and shaved, would that make him female? No. It’s called a disguise – he’s still male. Most Zelda information sites will say (in this case, using an example from Zelda Wiki):

…Zelda travels to places unknown and passes herself off as a male…

Last I checked, “passing” used in this context means someone trying to lead people to believe that they are a member of the opposite sex, when, they are in fact not. It’s not as if a princess cross-dressing because she’s being hunted down, pretending to be a guy is, is anything horribly new. The hunter is looking for a female, not a male – it’s the perfect disguise.

Which is why I’ll buy this argument: “Sheik” is just a persona created by Zelda to hide from Ganondorf and the “Sheik” persona is male, but as “Sheik” does not technically exist and is technically Zelda, “Sheik” is biologically female. I know Zelda isn’t a transexual, but it’s pretty much the same thing as with transexual women – they identify as male, they have a male name, they look male, they dress male, but until they get gender reassignment, you’ll still see lady parts (at least down below.)

tl;dr version – Sheik doesn’t have dangly-bits because Zelda doesn’t.

Zelda intended to have the people around her believe that “Sheik” was male, if I recall correctly. Hell, there really shouldn’t even be arguing on this topic – it’s more simple than anybody makes it out to be. Fangirls can go on believing Sheik is male so long as Zelda is in full disguise – it’s when they strip her down and draw a flat masculine chest (and have assumed male parts off paper) that’s a bit … eh. Hell, even the masculine face doesn’t fit. I wanna see any official material stating that Zelda used magic to change her reproductive organs and not just her hair, skin, and eye colors.

And no, don’t give me that OoT manga bullshit – that stuff isn’t official material.

Anyway, all that side, even if the SSB team isn’t the same as the Legend of Zelda team, what makes fangirls think that the Zelda team had absolutely nothing to do with/had no say in their characters being in SSB? Pretty sure I saw a quote from Aonuma the director for OoT and TP saying that his team is working closely with the SSB team to “make the characters look their best” – I’d say that’s reason enough to just accept SSB referring to Sheik as “her”.

Meh, all in all, fangirls should just go keep yaoi pairing up Link and Dark Link and get over the fact that Nintendo says Sheik is a girl (if they absolutely must have their Legend of Zelda yaoi, anyway.)

Sorry to beat a dead horse, just felt the need to rant. Stupidity does that.

Also, one last, unrelated thing: It’s ShEIk… not ShIEk.

Before I dive into my new eroge and anime, I’m catching up on some stuff I’ve had sitting on the back burner for some time now. First and foremost was demon-killing anime that promised yuri (and frankly, failed to live up to the hype on the yuri front), but turned out to be one of the better anime I’ve watched in a while: Ga-Rei -Zero-. Spoilers start in the next paragraph.

Not much going on in the anime/manga/VN front lately due to a severe Mabinogi addiction, but I have and am managing to squeeze in some time for these things.

So Nexon ended up updating relatively quickly after the last post I made and I’ve been glued to Mabinogi ever since. Iria’s a great continent and the currently running events are fun – especially the treasure hunting event. The new free content is very welcome and I find that out of them all, I’m enjoying being able to use my ego weapon without a subscription the most useful and welcome. Combine that with the treasure hunting event, I’ve been able to feed her well, so she’s leveled up quite a bit over the last week or so. Trying to get her to level 21 or so, so that I can use the new ego incarnation skill they put in.

I’ll update my Mabinogi page… soon-ish. I need to take screenshots and whatnot. I made my Giant and Elf, too, so… that’s always fun. Giant females are hot, but not much for variation which is a downside. Elves are extremely varied, but people seem to like using a lot of the same thing. Ah well. Both races are fun in different ways, but I’m using my Elf primarily as a treasure hunter and explorer, so I’m using that character more often.

Well, back to Mabi.