Hell Girl, Episode One

The very popular anime series, Jigoku Shōjo (地獄少女) known as "Hell Girl" in the US, premiered on IFC (Independent Film Channel) last night. The series is a collection short stories with a common theme: Vengeance! The stories' main character is a young girl called Ai who can be summoned by anyone who's excessively tormented or abused by others and wants to seek revenge. People contact Ai through a website called the Jigoku Tsūshin (地獄通信), or "Hell Correspondence." The website can only be accessed at midnight and contains only a title page with a text-box where the name of the user's tormentor is entered. After contacting the Jigoku Tsūshin, the user enters into a pact with Ai by accepting a straw doll with a string tied around its neck. When the decision to proceed is made, the thread is removed and the contract is sealed; the user is soon avenged! How is vengeance delivered? The tormentors and abusers are dragged away to hell for all eternity, and the user is freed from their unbearable anguish. There is, of course, a price for Ai's service. When it comes time for the user's own death, he or she too must spend eternity in hell.

Jigoku Shōjo is directed by Ōmori Takahiro (大森貴弘) and written by Kanemaki Ken'ichi (金巻兼一). The series first aired on 04-Oct-2005 on Animax, Tokyo MX, MBS and is now preparing to go into its third season in Japan. (Wow -- the U.S. is three years behind Japan). The first episode made a really good impression on me and I look forward to following this series to see where it goes. It seems to me that the stories could really be very interesting and exciting as the fine details of each new character and their contracts with Ai are revealed. I will definitely keep watching-- this is a perfect series to jump in and out of; be sure to check it out!

Click here for the official English Language website on Funimation's webhost.

Just Married!

I hope my readers will forgive me for neglecting my Blog for so long. I have just been so extremely busy and exhausted every minute of every day for the past month. Preparing for a wedding is a very tiring task indeed! But now that it's over, I can definitely say it was worth all the effort and planning. My new wife and I are so happy, we had so much fun, and all of our friends and family can't stop telling us about how much they enjoyed our events and festivities.

There are so many people who spend a year or more planning their wedding and spend many, many tens of thousands of dollars or even more. Our wedding was a first class success, however, and required only slightly more than two months of planning and had a fairly reasonable budget! What my wife and I learned is that weddings are really all about the people who are included. Since our focus was not on displaying a huge spectacle of a show, but instead primarily on making everything nice for our guests, everyone who attended had a really nice time and was really happy; this, of course, made us really happy. Looking back on it, there is nothing at all that we'd have done differently. I think it's very rare to have the confidence enough to believe this.

So thank you all for being patient with me! I now have enough free time to go back to blogging about our favourite interests, and I can go back to all of my activities that provide the content you like to read! Thanks for continuing to support my meager monologues, I do appreciate each and every one of you! どうもありがとうございます！

Michael Moore - Slacker Uprising

Durin​g the campaign period before the 2004 U.S. presidential elect​ion,​ Michael Moore trave​led all around the States on a 42-day "Slack​er Upris​ing" tour,​ visit​ing 62 citie​s. In an attem​pt to remov​e Georg​e W. Bush from office, Mr. Moore helped to inspire a recor​d numbe​r of young​ and/or first-time voter​s to move into action.​ As a result,​ young​ adult​s voted​ in great​er numbers than in any previous elect​ion! It became clear to Michael Moore that "young​ peopl​e were the ones who were going​ to save the day" -- just as they are in the 2008 elect​ion. Despite these amazing results back in 2004, we still lost our country into the hands of an idiotic, self-interested, election-rigging jerk.

Each night​ of Mr. Moore's U.S. tour brought out thous​ands of volunteers and participants, driving local​ Repub​lican​s crazy!​ In one case, they tried​ to have him arres​ted, and at 2 of the colleges he visited, rich donor​s offer​ed more donations in return for having Michael​'s appearance banned.​ By the end of his tour, however, 16,​000 peopl​e a night​ were coming out to support his efforts. This movie is an account of his experiences on the "Slack​er Upris​ing" tour. In Mr. Moore's own words, "What I encountere​d durin​g the tour and the filming was both inspi​ring and frigh​tenin​g,​ so I thoug​ht,​ hey, this might​ make for a funny​ and enlig​hteni​ng movie​!"​

Mr. Moore has given all citizens of the U.S. and Canada permission to share​ the movie​ and to set up public scree​nings​ at no charge.​ Michael hopes we will use it, share it and show it in order to rally​ voter​s, and to raise​ funds​ for our favor​ite candi​dates​. Starting next week, from 23-Sep until 13-Oct,​ we'll be able to strea​m,​ downl​oad,​ or burn a DVD of "​Slack​er Upris​ing,​"​ free of charg​e, distribution courtesy of Rober​t Green​wald'​s Brave​ New Films​. Sign up to get your free copy of the film here: http://slackeruprising.com . I am definitely eager to get mine.

Now I know for sure- Adult Swim SUCKS!

Adult Swim has royally screwed the Saturday Night anime schedule AGAIN. Starting tomorrow, Crayon Shin-chan is off the air, and Full Metal Alchemist will come back on after nearly a year of being cancelled. My TOP FAVOURITES, Code Geass and Serei no Moribito will be aired at 05:00 - 06:00! What the HELL!? Who knows even which episode of Full Metal they will show; probably they will just start from some random point in the middle of the series as usual. I seriously hate Adult Swim now. There is no way I am willing to go on dealing with their continuous schedule-changes and series cancellations. I am done. Adult Swim-- seriously, you guys f%#&ing suck!

Honestly, I would MUCH rather blow loads of cash buying the DVD sets for all of my favourite anime series than give one more second of my time to Adult Swim's crappy broadcasts. I absolutely do not care what they do any more and I won't watch ever again.

Unlocking the Secrets of the Universe

The world's largest particle accelerator complex, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), will be switched on for the first time tonight! Funded and built in collaboration with over eight thousand physicists from over eighty-five countries and hundreds of universities and laboratories, the LHC provides the possibility of a significant step toward providing answers to some of the most fundamental questions about our universe.

The experiments conducted are expected re-create the circumstances surrounding the Big Bang, in an effort to reveal new data that will help to unify three of the four known fundamental forces: electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force (gravity being the fourth). Additionally, other new supporting evidence may be uncovered for supporting existing theories of physics including: supersymmetric particles, compositeness (technicolor), extra dimensions, strangelets, micro black holes and magnetic monopoles. When in operation, about seven thousand scientists from eighty countries will have access to the LHC. Physicists hope to use the collider to test various grand unified theories and enhance their ability to answer their questions.

This is such an exciting time for humans-- I can hardly wait to hear about these scientists' findings! Visit the Large Hadron Collider homepage for more info.

More Code Geass figures!

These are the Sutherland (サザーランド) Knightmare frames; standard issue for the Britannian Military. These mechs feature agile mobility, sophisticated cockpit life support systems, stun guns, tonfas and an assault rifle. Early on in the Code Ceass (コードギアス) story, these knightmare frames were commandeered by Lelouch Lamperouge (ルルーシュ・ランペルージ) (as "Zero") and the Black Knights after Prince Clovis of Britannia (クロヴィス・ラ・ブリタニア) ordered the destruction of the "Shinjuku Ghetto."

The Black Knights successfully used the stolen Sutherlands to destroy an entire unit of knightmare frames piloted by the enemy Britannians. All of these Black-Knight-piloted Sutherland Knightmare Frames were then destroyed by Lelouch's friend, Honourary Britannian Kururugi Suzaku (枢木 スザク). This battle, commonly referred to as "Shinjuku," was extremely important to the development of the Code Geass story since two essential storylines developed here-- the introduction of C.C. (シー・ツー), leading to Lelouch's Geass power, and the murder of Prince Clovis by his brother Lelouch Lamperouge.

These particular Sutherlands are replicas made by Bandai; I got them about 2 months ago and just realised I never posted them here. I think they're pretty cool! I hope to add many more Knightmare Frames to my collection. Unfortunately I'm nearly broke from planning and funding my upcoming wedding, and I've had to commit to temporarily diverting all funds away from my hobbies. :( This will come to an end as soon as I arrive in the motherland this October, prolly right around the time I exit the Tsukuba Express at Akihabara station. :)