Yup, I've made the move from Blogger to Wordpress. Please go to http://kagaribito.wordpress.com/ to read my blog from now on.

I know that I'm a little late, but hey, I didn't have Internet access for the past two days. (If anyone's curious, I'll talk about what I was doing in my next post)


And here's Tone Rion. I don't really know much about her other than that she's being developed by something called MoeJapan...?


They're both cute, I guess, but I prefer Mew by far. Mew is the newest Vocaloid from Yamaha, and was released just two days ago (October 21, which is the release date of Vocaloid 3!).


So far GUMI and VY1's Vocaloid3 versions have been released. Here's a GUMI song made with Vocaloid3.





I'd like to share a few recent songs made with Vocaloid2 as well. Must not neglect it even if it is no longer the cutting edge of Vocaloid software.


The PV is just amazing, and the song is nice too.



The name "made me expect something very sugary. :p And I've seen this artist's works in other Vocaloid songs, I think. I'm pretty sure the Luka songs "6th" and "A Balance" are also illustrated by the same person.


I'm not sure whether this song was made with Vocaloid2 or Vocaloid3, but I'm just guessing Vocaloid2 because most of the songs made using Vocaloid3 say so in the title.


Len saying "monkey" sounds pretty cute. xD

So, I recently decided to go and cut my hair short. I didn't realize until afterwards that there were already several people at my school with a similar haircut...

...and that there were actually anime characters that had that kind of haircut too. My parents joked that I looked like someone out of an anime right after I got the haircut. I wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not, because I certainly don't want to imitate anime characters (well, except for if I ever cosplay, but I'm not going to be cosplaying everyday, now am I? :\ ). As much of an otaku as I am, I don't expect to ever come near to the awesomeness of an anime character. But it has been kind of funny having a different haircut. I've been told by two people already that I look "KAWAII DESUUU", both of whom said it in a very bad accent on purpose.

Anyways, although Miku Hatsune is not an anime character, she seems to have gotten a haircut as well. Check out the song "Fleeting Reality":



I like this song pretty well, actually. And it kind of gives me a Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica vibe at times (starting around 2:32, when she whips out the sword...Miki Sayaka anyone?) And speaking of which, I just heard that all the Madoka girls have had recent victories in the Saimoe competition...Well, except for Akemi Homura. Sadly she was eliminated early on because she faced off against Misaka Mikoto.

Back to the Vocaloid songs. Here's a Gakupo song that snagged the #10 spot on the most recent Vocaran. Miku always dominates the Vocaran, but it's nice to see the other Vocaloids getting some attention too. (VY1's song "Cyber Thunder Cider" just popped up again on the Vocaran. I think it's because the song was revealed to be the demo for VY1 in Vocaloid3)



And here's a Luka song. How could I resist? I've always been a fan of Luka voice-wise :p



I should not neglect to mention two Vocaloid songs that have been very popular recently. The puny amount of Japanese I know has unfortunately grown rusty from disuse, so I'm afraid I don't know the English name of this song. All that I do know is that I don't like it very much. Sorry to those of you do, but I can't manage to love this song. :\



What I do like is this song: "Senbonzakura" or "Thousand Cherry Trees" or whatever you want to call it. And there was a big surge of Nico Nico utaite singing it a while back (mostly guys, even those this is a Miku song... o_o;; ).



Well, let's end with the last, but definitely not least: #1 on the vocaran! This is what I believe would be called "Talkloids": having the Vocaloids "speak" rather than sing. I can't understand that much of what they are saying (blame it on my lack of Japanese knowledge again) but it looks amusing anyhow.

Labels: 211, fleeting reality, gakupo, hatsune miku, luka megurine, music, ranking, senbon zakura, songs, talkloid, vocaloid, vocaran, カゲロウデイズ, 千本桜, 御手繋ぎ

I consider myself to be a big fan of the singers on Nico Nico Douga, yet somehow I didn't find out about Clear and Nero's album "Second Impact" until two months after it came out... -_-;; Oh well, better late than never. I'm actually more of fan of Nero than Clear these days...Clear seems to be much more popular, though. D:

Anyways, here's a sampling of the songs from "Second Impact":


Also, it turns out that I managed to miss a single released by PointFive (.5), a group made up of 5 NND singers (Clear, Amu, Miichan, Dasoku, Asamaru...Let me know if I missed anyone). The title of the single is "Kimi Reflection". There's essentially just three songs there. I do like the song "Risky Game" (originally a Miku song, if you want to look it up).



One last thing I missed in August: Danceroid did a dance cover of the Uta no Prince-sama song...I thought all the dancers in Danceroid were girls? Well, it looks like fun anyhow. Both the cross-dressing and the dancing. xD I highly doubt I could ever find enough otakus to do group dancing, singing, or cosplaying, though...

Labels: clear, danceroid, kimi reflection, music, nero, nico nico douga, nicovideo, pointfive, second impact, singer, uta no prince-sama, utaite, utapri

I woke up really early this morning and tried to get back to sleep, but for some reason I never managed to get comfortable enough to sleep again. When I came out in the morning, my parents told me that there had been a shooting and that school had been canceled. News about a shooting where 2 people died and 6 were wounded has been on TV all morning. Being the skeptical person that I am, I did believe that the shooting had happened, but I wasn't convinced that school was really canceled. Even though my parents showed me several phone messages and an email that said students should be kept home today, I wasn't really sure because I heard something on TV about the schools in Cupertino still being open. I thought maybe there were people conspiring with the criminal who thought, "Hey, let's have the kids stay in their houses today so we can go around the neighborhood and shoot everybody", but of course my parents dismissed that as my usual paranoia. However, the kids at the elementary and middle schools are apparently being asked to go to school (they just said that again on TV) so I'm not sure why my school district thinks we should stay home... So now here I am at home, simultaneously afraid, bored, and somewhat excited.

I feel like a really selfish person because I didn't really think long about the fact that people are dead (probably because I've never actually known someone who died, so I guess I don't know how it feels to lose a loved one)...I mostly only thought about "What am I going to do all day? I should be going to class!" and "Are they going to make us go to school for one more day this school year to make up for the day we lost?" But now I'm also really worried because my parents left for work...The shooter hasn't been caught, so what if he happens to be going the same way as my parents and...? I don't want to think about this anymore.

I have one complaint right now, and that's the fact that neither my school district's website nor my school's website says anything about school being closed today. They haven't even updated the lists of teachers since last year, so the teachers and classes that they're teaching this year are not accurate on the website. Can't they at least put a message on the home page telling us to stay home because it's not safe? How hard is that to do?! (But I guess since they called us and sent emails, they think that's a better way than using the school website...)

Labels: cupertino, danger, news, school, shooting

Lately I've been wondering whether I should start watching one of those really long shonen animes. I always passed on them before because I don't have the patience to watch hundreds of episodes, and also because the animes had already started, so I would have a hard time trying to catch up. But I guess I might try one out because I crossed most of the animes I was going to watch off my list. And next anime season doesn't seem to have too much for me to watch. It'll be mostly sequels/prequels/etc. that I'll be watching, like the Working'!!, Shakugan no Shana 3, and Fate/Zero. I'll try watching Persona 4 and Guilty Crown (just because Guilty Crown has pretty art, and Supercell will be doing the music!), and maybe Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai as long as it doesn't have lots of fanservice...Other than that it seems like most of the animes are the anime adaptions of eroges. :\ Well, after I tackle the handful of anime remaining on my to-watch list, I'll be out of anime to watch.

So without further ado, please tell me if you've seen any of the following anime and what you thought of them. I'll start out with the shonen animes, and then a few that are not classified as shonen.


Naruto That has to be one of the all-time most well known animes. It seriously has a ton of episodes, and I've heard that a lot of the characters die (though I suppose the main ones like Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura are still alive) so I've never really wanted to watch it. But it is the only anime that one of my friends watches, and it is really popular after all, so maybe there's some good reason for it?


Bleach I actually am quite interested in this one, partially because I think Rukia is cool and partially because I want to laugh at Ichigo's name. (I mean, really? Who names their son "strawberry"?)


Katekyo Hitman Reborn Another one that I'm tempted to watch. Dunno if I should watch the anime or read the manga, since either way it will be really long.


Gintama I noticed that it was very highly rated on MyAnimeList, which probably means it's good, seeing as it was the ratings on MAL that made me watch Fullmetal Alchemist.


Fairy Tail I really don't know much about this anime, so I'd appreciate it if you could tell me about it.


D Grayman Ditto on not knowing much about it. I just know that there's a guy, Kanda Yu, who looks like sorta like Gakupo, and there's some girl called Lenalee Lee.


Soul Eater Something to do with reapers/shinigami? At least it's only 51 episodes.


Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann This one is actually pretty short, about 27 episodes or so? I think I'd have enough patience to watch it. XD It does have two films, though.


Tiger & Bunny It's apparently a show about superheroes, which does not particularly interest me, but I do like the cute boy in it, Ivan Karelin. :p If there's any shonen-ai in T&B, I'm much more likely to watch it. (Though I don't watch yaoi animes like Junjou Romantica and Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi, I did watch No. 6 just to see if the characters would get together XD)



And here's some non-shonen anime that I'd like to know about.


Steins;Gate Since it's loosely related to Chaos;Head, I thought it'd only be mediocre, but I've heard that it's quite good. Maybe I'll give it a try.


Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai/The World God Only Knows I'm not sure yet whether I'll watch this. There's so many girls in it that it looks like a harem. o_o;; But it does seem quite popular, and after all, the main character is a video gamer, so it'll probably be funny. Probably. If you've watched it, tell me what you think.


Uta no Prince-sama Yes, the bishie-loving part of me took interest after seeing the characters (and there's even a trap in it! Her - I mean, his - name is Ringo Tsukimiya). I'm not sure if I'll watch it, though, considering that the main character seems kind of annoying, and Starry Sky was a big disappointment. My friend bashiri called UtaPri the worst anime ever, but she seems to like it. So maybe it's one of those things that is "so bad, it's good".

Of course, feel free to recommend me any anime that you've liked. I tend to like anime with comedy and action. I'll watch slice-of-life, fantasy, sci-fi, or historical, as long as it's good. Romance is okay but I generally don't like animes where the entire plot revolves around romance. I'll watch shonen-ai/yaoi or shoujo-ai/yuri so as long as the characters don't...er...go too far (as in, um, sleeping together, for example). I tend not to watch mystery, mecha, magical girl, or harem animes (but if you find one that is really, really good, I might check it out). I will not watch horror, though.



Anyways, about the second part of this post: Saimoe. When I was looking at Moetron, I saw something called Saimoe that kept being mentioned. I looked into it and apparently it's like a competition to see who the most popular female anime characters are, so people vote for their favorite within each of the groups (ex. A1, A2, B1, B2, C1...etc.). Below is the standings at the time that I am writing this.



Right now I'm cheering for:
- Tenshi (Kanade Tachibana from Angel Beats!)
- Menma (Meiko Honma from Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai...Whew, what a mouthful). ...But actually, I've always liked Anaru (Naruko Anjou), who is also from Ano-hana, better than Menma. Unfortunately, she just barely lost to some girl from Jewelpet. -_-;;
- Ohana Matsumae (from Hanasaku Iroha)
- Mami Tomoe (from Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica) Kyouko Sakura, Miki Sayaka, and Madoka Kaname are also still in the running for the time being, so I guess I'm rooting for all of them. It's too bad Akemi Homura went up against Misaka Mikoto...Otherwise she would've had a better chance.
- Kuroneko (Ruri Gokou from Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai) I always liked her better than Kirino.
- Stocking (from Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt) I was going to watch that anime, but I heard it had some inappropriate things in it. XD I do think Panty and Brief make a cute couple, though.

There's actually a girl called Salsa Tortilla... o_o;; And I've heard there's a series called "Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai"...which in English means "listen to me girls, I am your father"?! It sounds so funny. I might actually check it out once they make that into an anime. (But it's probably not about a father and his daughters. More likely that it's a harem... -_-;; )

It's a pretty weird coincidence that Victorique de Blois and Mikoto Misaka are about to face off, because Gosick (the anime Victorique is from) and To Aru Majutsu no Index (the anime Mikoto is from) are two of the animes on my current to-watch list. :p And it's pretty funny how Sui Shijima, the awesome old lady in Hanasaku Iroha, won her first round. I'm kind of sad that she lost in the second round. And I'm really sad that Hanasaku Iroha has ended. But I guess I feel like moving on, just like the characters are moving on. I won't spoil anything for you, don't worry. :p

Labels: anime, anohana, bleach, hanasaku iroha, harem, mahou shoujo madoka magica, manga, naruto, reborn, saimoe, shonen, starry sky, uta no prince-sama, yaoi

That's how I've been feeling, at least up until about now. Having no 1st period did give me a little more time to sleep, though unfortunately the last few days my insomnia has returned and I've been tired all over again. Now that I have a presentation coming up for history class, various tests next week, and a small (but still annoying) project for literature, things are starting to go downhill. But at least I've been finding tiny things to entertain me lately.

I bumped into one of my friends after school the other day and we went over to her house for a while. I figured I'd do some homework, but when she suggested that we play some Super Smash Bros. Brawl, well, the paper and pencils went away and the Wii controls came out. It's been ages since I played it, and for some reason I find it as pleasurable as ever to kick, punch, slash, and blow up other people (or creatures, depending on the character). Guess I didn't have as many temper tantrums when I was younger because I satisfied all my violent urges while playing video games. It eventually got pretty chaotic while we were playing Brawl, though, because we set up a special game in it where all the players were:

- Clear (in other words, transparent, so we were pretty much invisible on stage)
- Flame-breathing
- Flowers on our heads (these flowers continuously make us suffer "damage")
- Super huge It was all I could do just to stay alive. I didn't even know where I was half the time and I died about every five seconds. My friend was quite good at the Special Brawl and survived to the very end.

While I was returning home from her house, I saw an interesting bumper sticker on someone's car. It read:

"Sarah Palin 2012 The world's going to end anyways"
...Well, if it wasn't going to end before, it certainly will now.

And then today something pretty funny happened at lunchtime. A girl was sitting on a bench, just minding her own business, and then two guys ran over. One of them showed her his school photos and said, "This is a scientific survey. We need your response. Are these stupid or sexy? She didn't say anything and went back to doing her homework. The guy holding the pictures said to the other guy, "See? Did you hear that? Sexy!" as they walked away.

There's one thing that really has NOT amused me recently, though, and that's the clubs at my school. Almost all of them have club meetings on Thursday at lunchtime. Since one of my friends already managed to convince me to join the business club she's in, and it meets on Thursday, I am now severely limited when it comes to the clubs I can join. Of course, I could still join the guitar club, gay/straight alliance, and French honor society like I wanted to, but how in the world could I go to all those meetings? Just attend one club meeting per month so I can go to every club? I think that's too much trouble. Thank goodness the photo club meets at brunch and the art club has meetings on Tuesdays, so at least I might be able to participate in those.

Anyways, I feel like sharing some of the music I've heard lately, so here's a recent VY1 song that I've liked a lot.

 

 Oh, and a singer on Nico Nico Douga recently covered the song. I can't decide whether I like the song better when it's sung by a Vocaloid or by a real person.

 

 Also, here's some songs from the band Supercell. I didn't find about "Perfect Day" until recently even though apparently the video was already out as early as March...Then again, I was never really actively following Supercell and only really listened to some of their older songs, such as the Miku songs Ryo composed years ago ("World is Mine", "Black Rock Shooter", and "Love is War") and "Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari" (ending theme to Bakemonogatari. Has anyone seen that anime? What did you think of it? I've been meaning to watch).

 

 Ryo used Miku again recently to make the song "Sekiranun Graffiti". I have no idea what Miku's doing flying around the sky and what's up with that Niagara Falls type thing, but here, enjoy the video anyways.

 

 By the way, I read somewhere that Nagi, Supercell's vocalist, was actually the Nico Nico Douga singer called "Gazelle". Is that true?

Labels: clubs, gazelle, music, nagi, nico nico douga, perfect day, sarah palin, sekiranun graffiti, super smash bros brawl, supercell, video games, vocaloid

I should've posted this a lot earlier, but I had a few things to add to it :p It's gotten really long, so you can read one per day or something.

Microwaves Can Be Used for Anything
I've heard some rather strange things about microwaves lately. I remember hearing once that an old lady tried to dry off her wet cat by putting it in the microwave, so apparently now there are warnings telling people not to put animals in their microwaves (I have no idea if it's true, though). My mother seems to think it's okay to do that, though, at least with stuffed animals. I wanted to move my stuffed animals to my bed again, but they tend to collect dust and make me sneeze. So, of course, my mom had to say, "Well, we can microwave them. I heard that'll get rid of the dust." NO THANK YOU!

People Who Attend Barbecues Make Offensive Comments
For some weird reason, I've attend 4 barbecues in the last two weeks - one of them was hosted by a club at my school, since they were trying to attract members; another one was my mom's company's "family day"; and the other two were parties hosted by my family's friends.

It was at these BBQ's of friends of my parents that I was insulted. At one of these parties, when the host saw my dad and me, she immediately told me, "You look so much like your dad!" And when I laughed, she said that I even laughed like him. Word to the wise: Do not compare me to my dad. I have heard it so many times that if I hear it again, I will smile politely at whoever says it, and when he/she turns around I will stuff his/her head into the barbecue grill.

Yesterday, at another BBQ, my mother told one of the other guests that I was in 10th grade. The lady looked at me and smiled, saying in Chinese, "You're rather small, aren't you?" Well, excuse me. I never asked to be short, so people, please stop pointing it out. There is nothing I can do about it at this point besides, oh, I don't know, wearing 12-inch-tall high heels?!

The Sims is Annoying Yet Fascinating
Well, at least the Sims Wiki is. Sometimes when I'm bored I just go and browse its pages, and I come across some rather entertaining and interesting things. What intrigued me in particular was the page about Mrs. Crumplebottom. She's one of the NPCs (non-player characters) in the Sims 2. I remember seeing her on the community lots in the game, and whenever one of my Sims wanted to go swimming, she'd come over and lecture them for wearing swimsuits, which she considered to be indecent clothing (gosh, what else do you swim in besides a swimsuit?). I learned plenty more interesting things about the wicked old lady in the Wiki article:

- If two Sims have a public display of affection, she will scold them or beat them with her purse.
- There are two whole sections in the Wiki article dedicated to avoiding the wrath of Mrs. Crumplebottom. Apparently, if your Sims go to a bowling alley, a place with a poker table, or a bar, then she won't bother you because she'll be busy bowling, playing poker, or drinking.
- If you have the Bon Voyage expansion pack, then if the Unsavory Charlatan (another NPC; he is a scam artist who has a top hat and a monocle) is on the same lot as Mrs. Crumplebottom, he will try to serenade her. But supposedly she beats him up when he does that. (Now I want to play the Sims 2 again just to see that happen.)
- If you try to add her to a family or turn her into a vampire, werewolf, or witch, your game will be corrupted.
- Even when she is bitten by a vampire, unlike normal Sims, she won't turn into a vampire herself.

And speaking of the Unsavory Charlatan I mentioned above, his Wiki page says that if he steals your Sim's money, then you can attack him to try and get it back. For some reason the Unsavory Charlatan likes to attack the Tourist Guide...? He's a master poker player (always wins because he always gets a Royal Flush, I wish I had that ind of luck), and he also knows how to play mahjong. o_o;;

Besides the NPCs, there are plenty of rather interesting stories for playable Sims; the Sims 2, for example, includes two families, the Caps and Monties, which are kind of like modern versions of the Capulets and the Montagues from Romeo&Juliet. There are also Sims who have been abducted by aliens and who have died in all sorts of ways (electrocution, starvation, drowning in a swimming pool, etc.) I think I read on several Sims' Wiki pages that if Story Progression was left on (meaning that other Sims' lives continue - they get married, have children, get promotions, make friends, die, and so on), some Sims will cheat on their spouses...I actually saw this happen one time. One of my Sims went to another Sims' house, and while she was there, the husband of that household was flirting with some other woman. The wife came and slapped the husband and everyone seemed upset. Sometimes the game actually does reflect what would happen in real life. o_o;;

Constant Reminders of Fullmetal Alchemist
I just watched this recently and it is now pretty much my all-time favorite series. Imagine my surprise when, just a day after I watched last episode, I saw that one of the recent popular deviations on DeviantArt was a fanart of FMA! And when I went over to one of my friends' houses just the other day, I noticed that she had pictures of FMA on her wall. Now I feel like decorating my room too (I just swapped bedrooms with my parents and I want to add a personal touch - in other words, posters of anime, video games, and Vocaloids all over the place. But I have to either buy some posters or try to make my own...)

In fact, even the SAT seems to know that I am obsessed with FMA. I was doing some reading comprehension practice problems, and the passage I was supposed to read was about alchemy! It even mentioned transmutation and the Philosopher's Stone, both of which are commonly heard in the anime.

Japanese Will Take Over the World
I'm not sure about the country, but its language, at least in a lot of anime, seems to be predicting that Japanese will become the universal language. I've recently been watching Ikoku Meiro no Croisee, and although in the beginning of the episode there is a narrator speaking French (I always find it funny, but actually, French people would find me funnier because of my horrible accent when I speak French), during the anime itself, the French people speak Japanese. What's even funnier is that Claude, a french guy who is supposedly speaking French, is talking about Yune, a girl who came from Japan who is standing next to him, and Claude says - in JAPANESE - "She won't understand what I'm saying anyways." And I was just thinking, "DUH, she understands, because you're SPEAKING JAPANESE." Oh well. I guess they just can't find good French voice actors in Japan or something, and that's why they speak Japanese when they're supposed to be speaking French.

And I remember when I was watching Kuroshitsuji, where all the people were supposedly in England but spoke Japanese. Even the characters from China and India spoke Japanese. I still think it's hilarious.

Science Teachers are Insane
Mine certainly seems to be.
- She's a psychic; one night my mom was talking about how my dad had eaten a huge amount of pistachios. The next day, on my chemistry quiz, there was a question asking how many pistachios someone could eat at one time. (If I calculated it correctly, it was more than 4000 pistachios... o_o;; )
- She cares about us, particularly our eyes, though in a bit of an odd way. She makes students sing some song that goes along the tune of I'm A Little Teapot (except it's "I'm A Little Chemist" or something like that) when they don't wear their goggles, as a sort of warning to them. That in itself is not strange, but she has a really freaky poster on her wall. It has a picture of a blind woman who has a cane and a guide dog. The caption says:
"Carol never wore her goggles.
Now she doesn't need them."
- She has a family of pyromaniacs. For one thing, the first day of class, she set a gummy bear on fire. The next day she showed us another demonstration with fire. One of our first labs in the class involved a lot of matches being lighted. And she said that her son really likes fire too...

Vocaran Knows What I'm Doing
There's something called the Weekly Vocaloid Ranking, or Vocaran for short, which basically uses logarithms and other thing-a-ma-bobs (I'm not too clear how it works) to come up with the 30 most popular Vocaloid songs that week. The Vocaran also briefly shows the 5 most popular Vocaloid songs from approximately the same time of year last year. I was listening to a song called "The Madness of Duke Venomania" and then I decided to check out the Vocaran. It was pretty weird for me to see that the #1 from the year before was that song.

And what's weirder is that around this time, I noticed that one of the Nico Nico singers, Panyo, had just sung a cover of "The Madness of Duke Venomania". o_o;;

Apparently even a Vocaloid producer knows me. Watch the first 20 seconds of this video. The video starts about with water, and then later on you see the song's name is "Kai Sou". Water is "mizu" in Japanese. Mizu...kaisou...Whose blog does this remind you of? :p

Labels: animals, anime, barbecue, family, fullmetal alchemist, height, japanese, microwave, mrs. crumplebottom, teacher, the madness of duke venomania, the sims, vocaloid, vocaran

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