Anime that I've recently finished and what I thought of them

So in the absence that occurred, I spent part of my time watching anime.

Yuru Yuri - Yuri moe starring about 13 girls in Junior High. Hilarity ensues. 8.5/10

Hen Zemi - Fucking... weird.... 7/10 (NSFW)

Kill Me Baby - 3 (technically 4) girls in High School that look like they should be in Elementary. Pretty funny. 8/10

Kore wa Zombie desu ka? - Ok... This was... different. There's a lot of "the fuck?" moments, but it's overall story was good. 7/10 (probably shouldn't watch it around normal people)

Upotte!! - Girls who carry guns, and are said guns at the same time. Funny, with a good bit of war attached to it. 8.5/10

Angel Beats! - It seems to take a lot of inspiration from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, in both animation style and slightly with the plot. Other than that, it's amazing... except it has one of the worst endings in history. 8/10

Elfen Lied - Shit's fuck up yo. 6/10 (NSFW/L)

Chobits - I had already seen it previously, but I decided to watch it again. It has a slow start, but has a good message about how technology is probably advancing too fast. 8.5/10

Clannad - Based off a visual novel, I surprisingly liked the love story. It was actually pretty good. 7/10

Sgt Frog - If you haven't seen this yet, you have to get on Netflix and watch it right now. There have been moments during this show where I've just had to pause it and just laugh because the jokes are so well written. This also must be seen in English. Usually it doesn't matter too much if an anime is viewed in dub or subbed format, but a lot of the jokes in the later seasons have more to do with western pop culture in the English dub. And besides, the cast for the show is amazing. 9/10

Gurren Lagann - God damn. Just go watch this show. Now. 9/10

New Music Tuesdays Vol 1: I/O

Alright unlike my other music segments I am going to make a harder attempt at keeping this one running.  Basically every Tuesday I am going to make a post about a lesser known artist whom I believe is talented, and this week I would like to start with the NY triple-threat (singer-producer-song writer) I/O, who just recently released his mixtape/free album 'Isolation'

I/O fits within the genre of abstract RnB being run by Frank Ocean and The Weeknd, actually he sounds like a perfect child from the two of them.  He handled most of the production (10 of the 12 songs) on his own and wrote the entire thing himself.  It's a great project.  If you enjoy Frank Ocean or The Weeknd and this experimental/abstract form of RnB then you will probably enjoy I/O, if you have not listened to much Ocean of Weeknd then maybe I/O can be your first venture into the genre, let me know what you think!  You can stream and download his project 'Isolation' for free here - http://www.djbooth.net/index/albums/review/i-o-isolation/#stream

Joe Pistols 'Poltergeist' Mixtape Vol. 1 & 2 Covers

Covers I made for my homie Joe Pistols mixtapes being released soon

Why I Hate Society

 
Let me preface this by saying this is my least thought out 'poem' yet.  I would consider it more of a rant than a poem, but after getting to know the third person to inspire this rant, I was finally pushed into writing it. 

How can I hate something I am a part of?
Because as a single middle-class individual I have little-to-no say in the persona of 'society'
If society were a person, I (in this present moment, atleast) would barely represent a stitch deciding the color of clothing it is wearing, but I'm getting off topic.

Like everyone who isn't rich to the point they can buy anything they mislabel as a need as it pops into their head, I have minor complaints about how things are done - but those are generally jealous complaints about why I'm not as successful as people higher up, this has nothing to do with those problems with society.  The only way I can completely describe my meaning is moreso to describe what forced me to write it.

I know three different girls who are the greatest people on this planet.  They are beautiful, smart, sweet, and every other trait an amazing person possesses.

My first light in the abyss that is societal problems was hearing that the sweetest, nicest, and most innocent person I know had cut herself because of people bullying her.  I honestly couldn't understand how someone could push another human being to that extreme, whether they knew it or not (they didn't - I believe I'm the only person she has told).  Luckily after the first time she realized hurting herself was not going to help her feel better, but most people that start this terrible habit don't figure that out unfortunately.

The second girl had a similar problem, however her bullying began for a different reason.  She had missed months of school due to a disease that left her in the hospital, unable to do much of anything.  She was bullied because she had gained a bit of weight due to not being able to get out of bed.  The bullying on top of catching up with school just so she could move on to the next grade in time and recovering led to her cutting herself, in secret, for about 3 months.  I've seen her scars - and it's honestly one of the most depressing sights I've seen once I learned the cause.  She's scared to wear sleevless clothing, go swimming, ect. because people might see her scars and judge her.

This third story is the worst, and I'm not even sure if she would want it shared, even without a name attached, but it pushed me over the top and made the problems all to real, so I hope atleast one other person can take from this as I did.  She was also bullied, but to a much further extreme.  She, like the other two, had cut herself to cope.  Eventually that didn't help as much and she began taking sleeping pills to numb the pain (emotional, not physical).  When she had had enough she decided she just wasn't made to be on this planet, that she was a mistake and attempted to take her life.  She has tried 4 times and I thank God that she has failed each time, because the fact that she is able to forgive the people that bullied her proves she has the sweetest heart that I've ever come by. 

Those three stories should be complete fiction, I shouldn't be allowed to pass them as real events, we, as humans, shouldn't be able to do that to one another.  And I know that there are worse things going on in the world. Revolutions, wars, serial killers, unjust governments are all immensely horrible, but because I haven't seen or experienced those things first hand, they seem unreal and just statistics to me, while these three people have cried while telling me what had happened, have shown me scars and razors, have made the harsh news stories of bully-induced suicides and depression a dark reality.

So the call to action is just be wary of the effects of every action you do.  To risk sounding to preachy, the person you make fun of in school could have family problems and your thoughtless words could cause him or her to break.  This person could be the person who would eventually find a 100% perfect cancer cure, or be the next Michael Jackson, and because of our unforgiving society they give up before they are able to show the world that they do in fact deserve the breath they are given, so just be careful.

Highschool of the Dead

So this is an anime that I (somewhat) recently finished watching. I was looking around to see if there was any news for a second season, and I stumbled upon this comment that does a good job of what I was going to do.

High School Of The Dead is a good anime. The tragedy is that it could have been a *great* anime if not for some horrible mistakes.

Let me explain. The setup is awesome. Zombie apocalypse+ a renegade group of kids + anime? It's pretty much every nerd's wet dream. Unfortunately, the writers decided to focus on the "wet" part much more than the dream.

A lot of people have been debating over HotD's overuse of fan service. Is it justified? I personally don't think so. Here you have a perfectly awesome setup for the apocalypse. People grabbing their guns, moral dilemmas, false messiahs, etc. HotD sets this up in a fairly realistic way and creates an immersive world that terrifies and fascinates the viewer. Then they give you episodes where 90% of the screen time is decided to naked women touching each other. Other episodes are more toned down, but the fan service isn't very subtle and it is very distracting and at times annoying. Shizuka, One of the main characters (who really isn't a character as much as she is a walking-talking fetish provider) has boobs that are literally larger than her head and does absolutely nothing besides acting stupid. She provides absolutely no other value to the show, and one has to wonder how she even gets out of bed in the morning.

Some of the other characters also have the same kind of one demential personality. Then you have characters like Saeko, and Takashi, who end up being dynamic and very interesting to watch. These two characters provide the show character development, constantly walking the line between hero and killer. They are fairly fascinating to watch, especially given that the series never promoted itself as being thought provoking.

The artwork is tough to describe, because while it is a visually impressive show, some of the character designs are incredibly awkward. As I mentioned before, the breast proportions on the female characters are insane. Rei and Saya have very edgy and unattractive hair that makes their characters look a bit cheaper than the rest of the cast. Despite this, most of the illustrations are very beautiful and it's generally top notch animation.

The best way to enjoy HotD is to expect very little from it and just go along for the ride. It has some terrible faults that might really ruin it for a lot of people, but watching the group survive the apocalypse is incredibly entertaining. It's a great mindless anime that is far better than any ecchi I have ever seen. If you are looking for a show with well developed characters and tasteful character interactions, find a different show. I would say that its worth making the exception for HotD though.


By the way, this was taken from Nanalily on MAL, who can be found here: http://myanimelist.net/profile/Nanalilly

It happened again

I just had another one of my future seeing moments... Also while watching anime, but this time it was a different one... Same dialogue, same art, everything. My brain is full of fucks.

I propose a new drinking game!

Watch the movie Cool As Ice, and every time you see Vanilla Ice being super fucking white, take a drink! I can assure you that this is the best way of getting over your girlfriend breaking up with you, you fucking pussy.

I had an encounter with God today

While I was in church today, I was just listening to the sermon, and I started thinking about how long time really is. I didn't really think about until just then because I've only lived on this planet for 15 years, and I'm probably going to live on it for another six times that. It kind of freaked me out because I never thought about living after college. My brain just goes to my senior year of college and just blanks after that. I started calmly freaking out (oxymorons ftw), an just stared at the ground, thinking and praying for a good half hour. I had just realized how long life really is, and it's not just going to be like this forever. By that, I mean it's not going to be jut school, chilling after, church on Sunday, ect. And on top of that, the amount of time I'm actually alive, isn't very long at all compared to everything else. I started really thinking about this, and I had a sudden urge that I'm going to be someone really important to someone. I'm not sure who, but I'm completely sure that I will be. That scared me too, because all my life I just figured that I was just Mister Normal, and I wasn't going to end up doing anything really special in my lifetime. That's when I was told, by God, that I had to make this post, and I wasn't to tell anybody about it in real life, I was just supposed to make this post. I'm not sure how, but I think that this post is supposed to warn someone of something. I'm not sure how or why, but I believe that it is. If it doesn't, however, then I'm just supposed to post this on here, and something is going to happen, and I'm going to know what to do in that situation. You're probably reading this ad thinking that I'm crazy, but I honestly don't care whether or not you believe me. I was just told by God to do it, and here I am. You also probably think that this post doesn't make much sense at all, which is perfectly normal, because I'm not really sure either. An I'm sure I could have made it more clear, but it's something that happened that's hard to put into words. It's kind of like one of those "you had to be there" moments. But besides all that, have a nice day.

I'm not sure how to say this...

So I think I'm psychic. Not the fake kind that tell you the things you want to hear, but like I actually see the future. I'm not exactly aware of it until it happens, but it happens way too often for it to just be de ja vu. Just in the past 2 months, I've seen the future about 10 times. It generally happens when I'm dreaming, and I'll slightly remember it when I wake up, but I'll think nothing of it until I see it again, that time in real life. What just happened that made me want to make this post, was a dream I think I had 3 months ago, and I just now saw that exact 2 second time frame while watching full metal panic (great anime btw, you should watch it). And I'm kind of freaked out about it, but at the same time I think it's amazing that it happens so often. Also, there isn't any sort of pattern of how it appears either. The last time it happened, was while I was at church. There was absolutely no relation to those two times at all. I've talked to other people about it, and they all assume that it's just de ja vu, but they don't understand how powerful it is. I don't just kind of remember something like it that happened, I physically saw it in a dream. I don't think it's God trying to tell me anything either, because it's purely random things. Nothing significant happens when I see the dream in real life, I'm just kind of like "Woah... It happened again." This didn't really have anything to do with anything retaining to the standard posts of this blog at all, but I really needed to get this off my chest.


EDIT: not sure what's up with the title... I only put I'm, so I'm not sure what blogger did with it, and I can't seem to edit the title in the app, so oh well.

Grammy '12 Overview

LL Cool J was a great host

The performances

I missed Adele's opening song.

Bruno Mars - I mean, he was Bruno Mars, not gonna knock the guy, because he is definitely talented - a good song writer, producer, and has a solid singing voice, he's just not my style (Liquor Store Blues w/ Damian Marley is a FANTASTIC song though). But if his album has songs like his live performances (a jazzy/RnB/soul feel) rather than all the poppy songs from him I've heard, he would be an artist I enjoy.

Katy Perry - I like E.T. still for some reason...even though they had already announced Kanye wasn't there so I know he wouldn't jump in for his verse...then whatever song it was she did second (I'm not up to date on my Katy Perry) sounded pretty good for her. She is a bit pitchy live, but did pretty good and looked great (but that hair...um...no).

Foo Fighters - They sounded amazing, they sounded energized and like they were having fun. This performance proved they deserved to win everything they did, great band.

Chris Brown - Sounded bad, and his performance is just like all of his performances, he never really brings anything new to the table, if you've seen one Chris Brown performance, you've seen them all.

Taylor Swift - I don't like Swift's music, and I generally think she tries to hard to look like a dolled up Barbie, but her not only did she sport a very natural look, and looked GREAT (I personally love a girl with a natural country look), but she sounded better than normal too. Didn't think I would be giving Taylor Swift a good review, but it would be bias of me not to.

Adele - Does exactly what you'd expect her to do, and I'm not knocking her because her voice is absolutely phenomenal. I prefer her doing something simple like she did rather than put on an overdone show. She sounded great.

Jason Aldean & Kelly Clarkson - From what I can judge, rather average. They are talented, but nothing overly impressive was displayed. This could be biased, as country isn't my genre of choice however.

The Beach Boys - Okay...backtracking a bit...The Beach Boys were the first band I listened to. Can't remember which CD it was, but I did know ever word. Watching this performance let me know that I have definitely out grown my enjoyment of The Beach Boys. They were good for who they are though, just not really my thing anymore.

Tony Bennett and Carrie Underwood - Two fantastic voices. Really all I can say here.

Glen Campbell with the Band Perry and Blake Shelton - Alright, nothing special.

Coldplay and Rihanna - And award for the most awkward collaboration of all time goes to...COLDPLAY AND RIHANNA! Ri-Ri sounded VERY pitchy during her parts, and looked unusually ehhhh. Chris Martin (of Coldplay) was alright, given the songs he was performing are pretty awful.

Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt - Personally love Alicia Keys, and Bonnie Raitt also has a great voice. They did a great Etta James tribute, and I'm kinda glad they didn't do "At Last" because I think I've heard that song to many time...Etta has other songs guys.

Paul McCartney - As talented as this guy is...his performance was horribly average. Really was expecting something monumental from him.

Jennifer Hudson - Couldn't have picked a better person to do a Whitney Houston tribute, this girl's voice doesn't get enough credit.

David Guetta, Deadmau5, Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, & Foo Fighters - um WTF was my first thought when I saw this. I like David Guetta (club music wise), I can tolerate Deadmau5 (not a big fan of techno/electro), usually can't stand Chris Brown or Lil Wayne, and thoroughly enjoy the Foo Fighters. Guetta did his thing, Brown sounded ehhh, Wayne sounded awful. Just like before the Foo Fighters sounded great, and the switch up with Deadmau5 was pretty good.

Nicki Minaj - Much like Chris Brown, Nicki's songs are one in the same. Here she decided to expand on the Roman Polanski gimmick, and the performance and new song she showcased were AWFUL. She didn't look very good either. An while an interesting show, it was a very bad vocal showcase. I don't think it'll be as memorable as they continually stressed it would be.

Bruce Springsteen - simply amazing. Dude still does good, no complaints.

Main Awards

Record Of The Year
Adele - Rolling In The Deep - WINNER
Bon Iver - Holocene
Bruno Mars - Grenade
Mumford & Sons - The Cave
Katy Perry - Fireworks

Was personally rooting for Bon Iver, but had no doubt that Adele would take this one

Album Of The Year
Adele - 21 - WINNER
Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
Lady Gaga - Born This Way
Bruno Mars - Doo Wops & Hooligans
Rihanna - Loud

rooting for Foo Fighters, but again saw the Adele victory coming a mile away.

Song Of The Year
Adele - Rolling In The Deep - WINNER
Kanye West (Feat. Rihanna, KiD CuDi, & Fergie) - All Of The Lights
Mumford & Sons - The Cave
Bruno Mars - Grenade
Bon Iver - Holocene

Here, if based on musical composition and showcased talent, rather than as a personality contest, All of Lights should've won. I believe, while Adele is incredibly talented, her song was another pop ballad, whereas All of the Lights was a modern ode to musical composition. It featured Elton John, John Legend, Alicia Keys, and many many more huge celebrity vocalists all harmonizing and contributing different elements to the stadium blowout track.

Best New Artist
Bon Iver - WINNER
The Band Perry
J. Cole
Nicki Minaj
Skrillex

Expected J. Cole, Nicki, or Skrillex, but was rooting for Bon Iver or J. Cole - its awesome Justin won this one.

Best Rap Performance
Jay-Z & Kanye West - Otis (Feat. Otis Redding) - WINNER
Chris Brown - Look At Me Now (Feat. Busta Rhymes & Lil Wayne)
Lupe Fiasco - The Show Goes On
Nicki Minaj - Moment For Life (Feat. Drake)
Wiz Khalifa - Black & Yellow

YES, YES, YES. Look At Me Now was a pointless, awful song with an annoying beat, The Show Goes On was great, but it winning would be a slap in the fans' and Lupe's face because he didn't personally like it and was forced by his label to make it, Moment For Life was bad, and Black & Yellow was an overplayed 'anthem', while Otis was Hip-Hop at it's core. Soul sample, two of the best rappers alive just having fun.

All Of The Lights won both Best Rap/Sung Collaboration and Best Rap Song (beating out Otis, Kanye beat Kanye) and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy won Best Rap Album (beating out Watch The Throne, Kanye beating Kanye).