Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is now taken off from the Anime Currently Watching list and joins the Anime Finished Watching list. Yes that's right the anime has indeed finished since last Monday. Due to various distractions I only just finished watching the last episode. Now this might be a pretty big statement coming from me but I think this FMA series is probably the best anime series I've watched up to now (although Clannad could compete against it).



Let's see... I dont even know where to begin. XD
Ok lets just start with the story. Unlike the previous series, this series is directly from the manga which means it's omg epic as. There is always a twist or cliff-hanger in almost every episode, hardly any dull episodes. The journey that the brothers had been through had been a long one, I watched an episode a week for a year and it had been the most satisfying anime to watch. I cant imagine for the manga readers, after all those years and all came to an end.



I can officially say this is the best action/comedy anime I've ever watched. All the fighting scenes are packed with excitement and thrill, occasionally suspense. Some episodes just gets you on to the edge of your seat and you would hope that it does not end. The comedy is just brilliant, most of it involves Ed since hes the impatient, jumpy type. But because of all the characters different personality. the funny parts really makes you laugh out loud.



The music for this anime is quite decent but what I really liked about this series are their opening and endings. I liked every single song they picked and all the opening animations, they always corresponds to the story without giving too many spoilers. My favourite ones will definately have to be the 4th opening, Period by Chemistry then 1st opening, Again by Yui and then 5th opening, Rain by SID.



If I really had to compare, I prefered the artwork of first series of FMA, the characters looked cooler, here they look a bit round on the face and less detailed. If the artwork was a bit more detailed then this anime would be perfect in my book. Nevertheless, it was still enough to make this anime looked cool.
So people, watch Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, you will not regret it. I give this anime 10/10! If you dont watch it then... Ed might hunt you down!

Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler

Omg??? 2 updates in one day??? Well I guess Im making up for my June section which only has 3 entries... Anyway like I said yesterday, I recently watched a Japanese movie called Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler and it was such a suprisingly good find.



Like half an hour into the movie, I kept thinking the main character Kaiji looked strangely familiar but where else could I have encountered a Japanese actor? Then it suddenly hit me, OMG IT WAS DEATH NOTE, YAGAMI LIGHT! The movie suddenly got 5x better.



The movie is full of mind games, quite similar to Death Note. However in Kaiji there are parts where really strong emotions were shown and you would know exactly how he felt during that time. Although the acting isnt all perfect compare to american films, the tone of the actors was enough to display the message across. I'll probably get the general picture of it if I watched it without subtitles.

Then near the end, an insert song was played while the ending was shown. The movie ended with 10x more satisfaction for me cause the song was sung by YUI! Yui's It's All Too Much was a #1 single last year. The credit song Never Say Die is the 2nd song that was released in that album.

P.S. Was looking at the cast of Kaiji and Death Note while writing this. To my amazement L WAS IN KAIJI TOO OMFG. I KNEW I'VE SEEN SAHARA'S FACE SOMEWHERE LOL. Just couldnt recognise him without the insane eye make up XD
This movie was placed in my favourite movies list right after I watched it. My rating for it would be 9/10 due to a few biased factors XD 7/10 for general public.

Dragon Age

Been wanting to write the review for this game ever since I finished it since 3 weeks ago. So lets get straight to it. Dragon Age is a RPG game, made by Bioware and I must say this game is actually pretty good. The background story is that the dark spawns (kinda like undeads) are rising again and only Grey Wardens have the power to defeat them. You start off by choosing your race and occupation. Then the story begins with your chosen race's setting and background. After a while, the story will converge, meaning no matter what your chosen race or background is, you will be be playing the main story now.



I chose to start off with a Dalish Elf cause they were like in the wilds and use bows so I figured they seemed like elven archers in mmorpg games lol. However to my disappointment they werent as strong in this game. Nevertheless I enjoyed playing my character even if I was weak. Anyway moving along, Bioware tend to make their rpg games real life ish. Every conversation will have at least 3 options for you to choose as your answer and sometime your answer can affect your game dearly. The consequences of your answer could range from getting a bit more money for yourself or a party member leaving your group (and no you wont get them back again). It's like if you anger a friend, you lose him/her forever.



Dragon Age is a team fighting game so technically you're role playing 4 roles. However while you are controlling one, the others will auto attack and you can also set the kind of spell they use or the action they should take when they are on auto attack. Speaking of team members, each member has this relationship scale with you. Much like real life, not everyone will always agree to your actions. So most of the time when you make a decision like accepting a bribe or not, some members will approve your action while some wont. Therefore it is actually quite hard to be Mr Popular or the Ladies Man. I tried dating 2 girls at the same time but then in the end I could only choose one.



The graphics I thought was pretty average, I've seen better. The music used during the game was nice though. The fighting game play is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. The key is to press pause and you will be pressing pause a lot whether you like it or not lol. However the thing I liked the most about Dragon Age is the story. Although there is a vague overall story while you play. Your decision that you make during the game really influence how the story will turn out in the end. You are in charge of your life which in result you are in control of your destiny. With that being said, luckily there is the save/load option so I could test and try out my life before choosing my destiny :P
Dragon Age is a game I definately would recommend to play, a solid 8/10 from me. If I had a LOT of spare time, I would consider re-playing it. :D

4 days into holiday

Finally an update! I've been wanting to write for some time but due to certain circumstances I was not able to do it. First, obvious reason, exams. I studied for 3 weeks straight, only left home for exams, occasionally buying food and one day of basketball. Second, I was on dial up speed since the 20th of June, damn my 9GB limit T.T

So to the holiday life we go. Right after the electrical exam, I went to Korean BBQ with Karthik, Ben, Alvin and Dixon. It was going great until the rice ran out and they didnt refill it like half an hour later which ruined our appetite. The portion of meat and rice must be balanced in order to keep eating. Oh and Ben's toilet trip was pretty lol! After the meal, went to play pool with Alvin and Dixon and that basically concluded my day. No wait I also watched a Japanese movie called Kaiji, more about that later on.



The very next day, I remembered the promise to myself that I would go gym on the day after my exam. So I dragged Shawn with me to go work out and boy was I weak lol. A year of no gym had it's toll, Im like basically back to where I started. Hopefully with all the gaps in next semester will allow me to go gym and start building up again. Played 10mins of bball before injuring my thumb AGAIN and got kicked off the court by badminton players.

The 3rd day after waking up with intense aching muscles, I had to get myself to uni by 12 to play bball with the crew, if I dont show then that means 3 other ppl wont show lol therefore my attendance was required. To most of our amazement Jerrell finally joined the gym! We had some pretty good games however I was scared to use my right hand due to painful thumb so I couldnt go hard and most of my shots were off... Afterwards, we went to Golden Bowl for a feed as usual. I thought I'd try something new however it was the worst decision ever made. The dish I ordered was really sour and somewhat spicy, luckily I was hungry therefore I could finish half of it. Then went to play pool again with Jerrell and Shawn hehe.



4th day, today. The day started in a good way since I have broadband again! I could open my email within 10 secs instead of 3mins! Got to uni by 12 again to attend the job seminar. There were 2 guests speakers and both gave quite a lot of information so I guess my trip was worthwhile. After the 2 and a half hour seminar, we couldnt decide where to go and have lunch. Then funny enough they agreed on Korean BBQ, Dennis and Juan. Lol 2 korean bbq in 4 days. Luckily this time the rice did not run out and I ate pretty much my money's worth. Had to kill time before the main event so went around the city, read magazines, look at laptops, play at arcade. Then finally it was time.

We arrived at the shooting range 20mins early however there were already 6-8 people waiting. Then within the short time range, it grew to about 25 or more. We shared a booth between us 5 ppl, each shot 5 rounds which is 1 mag on the .22 rifle. Juan was a pro therefore he could fire a semi auto pistol. Now I had never seen or heard or fired a gun in my whole life. So this was quite a new experience for me. We were all required to wear earmuffs. I thought to myself how loud could this sht be??? So I took them off after a while but then put them straight back on 3 secs later LOL. The BANG sound actually hurts your ear a bit.

My first try I was just a complete newb, luckily Juan helped me load the rifle but I did not know how to aim with the rifle, where I should be looking etc. On my second go, one of the supervisors taught me the proper technique and all soon enough I got the hang of it. Due to time running out and we just bought new 50 rounds, we quickly fired 10 rounds each and I must say I had some major improvement.I was reloading fast and like 3 of mine were really close to the centre I was aiming for. This was definately a new and fresh experience for me and Im looking forward to improve on this skill in the future :D