君の存在に心を奪われた！

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 08:06:04 GMT

World peace...

My First R2 DVD Finally Arrived~

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:23:11 GMT

It got delivered to me within 24 hours! :D

Actual DVD cover:

Limited-edition only booklet and Drama CD:

DVD

Makes me want to buy the other 4 volumes in R2 too. (Why can't they include the booklet in the regular editions?!?) Although I'll end up with no subs and a huge whole in my wallet that is even bigger than the hole in Tokyo after Careless Monday D:

Or perhaps I should hold my horses and wait till R1 DVD comes up? (a year of waiting...)

NEET declaration

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:29:42 GMT

LOL

Quick rants on Ep 19 of Gundam 00 S2: 命の華

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:31:41 GMT

I know that I had previously mentioned that I won't make any G00-related posts, but I couldn't help but put some awesome screenshots here XD

NOOOO Regene!! I couldn't believe that he's gone just like that (without accomplishing anything major).
A pretty "bloody" sight with 2 dead Innovators lying around.

Yum to our 0 Gundam! Retro-looking, but still smashing, especially when the pilot is Lasse ^^

Hmmm.. When was the last time a G00 episode ended with someone wanting to shoot another person?... And what happened to that person who started the shot? NOOO!! Tieria! Seriously I think Sunrise won't recycle the same plot, and I certainly hope so. Besides, I don't wanna Tieria to die (although I think I won't be too surprised if he did).

Ep 24 Preview
Crap.. Are those monsters behind Billy Automatons? Looks like he might just use them to finish Kujou off.. and get himself killed too during the process XXD

2 more episodes to go.. How will it end? Will everyone simply get killed??

On another note, I'm looking to FMA which will be replacing G00's timeslot!! I just found that MikiShin will be voicing Roy, and I bet he's gonna be a smexy one!! Woot!~~

Personal Updates and Gundam 00

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 03:35:39 GMT

It's my last year here in university, and since there's only one month left before I have to submit my thesis, I'll have to cut down on writing crap in my journal XD

Therefore I won't be posting anymore rants on Gundam 00 S2... I'll only make small comments back in G00 lj community.

Random rants on Ep 19 of Gundam 00 S2: イノベイターの影

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 11:07:59 GMT

Seems like Keyhole had serious lag issues this time around, so I guess this will encourage more people to wait for releases instead of wasting half an hour (or more) screaming at the PC and getting frustrated for missing all the action... Good thing that I had resisted the urge to tune in today :)

Today's episode is more relationship-centric, I guess, so it's not too interesting to me.

Klaus saves the day! That shot we heard at the end of the last episode was totally misleading since Klaus fired several shots at one go and no one had fired at anyone before that. Anyway, I knew that Marina will not die (at least wait for a couple of episodes more) in this episode so I was right for not getting my hopes up.
Marina refused to get the gun from Shirn. That's expected of her, but if the Federation's intelligence were to know that Marina were hiding with the Kathron members, they'll kill her and the kids without a doubt. Therefore, isn't it better to carry a gun to protect the kids? There's no use talking about the future if any of the kids get shot.
Ribbons was surprised that Setsuna launched in his 00 Gundam. As a result, he spectulated that "Setsuna's change" has started due to the influence of Twin Drive. This Setsuna slowly turning into an Innovator? Hahaha.. It'll be interesting to see him in the Innovator's pretty boob windows uniform XD. That aside, it's quite obvious that the change brought about by the 00 Gundam's massive GN-particle release is accelerated by the the GN-bullet gunshot that increases the amount of GN particles in his body .
Nice claws you've got, Healing, but you nearly got yourself killed in an instant by Trans-am 00 Raiser XD
With the massive GN-particles covering the battlefield, anyone could hear everyone's voice. I was so glad to see Halle resurfacing once again went on ramperage BUT that didn't last long... Pffffff.
Oh no to sparkly Nekkid Setsuna and Saji's "Yamero"! I get what all these mean, so no more Nekkid boys, okay? XD
It's nice to see Setsuna supporting Saji and bringing him to see her. Saji and Lousie finally managed to meet (in their "dreams"?). Saji managed to talk Lousie out and Lousie began to waver.
But alas, thanks to Andrei to spoil the moment (Soma's not doing her job properly!). At last, Soma arrived and began attacking Andrei. Andrei realised that Soma had also betrayed A-LAWs by joining CB but retreated. Soma wanted to give chase but "Marie! Marie!" Alle (no more Halle D:) stopped her. Geez. You forgot what Lyle said about sparing a thought for her?
Great Revive x Tieria battle! How I wish it was longer. Thanks to Trans-Am and Seravee's hidden limbs and beams, Tieria beat Revive and in order to capture Revive alive, Tieria used Seraphim to give chase. Revive's gotta get captured just like that? What will happen to Anew when her twin is onboard Ptolemaios 2?
Seems like Healing wasn't too surprised that Revive got captured.. That must be one of the Innovator's plan. Seems like the next mission will only involve the Innovators in A-LAWs... Ominous feeling involving 00 Gundam.
Revive's eyes were already in Veda mode when he took it off in front of the Meisters and Sumeragi.. Uh oh. As what we thought, Anew's eyes also shone in Veda mode and she finally she took her firm stand as an Innovator as she aimed her gun towards Lasse. And then there was a shot. Crap, why kill Lasse? I have always like him as a cool and funny side character. There's so many people around and I'll definately recommend Desu more than anyone else :S
I also noticed the response from Lyle the moment Revive took his helmet off. It's interesting that none of the other CB members could see the resemblence between Anew and Revive. Anyway, I wonder if this response was related to his concerns in the previous episode?
Ribbons bitch-slapped Regene for passing information to Wang and threatened him against any further similar actions. Obviously, our Regene didn't like all this...
Nena finally makes an appearance by messing with Wang's spaceship and prevented its movement. All her hatred and her merciless were all unleashed when she revealed her Drei and began attacking Wang's ship. We saw Hong Long trying his best to protect his younger sister... but will that save both of them? I was glad that Nena got her revenge, but it was quite a pity that it was quite a bad timing. If the siblings died before they were able to pass Veda's bearings to CB, that will be too convenient to Ribbons. In that way, Nena had indirectly helped Ribbons the Innovator...

Screencaps (in case you're sick of my rants)
[1] Halle cameo.. Pffff.
[2] Setsuna & Saji's specials! *Does not want*
[3] Gundam b00bies!
[4] Somehow, I can't get myself to be glad for those two, Can't really be bothered (although they're supposed to portray normal civilians caught up in war)...
[5] "I want to embrace you, Innovator!" XXD
[6] Mr. Bushido decided to stalk 00 Gundam in the battlefield.. Cameo. Grrr.
[7] Ohh.. What a shot of Revive~
[8] Bad-ass Anew. That look surprisingly fits her well.
[9] Regene is truly unsatisified with Ribbons...
[10] Nena back to her killer-mode! She should just confront Ribbons directly or something. No use picking the small players.

Next Episode Preview

Is it just me, or does Mileina seems more excited than scared as a hostage??
Apparently the main focus will be on Anew. Anew had managed to hijack a MS and started to engage Lyle in a battle. Ohhh. Will Lyle's "I love you" be able to bring her back to his side?
I will also assume that Anew rescues her twin, or help Revive in getting his hands on 00 Gundam.
All and all, I guess the next episode will be relationship-centric, like today's episode? Zzzzz.

FMA Returning on 5th April!!

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:09:03 GMT

To make up for the end of Gundam 00, Fullmetal Alchemist Season 2 will take G00's timeslot starting 5th April (5pm JST)!! This was shown at the end of today's Gundam 00.
楽しみ楽しみ！

Random rants on Ep 18 of Gundam 00 S2: 交錯する想い

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 12:07:57 GMT

I have decided not to watch live streaming anymore. Not only I have to re-watch several times after that to better understand what the characters were talking about (since live streaming kinda sucks), I could also made better use of the time I spent while waiting for the RAWs etc.　In addition, what is the point of spoiling yourself by watching RAWs when I couldn't understand what the characters were talking about well?

I'm sick today, so I took time to sleep (at half an hour before the broadcast started) after taking my medicine.. By the time I woke up, it's all over. Wasn't sad or something, I expected that to happen before I went to bed.

Now on to this episode.　I'll just briefly go though since I couldn't understand most of what's going on, especially at A-LAWs end.

Sounds like Kati will take a break for now and return later with something great.. Hmmm. Will that really settle matters for once and for all with CB?
CB is back again with attacking Memento Mori. It seemed that this unit was the same that appeared during the previous episode, meaning that 00 Riser Gundam didn't manage to destroy it 4 months ago (at least that same beam brought Devine down).
Soma!! Looks like she had replaced Marie after witnessing the death of Papa Sergei. Daughter-mode now, eh? I kinda sense Soma's hatred towards Andrei for taking away what she desired so badly.
Ohz to Shirin x Klaus! They finally showed us that they're not merely comarades... But that also may mean that either of them will be death-flagged. Please that it be Klaus! Shirin is too strong a female character to get killed now! :(
Seriously I wonder how Marina managed to get her song to be broadcasted over radio... OMG.. Did she officially become our Uta-hime and started selling her own releases to support the kids, Shirin and Klaus!?! lol...
With our-doctile Marie gone, Alle is back to his "Marie..." angst mode. *yawn*
Setsuna's responding differently from Lassa (probably from the last season's last battle) in terms of regenerative ability... What makes Setsuna special?? Innovator? Can't imagine that :S
Ribbons is also keeping a close check on Regene, observing that Regene has been keeping in close contact with Wang for the past 4 months. Regene got pissed with Ribbon's attitude. Go Regene, kill that guy! XD
Goodness, who could be as "lucky" as Andrei for getting promoted for killing his own Dad?!? Ohh.. Lousie didn't seem to agree with Andrei's action... Hey you, don't go around hugging people like that! And stop brainwashing Lousie to finish Saji off!
Lyle and Anew sleeping together! Frankly, speaking, I was initially shocked at the speed at which they had progressed. On a second thought, I think it's better off to show the viewers that their relationship had went very smoothly during the past few months rather than a Shoujo slow-motion drama, or worse another Alle x Marie episode.
Anew flashing her Innovator's eye right in the middle of the couple's cuddling! LOL. How timely. How could Lyle not realise that that was truly weird for someone to behave like that?!?
I wonder how Alle is going to protect Soma when she has the power to undock and act alone?
LOL to Lyle's bold confession.. That caught everyone off-guard (Sumeragi: When did u two...?!). Guess Feldt got over Lyle and congratulated Anew... Lyle's kissing strategy worked well ,eh? XD I really wonder why Lyle had to do this at this time... Death-flagged?!? We haven't know him well enough yet, please don't kill him!!
LOL to everyone uttering their loved ones names (Pic 5) although I didn't expect that. I really laughed my head off when Tieria called for Veda and Setsuna for his beloved Gundam! XXD Sad and lonely Meisters... XXXD
Oh.. Will Marina die from protecting the kids? Hmmmm... Perhaps, since our Setsuna needs no love from Marina... Gundam is way good enough for him XXD
Yes! Regene handing Wang the bearings to where Veda is located! Time to stage a revolt!! Please make it in time!

Screenshots!
[1] Bench for loser guys emo-ing over their girls. Lyle doesn't need that XD
[2] LOL at Hiling's attempt to pair Lousie and Andrei. I was pretty surprised at Revive's wonderful speech about protecting loved ones... Bawww
[3] Bawwwww. Sweet cuddling.
[4] Anew's Veda Innovator's eyes! Right in the middle of kissing.. LOL. I wonder if Revive could see what's going on with his twin?
[5] Bushido didn't actually say that... It would be funnier if that line were to be included XXXD

Ep 19 Preview

Finally Lousie and Saji meet in person (in dreams?). Will they part, leaving Saji in tears again (or worse, leaving Saji injured or dead)?
Sheez.. It seems that Regene got caught by Ribbons and received a beautiful slap that knocked his glasses off. Wow. I wonder how Regene could get out of that mess and emerge alive...

Random rants on Ep 17 of Gundam 00 S2: 散りゆく光の中で

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 09:25:25 GMT

I have second thoughts these days whether to continue watching Gundam 00 live... Streaming quality is bad (lags occasionally too), couldn't understand what the characters are saying well. Besides, I can always wait a while later when I can follow the RAWs at video-sharing sites (and watch it multiple times) rather than waiting for the live broadcast. Sigh.

Nothing much to say this time about the whole episode. I think this episode has little plot development but rather more on the characters' story and background (read: tons of Sergei's stuffs). Without further ado...

14 years ago. It seemed like Sergei made a decision as the commanding officer at that time to do whatever it takes to protect the orbital elevator under construction (including those involved in the construction). Guess that was pretty much the cause of Holly's death. Andrei had stopped talking to Papa Bear after his mother's death (although her body wasn't found). This scene wasn't that important, if you ask me. But I suppose this is to cover for what's going to happen...
I feel that Andrei simply joined army to prove his Dad wrong.. and during this process, his mindset didn't change to that of a soldier. As a soldier, he has to put the Federation's and "humanity"'s interest and concern before his personal aims.... "He's not fit to be in the army!" What a selfish piece of crap.
Now Hercules seemed to regret his coup d'etat plan.. I guess he didn't expect the second Memento Mori's appearance. Even so, I thought the Federation would give a second thought on destroying such a vital facility.
Ribbons actually declared himself to be the sole Creator, not even the other Innovators can match up against him. Oh well. I see that coming, but I was surprised that he actually said that in front of Regene, who has the highest tendency to go astray (or perhaps usurp lnnovator's leadership) so far among others (see: Hilling). I'm hoping that Regene will do something to give Ribbons a reality check or just kick the heck out of him. Grrr.
Setsuna got himself out of the "healing pod" in order to pilot 00 Gundam Raiser. He did that since his Gundam's (Trans-Am Raiser) the only one which can stop Momento Mori. At that moment, Ian commented that 00 Raiser requires someone to pilot it and intended to ask Lasse to do so. But Setsuna ordered Saji to pilot it, adding stuffs like "for the sake of protecting humanity" blah blah. Seriously, I don't see why 00 Raiser needs a pilot. After all, what Saji does in 00 Raiser is to press a few buttons while Red Haro does the remaining task, so why can just let Red Haro handle it all? In addition, I'll welcome Lasse more than Saji anytime.. LOL
Somehow I'm always under the impression that 00 Raiser is always to attached to 00 Gundam all this time ever since episode 11. So why must they be detached now especially since the only way to dock is to launch both individually with 2 pilots?
On the other hand, Hercules managed to evacuate everyone and also told Sergei to leave while he stays to follow his own plans till the end. Sergei gave him a scolding, arguing that as a soldier, he should protect the lives of others before dying instead of remaining there thinking that he could redeem his sins by doing so.
Setsuna and Saji, who were on the mission of destroying Memento Mori 2, got interrupted by the revengeful Devine who was piloting a Mobile Armour. Despite being attacked by "the electrocuting plasma", Trans-Am 00 Raiser was activated and Devine pretty much got owned in an instant (despite employing GN-field), and at the same time, that strong beam also hit Memento Mori 2 and got it damaged / destroyed? Seriously, I thought that the Innovators are better than that in dodging attacks and not getting themselves killed after such a short introduction. I was simply stupefied by how fast Devine came and gone. LOL
Sadly, the powerful GN beam did stop Memento Mori 2 from shooting. I wondered if Memento Mori 2 (along Goodman) was totally destroyed after that...
Memento Mori 2's beam reached the surface of the orbital elevator. While it seemed better than hitting the main compartment, it did considerable damage nonetheless. The exterior parts came apart and some debris were headed straight to Earth. Sadly, some of that hit the shuttle trains carrying the civilians back to Earth and I bet that there's no civilians left now to tell others what atrocities A-LAWs did with their Automatons.
With the falling of the debris to Earth, the Meisters ceased fighting and went head-on to tackle those falling debris. Go Trans-Am Bazooka, Shield bits and... GN Archer! I thought that it's only a support unit, but I'm really glad that it can act as an independent MS! Now Marie has her own MS too! And Alle knew that the pilot's Marie the moment he first saw it on the battlefield, but Marie defended herself as that situation wasn't a battle XD
Glad to see Kathron, Federation (+ Rebel forces) and even A-LAWs (as instructed by Kati) to help to shoot the falling debris.. Awww. Humanity coming together as one in dire situations.
Sergei and Hercules too, came back to help. Marie, once again using her superpowers, spotted Sergei's Taozi and confirmed his identity the moment he spoke.. Awwww. But fancy reuniting under such circumstances.. (and this is the last...)
Andrei's response upon Hercules voice among the chaos confirmed what I mentioned just now. He chose to take personal revenge instead of tackling the urgent issue at hand, he chose his dead mum over millions of innocent living beings.
Oh no, Marina! Don't ever think of singing that song again at this critical time! If everyone could really hear your song due to Trans-Am 00 Raiser, everyone would be dumbfounded and with that you'll cause more people to die for nothing!!!
Cheez.. Andrei killed Hercules without hesitation (I wished he could survive a bit longer before he dies, but... okay) and tried attacking Papa Bear. Oh great. Now Andrei got it all wrong and believed that Papa Bear was also responsible for the whole mess. What an emo teenager.
On the other hand, Marie tried to approach the Sergeis but got stopped by Lousie who just want to fight any CB MS units. Then came Saji that indirectly disarmed Lousie.
The ED started with Andrei piercing his beam through Taozi's cockpit... I was hoping that Sergei would survive in one way or another, but sadly after the ED, Sunrise decided to show more unnecessary scenes of Papa Bear apologizing to Andrei and his vision of Holly before his Taozi exploded beyond salvation. Marie could only watch and cry for her Taisa ;(

Screencaps
[1] Why the heck are the Innovators there?! Are they on a cruise or something? XD
[2] - [4] I was expecting Alle to make a comment after Lyle's and Tieria's turn... LOL. Guess I expected too much!
[2] - [5] Whassup with all these cuts?? Lazy to draw?
[6] RIP Papa Bear. Although he's a nice guy and I quite like him, I didn't feel too sad over his death (vs. Neil). Probably because he's deathflagged in Ep 16.

Ep 18 Preview

Hmmm. Fast-forward to 4 months later.. I was hoping to see what A-LAWs and the Federation explain to the public the falling of Africa's orbital elevator.. Well I suppose this will be explained nonetheless.
My guess is that no major scenes are revealed in the previews. They're merely teasers to get us over excited for the next episode (but all of us are aware that this method to get us hyped up is never to work anymore..). Marina cooking for the kids, Anew blushing... whatever.

Random rants on Ep 16 of Gundam 00 S2: 悲劇への序曲

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 10:22:53 GMT

Plot-centric episode.. Got really disappointed with the trolling.. Was expecting some great Setsuna x Mr. Bushido battle, but it lasted for barely 5 minutes or less.

Perhaps part of the reason why I didn't enjoy this episode as much as the previous ones is probably because this episode went into great details of coup d'etat (read: tons of unfamilar Japanese terms) that I wasn't proficient enough to comprehend. As a result, I didn't feel that I got much from this episode. Action was kept to a minimum..

Some rants after watching the LQ live stream:

Hercules and co. seized control of the orbital elevator in Africa (along with the civilians in it) and he made use of this opportunity to make a fancy speech about the truth behind A-LAWs action, and explain their own actions as soldiers protecting the civilians. Hmmm. I think he did demand A-LAWs to disband or something (probably something along that line).. Let's see how well this works out.
Sergei's back at home, wearing his Papa outfit and looking at photos along the shelf / table [Pic 1].. and memory flashback! Wow.. Another triangle relationship (2 men 1 woman). I must say that Andrei resembles the young Sergei and Sergei's wife looked great when she's young too. I initially thought that she wasn't from the army and the Sergei indirectly caused her death due to some military attack.
On the other hand, Kati was given orders not to attack (?). Instead, Sergei was sent to the orbital elevator to relay Federation's response and try to talk Hercules out of this. Hercules refused to get off the orbital elevator nonetheless, and Sergei too did not want to leave either, expressing that he does not wish for history to repeat itself and wishes to stay by Hercules' side. Oh no.. That certainly sounds like bad news for Sergei (and indirectly, Hercules), since I guess chances of Sergei dying in the coming episodes are very, very high.
LOL. Interesting to see Andrei and Lousie finally agreeing on something. Apparently the reason why Andrei joined the army was to show everyone that he would not repeat the mistake that his Dad made (which eventually led to his mother's death). So far, I haven't seen how he's gonna do that, since we don't really see him making apparent contributions to the army yet.
The Automatons A-LAWs sent first spied on the situation in the orbital elevator then went into killer mode and began indiscriminately killing civilians. The Federation used the related footages (from the Automatons) and ~~selectively revealed~~ "video-photoshopped" them to make it seem that the human-killing machine Automatons belonged to the rebels!! What a despicable act! BOO!!
It seemed like Hercules had planned from the start to "make use" the civilians in the orbital elevator to tell others that A-LAWs is willing do anything to achieve their aim (that A-LAWs would use Automatons to kill civilians and rebels alike). Do you call this act "protecting civilians" too, Hercules? I have to agree with Sergei on this.
After all the waiting, finally we got to see what the last episode left us with [Pic 2]. Initially Masurao's Trans-~~Grah~~Am performed well. Setsuna defended himself by employing GN-field and then Trans-Am too. Ohh. By then, our Mr. Bushido's body couldn't take the condition well and he coughed out blood like last time [Pic 3]. But that didn't stop him from his desire of overcoming Gundams in battles.
When it almost looked like the battle is going to get any better, Ptolemaios 2 and the 3 Trans-Am Gundams came to Setsuna's rescue! Due to Masurao's low particle count (and "水入り" --> Bushido's really into Japanese cultures and stuffs, eh XD), Mr. Bushido retreated and that's the end of the action that kept us waiting for 1 whole weeks! Grrrr.
D'awwww. Arios and Cherudim came forward to catch the falling 00 Gundam... Gundam group hug~~ [Pic 4]
Setsuna heard Neil's voice in his head again, urging him to change himself on his behalf. Setsuna expressed his desire to change himself too, but I wonder how will he change? Give up his Gundam and seek a more peaceful way to resolve the issues?
I don't know how to respond to the appearance of yet another Memento Mori. Although I'm fully aware that a new mega weapon of mas destruction is bound to appear to guide the end of the show, I didn't see another Memento Mori coming. No wonder neither the Innovators nor A-LAWs take any major action against the rebels in the elevator. Will A-LAWs use it to destroy the entire Africa orbital elevator along with the rebel fraction? :S

A couple of screencaps (thanks to 2chan imageboard):

Next episode:

Missed most of the footages, but I did saw someone in battle suit.. Was that Marie or Anew [Pic 5]? Her facial features and expressions told me she's Marie, but I thought she would wear her A-LAWs battle suit instead of CB's outfit (the shade looked quite close to Anew's uniform). Will she be piloting GN-Archer? Better not troll over us again, Sunrise!
Who's that angsty boy and the end [Pic 6]? From the previous screenshot of the photos in Sergei's house [Pic 1, the photo furthest to the right], that might be Andrei?!? (What happened to him? He used to look rather pretty XD)

Random rants on Ep 15 of Gundam 00 S2: 反抗の凱歌 (Spoilers!)

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 12:27:33 GMT

I think I haven't been thinking too much about what I'm expecting for the next G00 S2 episode. Looking back at my previous entry on Ep 14, there's something wrong with what I saw when I was watching the RAW version. Oh well.

Ep 15's more or less on-par with Ep 14, in terms of story development and battle scenes. And thank goodness for the actual ED for I couldn't really stand that "ごろごろいたい" song..

Anyway, moving on with the random rants. Since streaming quality wasn't great and there was considerable lag between the sound and the video, I could only recall only a couple of scenes and could only remember hearing a few lines here and there. ~~(EDIT: Too lazy to torrent RAWs too). Hopefully I will be able to write shorter summary rants...~~ Wow, I had really missed tons of scenes after I watching the whole again.. Gotta rewrite and edit some entry again.

The Innovators didn't get lots of screen time for this episode... But at least Regene got to speak a line after the long absence! *lol* Anyway, I see this as the producers are "side-tracking" to develop characters from other fractions before putting them together for the final showdown.
Klaus seemed willing to support any party that opposes A-LAWS. I initially thought that Klaus would make a strong leader, but it seems that he's not resolute and well-organized enough and I worry that Shirin will go down with him...
Setsuna dreamt about going back to his past and tried to talk the young Soran out of killing his family. In this dream, he met our dear Neil who told him to stop trying to change the past (at the same time, Soran fired and killed his family...), but instead "fight for the future"... Bawww. (Somehow I feel strongly that Neil's death has the least impact on Alle D:)
Setsuna regained consciousness and wanted to leave but Marina told him to rest since his injuries would need time to heal naturally. Seeing Marina and Setsuna getting touchy-touchy (in addition to Setsuna being almost?? nekidd), the kids sensed da "Rabu Rabu" moment and left them alone. LOL. Those kids. To me, I don't sense Setsuna x Marina romance, but rather merely 2 people who have mutual understanding and respect each other's ideals.
It's nice to see some Setsuna open up, and also we finally got to know more about Marina's background from their heart-to-heart talk. Apparently she wasn't born with a golden spoon, and she had her own dreams too until she was chosen to enter the palace. I guess we can try to be more understanding and be more tolerant of her being unable to do anything all this while (she's not totally suited for the Princess post etc etc)
In addition, Setsuna expressed his desire to hear the children's song (again) --> Bawww, but Deathflagged?? Setsuna seemed rather torn about whether to continue fighting. This issue has been going on for quite some time already and somehow I don't see when it is gonna get resolved and how.
Andrei attempted to talk Lousie out of fighting and got ignored by Lousie once again. For comic relief, Patrick tried offering Andrei advice but got ignored too. LOL.
Tieria showing his soft / human side more than ever. That scene of him covering the sleeping Milenia with a blanklet was so sweet! I was pleasantly surprised by that. I don't see a Tieria x Milenia pairing but rather Tieria being a caring brotherly-figure (bet Tieria's a little too old for Milenia and Milenia muttered, "You shouldn't fall in love with me" in her sleep XD). It's getting more and more apparent that there is a very high possibility that Tieria will die ("Love him, then kill him" strategy).. D:
It seems that Kati didn't remember Billy as Kujou's friend from the university days. Guess Billy's not the kind of guy that people will bother to remember.. LOL
Anyway, Revive, Hilling and Devine (who was piloting Mobile Armor Empress) entered the battlefield, with Divine first aggressively attacking Seravee and Seravee getting caught in the Armour's "electrocuting tentacles / vines". Alle saw all that and attempted to offer help, only to get himself caught in that scary weapon. .... Both of them got owned quite fast. A little disappointing since I was hoping to see more action (can't just let Setsuna get all the glory, right?).
Seeing all that, Marie offered to help by piloting GN-Archer, against Sumeragi's wishes. Just when everything's looking all-so-bad for CB, A-LAWS troops had to retreat due to Federation's coup d'etat and had to proceed to the Orbital Elevator where rebel troops had infiltrated. Ah, we just missed seeing Marie in action...
Mr. Bushido and his ~~Flag~~ Masurao in action! Now his sword seemed really too long in proportion to the whole suit... Hmmm. Oh! And the Trans-Am! That must be the hidden ability that Billy previously mentioned. Although it seemed cool, I bet this Trans-Am is not comparable to that of those Gundam with the original solar furnaces. There must be some effect on the pilot or some performance limitations and prevented Billy from implementing that to all A-LAWs MS units. I shall look forward to more interesting lines and action from Mr. Bushido during his clash with Setsuna in the next episode (by the way, Setsuna looked really bad.. Wonder how he did to get out of this mess)~
The ED. No more "ごろごろいたい"! Ito Yuna's song was a little upbeat for the footage, which showed all 4 Gundams in ruins. I love how this ED links with the previous ED and the current OP, with the overall theme of "having a proper ending and Meisters abandoning their Gundams and going their own ways" feel. It was also nice to see a continuation of the stills in ED1; Saji bringing Lousie to his side, Tieria shooting the mirror and turning his back to shoot the Innovators, Alle getting closer to Marie (*yawn*) and revealing the identity of the mysterious figure behind the white sheets with Lyle (Anew!!). The ED also the scenes of discarded CB uniforms (My mind kinda went into the gutter when I saw Lyle's and Anew's outfit together. LOL), implying that CB's aims are all reached? Of course, we had little Setsuna smiling at the end which gave us a rather sweet but sad picture (Does that Setsuna has a happy ending, or that he could finally smile after he meet his death?).

Screencaps!~
(1) Ranma-style hand gestures! XXD
(2) & (3) Setsuna meets Setsuna in his dreams
(4) Even Neil appeared in Setsuna's dreams
(5) Wow.. Am I watching the wrong show or something? Oh.. Pretty!~ LOL
(6), (7) & (10) Marina caring for injured Setsuna <-- Smells of Lacus caring for injured Kira?
(8) LOL.. Those kids XD
(9) I just couldn't resist this cute screenshot of Lockon with our orange Haro =D
(11) Marie in her A-LAWS suit! We're just so close to watching her in battle...
(12) & (13) Masurao & Trans-Am mode!
(14) Setsuna looks dead exhausted here.. Will he be ready for a clash with our Bushido?

I couldn't recall much about next episode's preview but judging from the title "悲劇への序章" (which loosely meant "Prologue to Tragedy"), expect great action from Federation's end.

Random rants on Ep 14 of Gundam 00 S2: 歌が聞こえる (Spoilers!)

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 10:54:41 GMT

Quite an awesome episode, rather worth 1 weeks' worth of waiting. The most hilarious scene ever:

Okay.. These 2 screenshots didn't do the scene justice, so read on if interested (point 5).

The new OP. I listened to it once before today and my impression of the song didn't really changed much. A poppy-tune, not very eye-catching, and in my opinion, doesn't really fit the Gundam theme (hopefully that will change once I find the lyrics). What saved was the video itself. Interesting stuffs they have (except the nekkid women, and I was quite surprised to see Anew included actually).
The background of all 4 meisters were shown in the OP. I was especially interested in Tieria's; his is a mix of Innovators messing up his mind (esp Ribbons) and his struggle, all happening within Veda. Oh yeah, I'm wondering why he was he nekkid too. Perhaps that's to satisify all the fangirls who are wondering about his gender.
The last OP scene on the 4 Meisters going their separate ways seemed so sad~ But if they have really achieved CB's aims then it's not a bad thing after all... Unless they decide to live together (and therefore generate more fangirl interest lol)
Ptolemaios 2 faced attack from Innovators after their successful "Destroy Memento Mori" operation. Setsuna's not back yet, and while at it, he met Nena, who was one happy girl to see Setsuna maturing to her taste XD.
Nena passed him Ptolemaios 2's bearings after Ptolemaios 2 landed on Earth after being chased by enemy forces at the meeting point. Setsuna promptly left Nena on her own upon data receipt.. LOL. Setsuna can be really straightforward when it comes to people he likes and doesn't. That prompted Nena to whack purple Haro when Haro gave its opinion in this D:
Back at Ptolemaios 2, Ian, MIA and still worried about 0 Rizer, woke up from recovery and made his way out of the room. Outside, he was greeted by a spectular view of a mountain range.. Wait, moutain range, you say?? Ian's right eye twiched.. "What the heck is this?!?!?!?!?!?!?!" wailed Ian. XXD A nice funny scene amidst all the seriousness. Nice background music they had in creating that atmosphere :)
On the other hand, Lyle was making a phone call (probably to Kathron) when Anew caught him. She questioned him, but he assured that he's not the one who leaked information which resulted in that A-LAWs attack. Hmmm... Now I'm starting that Anew may not be a spy to Innovators after all, or that she's trying to find a scapegoat to divert any attention away from herself??
In addition, Lyle revealed his real name to Anew. In return, Anew asked him to call her by her first name... Do I sense some good vibes?
Oh no, our greatest fear has come true.. Marina started singing, along with the kids! I love Shirin's comments on that (roughly translated to "Fancy still be able to sing under these circumstances..."), I totally agree with her.
Setsuna entered Earth and continued searching for Ptolemaios 2. That was interrupted by the appearance of Ali's unit, which Setsuna followed without a second thought.. At least inform Ptolemaios 2 before that?? Hmm.. Isn't that dangerous? That might be a trap you know.. You can't simply follow guys who were obviously not making any effort to hide their whereabouts. (esp if it's Hamu-sensei XD. Wait, Setsuna's of age already..)
Oooh, Ali leading Setsuna to... Krugis?!? There, Ali introduced Setsuna to Innovator Ribbons, who revealed the shocking revelation that he's actually the one who piloted 0 Gundam and saved Setsuna 11 years ago and that he was also the one who messed up with Veda and recommended Setsuna to become a Meister. Not too shocking, considering the fact that this has been mentioned many many times among fans and it seems rather probable too. (Ribbons actually looked quite kind here (Rather manly too; I'll prefer him wear this suit than that boob window outfit anytime). Notice that his eyes were glowing. Hmm. Present Tieria = Ribbon in terms of purpose in CB?)
But come to think of it, I wonder how old is Ribbons? LOL. Did he actually plan to save Setsuna so that Setsuna would return him the favour now by giving up his Double 0 to Ribbons?!? I bet that Ribbons didn't expect that the boy he saved became a Gundam-baka because of him XD. Also, what made Ribbons quit being a Meister? It's not like he died or got seriously impaired or something. How did he manage to quit?
What exactly was the Earth Federation hiding that got Kathron concerned.. Heard something about ~~"Kuu data"~~ coup d'etat (クーデター) (Thanks to trinfortune & yashiko!! EDIT: Just re-watched S1 Ep 12 which mentioned coup d'etat 5 times and I really blamed myself for not listening properly to the actual anime D: ) which could be found in the Middle East??
Lyle informed Sumeragi that 2 MS suits were heading their way and Sumeragi ordered Alle and Tieria to launch. Once again, Anew thought of the possibility of a spy in Ptolemaios 2. I think that might be herself, without her know anything.. Some sort of transmitting signal to the Innovators without realising?
Lol.. Alle actually had longer lines this time.. Also, he expressed his displeasure at Sumeragi for getting Marie involved in fighting. Awww.. How sweet of him to be protective. Well, I guess then Marie is destined to be the lunch lady of Ptolemaios 2!
That Setsuna x Ali battle was really great! Surprisingly, Setsuna could fend of Ali's attack after sustaining a bulletshot from Ali in the right arm. (Though Setsuna's eye-rolling got be kinda worried...)
Wow at Bring x Tieria. I was quite surprised that Bring wants Tieria to return to their side.. Must be some sort of "love for the same species" on Bring's side. Seravee caught hold of Garazzo while "giving brith" to Seraphim (backback Gundam... so now we see why there's a head behind the unit, in addition to all the extra limbs growing out of Seravee's joints). Whoa. That's kinda scary.
Anyway, Trans-Am Seraphim penetrated Garazzo's GN field and using the arm-turned-cannon, Tieria delivered his last line to Bring, 「違う、僕が人間だぁ！」 (= You're wrong; I'm a human!!), before finishing Bring off. Awww.. Glad to see Tieria making up his mind.. Hopefully the Innovators won't haunt him and mess up this mind. However, that line kinda gave me a sense of a deathflag.. Hope that my instincts are wrong! :~( . Oh, RIP Bring. Quite a strong and kickass personallity, a pity that he got overshadowed by other Innovators :(
OMG.. Trust Marina to kill the mood. Setsuna was THIS close to finishing Ali off!!! This is the second time that he got distracted by Marina!! Grrrrrrrrrr. Though a nice-sounding tune, this is totally not the time for this crap!! If I were Shirin, I'll jump off the plane and go strangle Marina until she couldn't sing (similar to breaking an irritating alarm clock into pieces)! LOL. Besides, did she just reveal Kathron secret base's location to the whole world?
Seriously, it may be good for Setsuna (especially) and the Meisters to wear something to protect them against hearing weird stuffs when 00 Gundam activates Trans-Am (like the stuff that Soma wore to protect against Alle last time)...
NOooOoo!!! That song's not the official ED 2 right? Please tell me that it's not!! I'll go crazy like Tieria in the OP if I hear that every time G00 S2 ends!!!! (Edit: It's not, thank goodness. ED 2 will be sung by Ito Yuna.. Hmmm.. I take it as a ballad?)
Seems like Lousie's gonna pilot a Mobile Armor similar to Empress that Divine piloted in the near future. For a moment, I thought the guy talking to him was Bring (who somehow got his hair cut after the battle with Tieria).. LOL. Silly me. That must be Divine, Bring's twin. Anyway, while that I'm aware that Lousie is one of the financial sponsors of A-LAWs, I still will not give her such a unit since "she's merely a human being". What is Ribbons thinking of? I would give it to an Innovator if I were him..
And finally, Mr. Bushido's custom Ahead unit is ready!!! Looks like there'll be a hidden ability that Prof. Eifman previously wrote about and Billy improvised and installed.. Interesting. Guess that might be something that exploits a weak point of CB's MS or Ptolemaios 2. Or else Billy wouldn't have still kept a photo of him and Kujou till now and took it out to tear it into pieces as a way to bid her goodbye.. LOLol
(Nice Traditional sword you have, Mr. Bushido LOL)
Kujou's really cute and young in the photo, eh?

Episode 15 Preview:
- ~~Setsuna runs into Marina's welcoming arms~~ Apparently, Setsuna's injury and that song brought him to Marina.

- Did I see Wang and Ribbons together? I think Ribbons should be smart enough to realise that Wang won't let him off that easily for that bitch-slap in Ep 12...
- Hmmm.. No major battles in Ep 15 I guess? I wonder if Setsuna would reveal his relationship to Ribbons to the CB crew when he's back at Ptolemaios 2 by the way... (But seems like he's not returning that soon.)

Random rants on Ep 13 of Gundam 00 S2 (Spoilers!)

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 09:00:39 GMT

Hero of the Episode (from 4chan):

Action-packed episode that can almost make up for the lack of interesting things to watch for the past few episodes (and the sparkly moment from Ep 11..)!! Thank goodness that Memento Mori is destroyed! Awesome!!!! Banzai to Lyle Lockon, Setsuna, Tieria and Nena!~

Katharon's space fleet were almost wiped out by Memento Mori and A-LAWs fleets.. At least some of them remained to provide info on Memento Mori to CB (Wang too).. They had served their purpose here... Seriously, it's hard for Karathon, whose MS suits are rather outdated to match against A-LAWs latest MS equipped with the lastest technology.
We see Hilling Care going against Double 0 here.. I thought Ribbons sent Divine and the others too?
In any case, Setsuna managed to be equally matched against Care ~~without Raiser~~ with Raiser (but at least not using any Trans-Am)! That meant 1) either Setsuna's piloting and combat skills had improved since he battled with Divine, 2) or Care is just a boastful kid who wasn't as strong and the other older Innovators. Great job, Setsuna!
When Sumeragi asked Marie for a favor, I thought she'll ask her to pilot GN-Archer. *sigh* That didn't happen. Well, I guess that it's too early for Archer's debut (What new stuffs can they show us by the end of the season otherwise?)
Great strategy by Sumeragi to use Ario's Trans-Am to boost Ptolemaios 2's speed and also to help it avoid getting hit by the Deathly Beam (plus a bit of luck).. It's kinda sad that Alle didn't get to play a very major role in recent episodes by the way.. By the way, where did the shield bits originate from? <-- Cherudim! That's such a cool feature. I bet that will annoy the enemy like what Fangs do. I wonder if these shield bits could only be used during Trans-Am mode.
I initially thought that Tieria would blast the whole weak point of Memento Mori off, but I was to naive to think that the relatively small beam that Bazooka (?) emitted would make major damage. If that was the case, Cherudim wouldn't have to be behind Seravee. Lyle's presence shouldn't be just for fun.
Now Lyle has the honor of being the man who's responsible for Memento Mori's destruction and also death of Lindt Choco (Yipee! Banzai!!)! I absolutely loved all the support the Ptolemaios 2's crew gave, especially Tieria ("Lockon" <-- that's the first time ever that Tieria called Lyle Lockon! I take it that Tieria finally acknowledge Lyle as a part of CB) and Feldt ("Lyle" <-- First time heard that coming from her mouth too).
Care almost got Setsuna for a moment, but Nena came to Setsuna's rescue once again! (^^V). Then Setsuna seized the opportunity by cutting a piece off Care's Gadessa.. Yes! Love to see Nena helping out and betraying her Mistressss ^^ Setsuna, though, noticed that the beam was red.. I wonder if he'll ever know the pilot's identity...
Katharon and Marina made an appearance but were not of much importance. Marina.......
Hmmm.. Who's that Sergei's old-time friend?

Gundam 00 S2 will be on a break for a week before Ep 14 resumes.. According to Newtype Dec 08, apparently it's a G00 special, but I wonder what exactly is that.. And what's the title for Ep 14 again.. Streaming skipped a little on me there, but I could hear something about ~~"Uta no koe ga kikoeru"~~ "Uta ga Kikoeru" (Something about hearing someone singing!?!)? :S

Random rants on Ep 12 of Gundam 00 S2 (Spoilers!)

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 09:02:13 GMT

A rough highlight of the episode, lol (taken from somewhere in 4chan imageboard):

Streaming was a little laggy, especially towards the end of the episode (it just happened to stop working just before Alle activates his Trans-am -_-). I find the first half more engaging than the second half, with all the action, fighting and pants-shitting.

Raiser seemed to prolong Double 0's Trans-am usage period and makes it more stable.. Thanks to this, Setsuna was able to beat Bring and Revive (if not, I wonder what will really happen...). Thankfully, Bring and Revive were able to survive by purging themselves from Garazzo and Gadessa (it's too early for them to die without any plot and character development). Now, I'm really looking forward to how Bushido's new unit and Raiser x Double 0 match up. Hopefully it won't be a one-sided fight again.
It's a good thing that Setsuna was able to hear what the Innovators involved were saying in the battlefield.. Innovators can't hide from him in that way~
I LOL-ed when Saji was unable to pilot 0 Raiser.. That obviously showed that it was Red Haro that was doing all the manuevers in Ep 11.
Lousie realised that Saji was in CB and she reached a conclusion that Saji was all along with CB while they were together.. That's such a huge misunderstanding.. That's so sad, but she got too emotional to the extent of being irrational. If Saji was from CB all along, where did he find the time to do part-time, and why would he want to kill Lousie's family members? What good will it do to him to have a girlfriend when he has to be constantly away for missions?
Not surprisingly, the Innovators were all pretty shaken by the Raiser x Double 0's new performance, especially Ribbons, who bitch-slapped Wang (who was trying to comfort Ribbons in vain).. LOL to that. That's what you get for working with folks with despise the human race, Wang!! Now I really hope that Wang would feed CB with all info on Innovators in a fit.
On the other hand, Regene looked rather pleased with Ribbons slapping Wang or because Ribbons didn't listening to his concern regarding the origin of Twin Drive concept (??). That made me rather pleased too. Perhaps Regene should overthrow Ribbons and take over his position (and couch)!
Second half of the episode was mildly interesting. At least we received news that both Ian and Linda were both safe and alive.
Lousie getting angry with Saji joining CB and not wanting to quite A-LAWs, much to Andrei's disagreement (it's none of your business, boy)
Saji getting all angsy and emo and punched Setsuna who tried to persude him to continue fighting (Haha.. Setsuna tried too hard to push his ideas to others). Lyle giving Setsuna advice to tell Saji in a more straightforward manner... From what Setsuna said, he seemed to be somewhat influenced by Lyle's idea of fighting for the future (what about carrying Neil's ideals?).
Saji tried to run away from CB to join Lousie by hijacking GN-Raiser!! Idiot! How could you not care about CB's future and run away with their most precious weapon and literally hand it over to A-LAWS? Luckily, Tieria saved the day and reminded Saji of his sins he commited when he did the same thing last time at Kataron's base. Phew. Man, I can really strangle him if he repeated the same mistake...
Kataron was making moves to proceed with the plan to destroy Memento Mori, while Marina remains as a useless character.
Another function of Memento Mori was revealed: it can also target anything on space, for example, Kataron fleets which were on their way to destroy Memento Mori. Ptolemaios 2 crew all saw it, Lyle mentioned that Memento Mori just destroyed Kataron's fleets. I guess how did Lyle know about Kataron's action requires some explaination to his CB crew...
Ohhh at Lousie deleting all photos of her and Saji.. Looks like she had decided to destroy CB all together along with Saji. I wonder what will Saji will do in response to that.. Try to talk to her in that sparkling phenomeon???

Next episode: Looking forward to more action and also hoping that CB works together with Kataron :)

Random rants on Ep 11 of Gundam 00 S2 (Spoilers!)

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 08:30:55 GMT

OMG!! Epic episode! It's so much better than the last 2 episodes! More fighting and drama!

More on Marina babysitting the kids.. This time entertaining the kids with music. This is getting old.. But I really LOL-ed when Conan said he wishes to eat more XD
Why did Nena still seem so happy with the Innovators when she got beaten by some guy who was hired by Innovators?
Kataron found out the Seel and their regional leader was wiped out by the Deathly Beam (Wow.. I wonder how did they manage to get this news anyway). Terrible news for Kataron.. and Klaus. I wonder what will happen to Klaus and co. next with the Federation dominating Middle East and keeping opposition under control
The last episode left us with a bathing Tieria and Halle.. Now with G00 reaching Trans-Am operation time limit, Tieria and Marie returned to normal, and so did Alle.. Aww. That's such a disappointment.. The previews and scenes after ED can really be deceiving, eh?
Sumeragi x Lasse scene left me worried for Lasse.. He's really a side-character with good potential. Not much is still know about him, doesn't have emo-attacks nor have issues with other crew members... I know that he should had been dead back during S1, but please don't take him away.. By the way, why did they suddenly mention about this matter? Lasse did not appear to suffer from health problems in the past episodes (in fact, he always give us an impression that he's strong and healthy.)
Tieria revealed the mastermind behind A-LAWS, the Innovators, to all of Ptolemaios 2 crew. Glad to see him make his decision! He wanted to reveal his relationship with Innovators when he was "stopped" by Sumeragi, saying, "You're one of us.". Aww.. how sweet. Sumeragi probably had some idea, but she's supportive of Tieria. That's encouraging! Hope Tieria won't regret this decision.
Unable to contact CB, Kataron still decided to attack A-LAW's Memento Mori all by themselves?!? I think Klaus should think twice... Kataron got a little weaker after Federation's control over Middle East and death of a Branch Head.. Shouldn't they reorganize before planning future attacks?
Ohhh.. Seems like Nena has second thoughts to her alligence to Wang after she found out that Wang is cooperating with the fellas who caused his brothers' death.. That's interesting. Will she tip CB off or something??
LOL.. Seems like Lyle got interested in our Anew. Will Anew use this to her advantage to get collect more information? LOL. I wonder what he'll do if he finds out about Anew's true identity. Anyway, Anew will join Ptolemaios 2 as a bridge bunny after Ian's recommendation.
Did Revive find out Ptolemaios 2's location after trying to connect with Anew using quantum waves? Her eyes didn't glow like Revival's though. Or was it Tieria (without him knowing)?
Kati got news of Ptolemaios 2's location and launched attack. Kati really came up dominating the whole situation here, since they caught CB off-guard... But Kati did seem kinda evil and twisted here, wanting to teach Kujou the right way of ending a fight for sure.
Everywhere in Lagrange 3 we saw explosions (= deaths D:) and CB members escaping. In any case, their base in Lagrange 3's totally destroyed.. Does CB have other hideouts? By the way, I didn't know that CB's that big.. I thought that it would be about 40 people or less?
Saji, in a twist of fate, piloted 00 Raiser and sent it to Setsuna (Great manuveres.. That must be Red Haro's doing; Saji was even unaware that docking was completed! XD). There, Setsuna happily flew about in his enhanced unit (making Saji see stars) and activated Trans-Am during his battle with Bring and some sort of sparkling phenemon got activated. We could see Nekkid Setsuna, Saji and Lousie.... Is this a must in Gundam series? That's not absolutely necessary for them to be nekkid, you know...
Anyway, Saji and Lousie finally got to meet in space, but only to find out that they belong to opposite fractions and they sounded disgusted with each other. I guess nothing much happened after that since they got to retreat at a later time (according to Ep 12 preview). I guess they'll get to rant and mourn more in Ep 12.

Something puzzling...
Ep 10:

Ep 11:

I guess high GN particle concentration turns Tieria into woman (minus the sexy figure)! LOL

Ep 12 Preview:

Ribbons shitted his pants and he just can't hide it. What made him shit his pants?? Hmmm..

What's that on Setsuna's face? Jam? Scratch marks? Hmmm... (Maybe it's something minor again, like what Sunrise has been doing to recent episodes.

All and all, I can't wait to see how this whole battle turns out in the next episode. ~~Until I get to catch the RAWs at a later time, I can't write more about other stuffs I heard from other fans (Halle disappearing and Revive in a bad shape or something)~~.. Thank goodness I see nothing that tells me that Revive is in mortal danger.. I think it's too early to be killing off an Innovator, especially someone I quite like (after Regene! and Bring too).

Random rants on Ep 10 of Gundam 00 S2 (Spoilers!)

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:13:07 GMT

Updated late as I couldn't watch it first-hand due to JLPT and friends.

First scene: Pretty interesting to heard Kati speak in a femine and casual manner. Kinda makes people wonder what kind of person Kati is like outside the battlefield?
Sumeragi seemed really bothered that she's fighting against Kati. Will that affect her performance as an analyst?
I'm still disappointed with Marina as she has yet decided to do anything regarding Federation's plans on Middle East. Although her view seemed reasonable, can't she feel that she can try resisting this change by joining the fight? I don't necessarily mean a physical combat here, but the current situation calls for any action!!
Whaaat's with that new A-LAWS MS??! It totally kicked ass! Crazy speed, mobility, ability to utilize GN-field and powerful beams that overpowered Setsuna and Double 0 easily. If not for Lyle (his "Setsuna, are you okay?" reminded me of Neil T_T), Setsuna might be gone or something. Dor a moment, I thought it was ~~Graham~~ Mr. Bushido, but the pilot's not wearing a mask and he looked different (although still kinda cool) from Hamu. Who can that be? It couldn't be Lindt, right? LOL (Or was it Bring? <-- Yeah, the red-hair guy)
Tieria's still lost as to who to stand for... Can't blame him *awww*
OMG, what exactly was that operation that Uncle Goodman is directly taking command of? Is that a satellite or some sort of a HQ? That must be something pivotal... <-- Memento Mori, and an awfully destructive weapon indeed
Linda's seemed so much younger than Ian that Alle "joked" that this is a "crime". LOL. His tone sounded awfully similar to a particular person back in Ep 4. Ian's totally offended.. That couldn't be helped.. LOL
OMG! Our red ranger's so pretty (then again, is there ever any characters with crazy hair colours not beautiful?)!! From her voice, we can safely assume that this is a confirmed female character. Obviously, judging from her out-of-the-world name, "recommendation" from Wang, light purple hair, perfect looks (okay, I'm getting out of point), this character is most probably an Innovators spy. That Wang, that's so fast of her to let Innovators infilitrate CB all the way back during their reorganization.
Anyway, Ian was praising Anew to the skies.. It really sounded (1) as if he's interested in her (LOL), or (2) like it's the intro to arranged matching meeting XD
0 Raiser and GN-Archer.. Nothing for Tieria and Lyle? :(
Memento Mori.. That sounds like a innovative restaurant dish or a new techno gadget.. LOL! I'm really facinated by how Innovators come up with names XD
I think Patrick is already done with.. Before his debut in S2, everyone's really anticipating. Had a great enterance, but now he got abandoned by Kati. LOL. Actually, I found him quite irritating in the episode, appearing at the whole timing.
OMG! Wang even betrayed Nena and as a result, Ali appeared in front of Nena!! What does he want? (Totally unrelated here, he's really a cool baddie here). Seemed like Ribbons sent him there to check up on Wang. Will Wang be smart enough to find that out?
Double 0 seems crazy after equiped with 0 Raiser.. Wonder if Setsuna can fully utilize this power. Will he now able to beat Bring?
Crap!! A-Laws simply couldn't be bothered to contact Federations troops to stay away from Seel!! Sergei!! Please don't die (although a lot of fans had already foresee this)! At the very least, I was hoping to see him die in a more memorable way, and in a battlefield.
What's up with the shower scene. This is clearly a fanservice. This scene is unfit to be included in the episode! Told us nothing more about Tieria, except why the hell he bathes in long hair... Magic water lengthening his hair, eh?
Oooh.. I thought the attack on Seel was the highlight of this episode, never did I expect that the third personality of Alle (Halle? Yalle?) would surface. Apparently, it's triggered by the high release of GN particles during 0 Raiser testing. In any case, I'm really interested in what our new H/Yalle brings.. How he interacts with Marie and his piloting skills.
How will people view the attack of Seel by Memento Mori? Even if their government is opposing the Federation, it does not justify the total destruction of the whole country with all the innocent citizens. Besides, having a remote Deadly Beam which is able to target anywhere on Earth, does Federation intend to dominate all by maximizing people's fear?
Next Ep Preview: Judging from the preview and the title, it seems to be focused on Double 0. Hopefully not a one-sided show. I'm hoping to see more action from Bring and Bushido with his new custom MS!

Random rants on Ep 9 of Gundam 00 S2 (Spoilers!)

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 16:38:46 GMT

Didn't really expect too much from this episode yet again, but I was really glad to see some action after an episode of character development.

From Ep 8, we finally got some fighting action between Ali, Setsuna and Tieria. "Ikeyo FANGU!" Ali totally stole Michael's lines. At least we know that Neil did do some damage onto Ali by burning half of his body... Sadly, that didn't affect our Ali much since he could regenerate.
Tieria seemed more emotional (probably due to the previous episode regarding his internal struggle) and also showed some angst against Ali, the man who took Neil's life away. Loved to see this change, but that was just too sad for a Neil fan like me T_T
Ali truly kicked some ass during the battle against Setsuna and Tieria. Not only he was able to dodge Tieria's hidden arm attack (or was that due to Tieria being too emotional?), he could even take on both at the same time and did some damage.. He's a scary one especially when he's given a equally-matched Gundam...
So Ribbons had planned to anger Tieria to further aggregate CB in order to garner support for A-LAWS. At the same time, he seemed that he's just using Tieria as a tool, and definately doesn't want him to join the Innovators. The few impressions that scene gave me were (1) It really felt weird that Hilling Care was speaking like a female speaker (opposed to normal boys of his age), (2) judging from the interaction between Hilling and Ribbons, they sounded close (siblings?), and that kinda disguested me. I never really see Ribbons favouring anyone else except Care so far, are they really siblings (similar DNA make-up) or something? and (3) most importantly, Regene really gave a deep thought regarding the origin of Twin Drive concept and he might be the one who could give us the truth regarding Aeolia's aim...
Wang hasn't changed one bit... Will resort to all means and ways to make the world change. I'm getting sick of her.. Get her out of my face!!
Freaky to find out that Andrei actually went to check Lousie's background... He finds her cute in dress.. LOL. Wonder if he's still interested in her? Frankly speaking, I don't really care about both of them.
I was actually surprised to hear Lyle wanting to find out more about his brother's rival. I thought that Setsuna's notification during Ep 1 was sufficient to him. His interest in the details improved my impression of him :)
Tieria actually referred Neil as Lockon in front of Lyle --> He doesn't acknowledge Lyle as Lockon???
Alle is officially physically inseparable from Marie.. LOL
Although I don't really like Revive, I loved the allience he formed with Kati against Lindt. LOL!! Although Revive has a LICENSE, he promised to follow's Kati's strategy! How sweet! I wonder if Ribbons had asked him to do so.. By the way, LICENSE is really a hot thing, eh? A-LAWS does loves to hand out such licenses around...
After listened to the details, Lyle actually laughed, saying that that's so like his brother to avenge for his family. He didn't sound mocking but seemed accepting of that fact --> ++
We finally got to see differences between Neil and Lyle. Neil: Living in the Past; Lyle: Lived for the Future. Can't really make comparisons, but they're both great in their unique ways.
I was really surprised that Setsuna jumped in to admit his past to Lyle. He actually revealed that he was actually more involved in the terror bombing that killed Lyle's & Neil's family, rather than merely belonging to the terror group. I'm at a loss for words, but I gained more respect for him.
Finally we find out that Mr. Bushido is really Graham! Wow!! Seriously, that conversation made me wonder who came up with that Bushido name... and also, who gave him such an awful outfit anyway?!? Just like the usual Graham, Mr. Bushido asked for the prototype unit and a powerful performance.. and as usual, Billy granted his wish. Now let's look forward for a fierce fight between CB (or Double 0) and Mr. Bushido! (I wonder who kicks more ass, Ali or Graham)
In the end, Tieria wasn't able to tell Setsuna about the Innovators'. Hearing all the echoings in his head was really freaky.. That would drive me crazy! Which side will he choose in the end?
Sumeragi churned out yet another crazy strategy: Exit atmosphere using Ptolemaios 2 Trans-am activated by MS's Trans-am mode!! Nice twist, but our Kati's not done yet (although her Patrick was taken down again.. LOL)
Kati counters by getting Gadessa to change Ptolemaios 2's course and planting suits to strike when Trans-am got past the operational time limit and GM field couldn't operate. Cool move!
Sumeragi wasn't surprised by the retaliation and fought back with the arrival of Double 0, which was launched soon after the atmosphere exit (how Setsuna did that without A-LAWs' detection, I have absolutely no idea)
After the destruction of A-LAW's mothership, Kati had sent Sumeragi a message and Sumeragi was completely shaken that Kati, someone she knew from her university days, was actually the commanding captain of A-LAWs unit. I guess Kati's involvement in the eventual death of Emlio really shook her. Hopefully, that won't affect adversely on her future performances...
Linda? Somehow, I got the impression that she's Ian's wife who was also involved in the making of Double 0. Hmmm.

Interesting episode caps

LOL to rolling Haro. We just found it cute, but it actually gave us clues on what Cherudim's and other MS roles in this operation that I didn't think of.

I must say that Revive is the only character in the whole show that looks smashing and manly in his pliot suit (all thanks to the absence of the view of his purple hair and Innovators' outfit) [Note: Patrick looked rather cool too]

I hope we're only seeing part of Gadessa's powers... I'm expecting more out of this unit

Young Sumeragi reminded me of Nena and young Kati's rather mesmerizing... Young Billy's erm... ...

Our Ribbons' finally off da Red Couch, and Regene and Care could finally rest their feet. Now, where could Ribbons be?

Ep 10 Preview screencaps

Who's this Red Ranger? Purple hair.. Innovators spy to watch over Tieria and CB?

So Linda's really Ian's wife (with grandma's glasses).. Hmmm. Ian's pretty good with women, eh? By the way, women really get to choose fancy colours for their CB uniform...

Wow, another fangirl scream-inducing shot.. Hmmm.. Wonder how this links to the main story...

More Serious Random rants on Ep 8 of Gundam 00 S2 (Spoilers!)

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 07:33:53 GMT

Finally my exam has ended and after some "partying", I can now start to comment on Ep 8 in a more neutral manner.

Okay, I was a little too harsh to say that this episode is just an eye-candy and full of fan-service. Certain aspects did contribute to the main plot and story development.

Finally we get a glimpse of Aeolia's actual plan for humanity. Personally, I'm not too shocked by that. I'm just puzzled why Regene's so eager to get Tieria to join their side. Where does he get the confidence that Tieria will definitely abandon CB and join the Dark Side? The same DNA? The fact that Tieria seems rather objective-oriented? Does Regene not have access to Tieria's mind that enables him to peek into his past and see the extent of Neil's influence on Tieria for himself?
Our Ribbons seemed to be rather pissed with Regene's action to recruit Tieria. Hmm.. I wonder if that will screw up any of his plans.
Our Alle & Marie kinda admitted to Mileina that they're couples. For me, I'm still taken aback with the speed at they're progressing.. Whatever they want to do, I seriously don't care. However, I kinda predict that something drastic will happen to Marie such that the third split personality of Alle will surface.. Yess to Halle (or Yalle or whoever)! I'm sick of seeing Alle in the current state.. He could just buck up and become a better pilot, since now he's got Marie.
Minimal development on Lyle's part. Let's hope we get to see more of him in the coming episodes...
The main plot: Tieria struggles on the path he should take. Just when he was pondering, he heard and saw Neil's ghost appearing before him and giving him advice. I love this part the most, and I think this is one of the main themes of the story, Destiny vs. Desire. We could really see Tieria having a hard time thinking that over, and also him recalling some memories of the past. Sunrise actually need not show Neil's face and signature pose (Damn you, Sunrise T_T), the voice and what it was saying would suffice to let viewers know who that voice belongs to. Perhaps showing Neil's image would make a greater impact on the viewers and on Tieria per se.
I didn't really expect Feldt to react adversely to Marie's presence in the ship. From her reaction to Lyle the first time he entered the crew and how she stalled him before the Kiss, we could kinda tell that Feldt hasn't really gotten over Neil's death. If I were her, I would too, vent some frustrations on Marie too, just because Marie's part of the team involved in Operation Fallen Angel 4 years ago which was responsible for many of her dear teammate's death. Now we hear the word "family" coming out from her own mouth --> Deathflagged? :S I hope not, since she's the only level-head female bridge bunny around... I'll kill myself if I'm stuck with listening to Mileina all the time with her "desu~"
On the other side, Louie requested to take over Soma's custom Ahead. Come on, what makes you think you can utilize a custom until meant for Super Soldiers? Can't you just take revenge by using your own unit (hint: Graham)? Stupid Lindt for interfering with matters, giving Lousie the unit (is he trying to butter up to Lousie, sensing that she has some sort of special privileges, or is he just wants to go against Katie?)
Ohhh... How will Revive fare in A-LAWS? Will his enemy be Tieria?
Patrick is finally here to provide some comic relief! LOL.. Seeing him laughing at himself at his "friend's" comments.. It's so funny and cute at the same time.. I wonder if he'll really contribute greatly to A-LAWS efforts...
Regarding the situation in Azadistan, seems like most people may not have objections, except for a couple, Kataron and our Princess Marina. Right now, she's still not doing much but still mourning. I really hope that she contribute more to the story development instead of just appearing every now and then for fun.
In order to lure Tieria, Regene leaks A-LAWS party information to Wang, and asked her to pass the info to CB.
Without any thought, Tieria jumped into the mission and Sumeragi has some interesting plans of her own. I bet she'll die to join the party herself, but there's no way she can go when Ptolemaios 2 was still in danger of being attacked by A-LAWS again. LOL. Getting a female to join a party is a great idea, but none of the female crew can be relieved of their duties and besides, Tieria's a rather good starting material to work on! LOL! So they dressed Tieria up and made him infiltrate the party.
That was really some bold decision and it's nice to see Tieria not fussing over it, since he only had eyes for Innovators' Boss. I don't know how he managed to do it, but Tieria's really blending well into the party crowd. Talking about hobbies (and cursing at those men at the same time LOL) and stuffs.
Then Ribbons entered and immediately recognized Tieria and asked her for a dance. Yes, dressing up as a female is a very good way to get close to the target without drawing any unnecessary suspicion. Ribbons then reveals that he could return Tieria's access rights to Veda. That caught Tieria's attention and drew him further in.
Then we caught the part where Lousie happened to see Setsuna and they had a chat. I hope Setsuna would have some idea that Lousie is somehow related to A-LAWS and relay that to Saji. Anyway, I was very surprised that Setsuna didn't confess to Lousie that he's a member of CB and Saji is currently helping them with their Gundam repairs! LOL. Setsuna's all sensitive and nice to Lousie, a whole of difference compared to back in S1 when Setsuna was all cold and Lousie was whining and screaming at Setsuna. Both of them had grown up in their own ways. The talk about Saji makes me wonder if there's any chance that these two can meet and patch things up outside the battlefield... but I guess that's quite unlikely. Oh well.
Out of nowhere, Lousie had a relapse and that caught the attention of Billy who was nearby. Upon approaching, he discovered Setsuna's presence and cried out loudly (that reminded me of how Setsuna declared his identity back when he was retrieving Sumeragi).. LOL. Let's hope that Setsuna learns his lesson. Going around declaring his identity like that makes missions very difficult, you know..
Back at the party venue, Tieria and Ribbons had entered a private room and Tieria started to question about Veda's access rights. That lead Tieria to realise that all the events leading to CB's downfall 4 years ago was all Ribbon's doing. Ribbons mentioned that CB's destruction 4 years ago was part of Aeolia's plan. Tieria then disagreed, after all they were the only ones who were entrusted with Gundams real GN drives and the Trans-Am system. He then echoed Neil's words and upon hearing that' Ribbons got really fed up, and proceeded to insult Neil, saying that Neil's such a foolish human.
Tieria then proceeded to take his guns from his garter belt (WHUT?!?) and tried to shoot Ribbons. Delicious way of showing off Tieria's nice thighs, Sunrise. Guess that's part of the Female Spy outfit.
His attack was stopped by a shot at disarming Tieria, courtesy of Innovators Healing Care, a green-hair, Nicol look-a-like. That left Tieria no choice but to escape through the 2-storey window. Great stuff, Tieria. I didn't know Tieria's so awesome at such missions. That's really beyond what an average human being can do (I guess that's also why Tieria's so well-suited for this job).
Setsuna and Tieria's rode on their Gundam and were escaping when they were blocked by Ali, who was also riding a Gundam, probably an improvement of Gundam Thrones. Cliffhanger!

Major impressions and thoughts

Like Regene, I have some doubts on Aeolia's plans. If he really planned on completely destroying CB, then why did he give them the Trans-Am system and the Twin Drive concept? Why should Ribbons make the Trinity siblings go rescue them when all 4 Gundam units could be captured? Well, one may argue that the capture of 4 Gundams wasn't enough to cause a total downfall of CB and they could also show the capabilities of the Throne units and their fake GN drives so that people can believe in their powers when Ribbons gave them the GN drives. But why give CB Trans-Ams to confer CB's Gundam a little more power?
In addition, if Aeolia really wished for total destruction of CB, then Veda could had chosen "weaker" people to become Meisters. That would make the downfall easier, but not that easy that they could be taken down after a couple of cross-fires.
I really wonder who's behind all these conflicting plans? Aeolia? Ribbons & Innovators? Some other unknown fractions?
From the next episode's preview, it seems like nothing major is gonna happen. Well, I kinda expected that. They can't possibly repeat too much awesomeness at one go anyway.

What I'm not too satisified about

Animation quality. Spotted recycled frames and unncessary butt shots (nice to see, but butts are not the focus, okay?!?). Too lazy to draw the character's expressions??
S2 seems more fan-servicing.. I recalled the boob-jiggling shot of Sumeragi in Ep 4, and of course, her butt shot. The scene of her wearing the XXS uniform was ok.. At least that was in contrast to Billy's hatred towards her. I hope future episodes does not over-induge in such scenes..

Random rants on Ep 8 of Gundam 00 S2 (Spoilers!)

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 09:02:01 GMT

Today is a wonderful day! Stream worked almost perfectly (as compared to the previous 2 episodes; I was so thankful for this.. I won't mind getting shitty streaming for Ep 6 & 7 in exchange for smooth streaming for this episode) and this episode is packed full of drama, crossdressing, appearances and some action!

I bet many minds had fallen to the gutter after watching this episode and I'm barely coping with this too!! XD
And.. This episode needs no long rants; the screencaps speak for themselves! I want my own screencaps...

Regene reveals all of Aeolia's plans to Tieria, to Ribbon's dismay
リジェネ　「君と僕はいつでも繋がっているから。」 (Roughly translated as, "That's because you and I are always bound by fate"). Yup, Regene has the ability to communicate with Tieria with brainwaves, similar to Marie --> Alle

Destiny vs. desire. Dear Neil appears to give Tieria advice... T_T

Her reaction to Marie's presence... and her talk about "family" --> deathflags??

Our Patrick has finally risen from the ashes and makes an appearance.. Am I the only one who finds him more cute than irritating now? Taisa!~

Revive was revealed as the pilot of Gadessa..

Wang, in cahoots with Regene, informs CB of an upcoming A-LAW's party. Tieria volunteered to investigate and Setsuna offered back-up.

Moar fanservice on Sunrise's side. After the sucess of CD Drama 1, they created this perfect disguise for Tieria in anime.. Even his voice is flawless (is that really him voicing the woman's voice?!?) XD Need I say more?

I don't see why Louise needs to appear in this party.. Except to allow Andrei to fantasize about... (Oh I guess that's the maid the Chibi Season 2 teaser was referring to...)

Princess meets her Prince... Prince invites Princess for a dance and...

... using access to Veda as a bait to lure Tieria into following him to somewhere private...

All under Regene's observation.

Spoke ill of Neil...

Incur Tieria's wrath (Wow, Tieria's really in full female spy gear~ Go T-chan!)

Alas, ~~evil Nicol~~ Hilling came and spoil the action, leaving T-chan no choice but to flee through the WINDOW IN HEELS.

Meanwhile,

Lousie escapes from the party and ~~was thinking of getting a cab when she~~ caught sight of someone familar...

Out of the blue, Lousie suffers from another relapse...

Billy happened to be nearby and approach the duo, only to realise he's seeing Setsuna and declares him a CB member in front of Lousie (that's what happens when you go around revealing confidential information, Setsuna!)

Setsuna fled too, leaving Lousie in Andrei's care... Here we saw Andrei with a disguested face upon seeing Lousie taking drugs. I guess Andrei prefers "natural" young ladies than designer babes and druggies)

~~Handsome Tieria~~ Fabulous-looking Regene overlooks everything and ponders.

Tieria's starting to sound like Setsuna.. Talking about twisted world and correcting this with Gundams, until...

Finally Ali appears! Expect some action in the next episode!

Phew, now I really gotta hit my books for it's exams tomorrow...

Edit: Okay, now that I had calmed down quite a bit, ~~I think this episode is certainly lacking some story development as compared to earlier episodes (too much fanservice perhaps?).~~ More neutral rants to come after my exams ends in 5 days' time, here.

Random rants on Ep 7 of Gundam 00 S2 (Spoilers!)

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 12:41:31 GMT

First impression: Hey, did I just watched a melodrama and not Gundam? Although it kinda feels sweet to see a happy tentative ending for Alle x Marie (too fast, too soon to me though), I just don't like to see this kind of love love drama in a Gundam series.

I thought Saji will shoot in the end, but Lasse steered Ptolemaios 2 away and missiles were fired that hit Lousie's and Andrei's unit. Andrei shielded Lousie and ordered her to retreat. Such a disappointment, Saji. It would be nice to see a Lousie x Saji confrontation without either of them knowing whom they're attacking, but I guess it's still too early into the story to go into this.
Setsuna nearly got owned by Mister Bushido... Serves him right for using Trans-am system, despite of Ian's warnings. He can't always depend on Trans-am whenever he got cornered (although he managed to take out an arm). This also showed that our Mister Bushido is really skilled and experienced and that might be the reason why he managed to obtain that special permit (I guess the high-ups expect him to take down Gundams using his own way, regardless of Mister Bushido's real purpose). Anyway, looking toward to seeing another GN-0000 x Bushido's Ahead clash!
I'm really glad that Sumeragi returned to take over the mess! I bet the mess that CB got into really got her worked up and she had to crawl and make her way out of her resting pod. And our Katie also managed to detect the presence of a working strategy... Sumeragi & Kati reminds me a little of Murrue x Talia of GSD.. I'll love to see 2 strong females working together. Wonder if this will happen here.
I had missed Soma-->Marie x Alle moments during the live stream, but I realized that I didn't really missed much when I managed to watch again at a later time (since I did catch some moments of Sergei's arrival in between the lagging stream). What fascinated me was how did Alle get his hands on a nice tent and other camping supplies... Anyway, I was surprised at how fast Soma managed to recover her memories of Marie and I got a little freaked out at her behaviour and speech style. These 2 people are being too gentle to each other and were profusely apologizing to each other for what they did in the past. Blah, blah, blah.
Then the best part of the show came: arrival of Sergei. LOL at Papa bear seeing his almost-to-be daughter with a guy. Well, Papa pointed his gun at Alle and ordered him to get away from his Soma. Both Alle and Sergei were protective towards Marie/Soma but Alle kinda promised that he will take good care of her and make her happy. With that, our Papa pretended to shoot Alle, declared Soma MIA and left in his unit. Was so sad to see Marie parting Sergei and Marie speaking for Soma, "私の中ソーマ・ピーリスがこう言ってます。「あなたの娘になりたかった」と。", and Sergei returning Marie's hug and wishing her all the best (love the insert song, though I'm not exactly a Tommy heavenly 6's fan). Awwww... *sniffs*. Sergei's even nice enough to direct Lyle their location. I'm really feeling for Sergei and still worries for his standing in Earth Federation and his relation with A-Laws, especially Lindt. Will they locate Soma's unit and suspect that she wouldn't had died under that situation? And what will happen to Alle and Sergei if they were to meet on the battlefield in the future? Will there be Soma x Alle conflicts in the future?
Saji said that he'll help CB when CB's helping Kataron... So what will he do after CB's job is done?
Something's bad happened to Azadistan.. It had something to do with Earth Federation but I couldn't understand the details.. But at least I heard something about Azadistan will cease to exist. Now what will happen to our First Princess?
It's obvious that Alle needs no love training from both Lockons to get the girls. I could understand the bond shared between Marie and Alle, but I didn't really expect their relationship to blossom THAT MUCH over a day...
Love the crew's reaction to Alle's companion onboard Arios, especially Lasse, Feldt and Mommy Sumeragi. They must be thinking that Alle was having fun with the local girls and somehow got one of them to come along... XD
Shocking twist at the end... Tieria x Regene encounter!!! This has to be the best part of this episode! Shocking revelation of sharing exact DNA and seeing Tieria's reaction... Now what's gonna happen?!?!
Next episode's preview: Countless speculations on the identity of the Tieria/Regene-lookalike woman. Looking forward to seeing Ribbon x Regene and Tieria action! Ohh!! Eye candies! Traps ahead!~

Screencaps (Mostly Ep 08 Preview, not much to share for Episode 7)

Tieria really looked scared and shocked to find out the existence of his clone and the Innovators...

Ribbons... He really has an unique taste in clothes, eh? Maybe he already existed during the appropriate period (which seems rather unlikely)?

"Don't think that we didn't know what you two did in the cockpit!" LOL.. Such a sweet couple.. However I think this is not going to last... And now that Alle manages to recover Marie, someone please replace him as a Meister!! Keep away from Arios before you screw it again!!

Whose unit can this be? Ribbons? Patrick?!?

Time for dinner... (Although I kinda lost my appetite after watching this episode.)

Random rants on Ep 6 of Gundam 00 S2 (Spoilers!)

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 10:28:13 GMT

This episode was quite disappointing... Fans didn't get what we expected. Everyone was hoping for some Ali-awesome-ness in this episode but it seemed like Setsuna and Marina left Azadistan and rejoined CB and Ali didn't do anything about that??? If I were Ali, I would love to shoot that shuttle down, especially if I were to know that Kurdish brat was on board.

In addition, the hand holding scene which was in the preview in Ep 5 wasn't Katie x Patrick's (I wasn't really expecting that anyway), but Kujou x Emilio's. I was expecting the episode to touch more on Sumeragi's past, but apparently that was what Sunrise wanted to give. Are we fans expecting too much or Sunrise simply failed to deliever to meet the minimum expectations?

At least there were survivors after A-LAWS attacked Kataron's secret base.. Our Shirin and Klaus are still alive and not injured (hmm?). There were some hostilities among the surviving Kataron members towards CB but at least Klaus didn't thought of it that way. I can't see a total fall out between CB and Kataron yet. Gene-1 aka Lockon remains in CB but vowed revenge against A-LAWS.
Tieria bitch-slap = YESss! (Actually I wished that Saji is punched instead.. Should call Lyle to help out. We all know that Lyle is capable of doing greater things XXD)
Sumeragi was looking the scene of a Kataron member mourning over the loss of his comrade onboard Ptolemaios 2 when she suddenly fainted and had to be kept in the recovery chamber, even during the battle between A-LAWS and CB. She was reminded of her past when she first met Emilio and what she did that led to Emilio's death. Initially, I thought that the dead Kataron member was a split image of Emilio.. but apparently, I thought too deep into this....
Hong Long = Wang Liu Mei's elder brother?!? Why didn't Hong Long rule over his sis?
Katie is almost certain that CB's tactical strategist is Kujou... What happens after this? Will Katie gain an upper hand with this info?
Poor Soma... seems like she still has some issues with regards to adoption.. Next week's episode preview just made this worse.. I think something bad's gonna happen between Soma and Sergei.
Lindt slaps Sergei for not cover his duty well (letting Saji escape)... Lindt's really a piece of sh*t. Katie should just give him hell if she has the authority to do so.
Sadly, I totally missed the Lousie x Soma x Andrei scene together. I think Andrei's brain just went down the gutter the moment his eyes set on Lousie.. Goodness.. I could almost hear him scream, "OHH! FINALLY I GET TO SEE SOME YOUNG GIRLS AROUND! Woohoo!". Another interesting point Soma pointed was that Lousie was in pain and has always been thinking about a particular person --> Saji? Just when I thought Lousie was brain-washed before joining A-LAWS, I guess I was wrong and she's not completely controlled by Innovators. Soma should quit A-LAWS and become a fortune teller or psychic.. LOL
At the battlefield, all Meisters kicked ass (especially Lyle, who had been suppressing his capabilities in CB before then), except for our dear Allelujah, who can't seemed to do anything well in the presence of Marie. Oh, come on, I want Halle back!! Alle is just too boring and soft here!
Another wimp, Saji, just pull the trigger and end everything!!! Saji is slowly becoming the most irritating character in this season.. and reminds me of other emo characters from Seed series. D:
The ending was a little of a cliffhanger, but I shouldn't expect so much again or else I might be disappointed again next week.
Preview: Soma and Alle stuck in a isolated island together (such a boring concept.. It's just like Athrun x Cagalli in Seed), but what the narrator said and the episode title seems gives a foreboding feeling.... 私はあなたの娘になりたかった (I wanted to be your daughter)... D:

2 interesting caps I'll like to share:

Soma decides to don something girly for a change.. but sadly she picks a pink cardigan and she's just not a match for T-chan XD

Moeria!! Tieria's getting prettier by the minute, even when he's angry and serious

Random rants on Ep 5 of Gundam 00 S2 (Spoilers!)

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 13:48:33 GMT

Argh.. Something's wrong with streaming today. Seemed that I wasn't the only one who had problems watching G00 over streaming. As a result, I had to wait for RAWs to appear on streaming sites. *sigh* In spite of that, another great episode! More on character development, some story development.

Introduction of a Innovator member: Revive Revival (Wassup with the naming, goodness!). A pretty character, voiced by another female seiyuu.. Hmmm.. Innovators are really an ambiguous bunch, eh?
Seemed like Kataron really adore CB (oOh Gundam~).. I was quite surprised by that. I also wonder why was Klaus so eager to cooperate with CB (Although Sumeragi didn't seem too keen on that), offering assistance in possible ways... Any ulterior motive?? Seemed like Klaus totally believed that CB will come to offer aid during A-LAWS' attack... Even though they both oppose A-LAWS, why did he had such strong faith in them?
Oh.. Seems like Marina's a well-loved symbol, although her country's condition is really bad? Won't that reflect badly on her since she's the First Princess who has the power to control the country's affairs?
MISTER BUSHIDO and his one-man army. I bet he got his permission from Commander Katagiri through Billy's help... Now that our BUSHIDO set his eyes on 00 Gundam, he's not going to let it go! (nor will he be interested in other Gundam units as seen from this episode.)
It's so sweet to see Soma showing her soft side when she was discussing the adoption matter with Sergei.. Awww.
Setsuna's suffering from mother-complex? At least that scene clearly shows that Setsuna doesn't see Marina as a romantic subject. Perhaps Setsuna ~~just wants a hug from Marina~~ is seeing Marina as someone whom he can return to (family-wise)
No one noticed that a particular Meister was missing in the scene which Setsuna told the other CB members that he wants to send Marina back to Azadistan? LOL at Tieria's attempt to crack a joke. Even Allelujah is puzzled at his character change XD
Saji... What can I say about this loser? Made some stupid excuse to a Kataron member who's too kind for his own good.. Attempted to run away but got caught by Earth Federation.. Spilling beans on where he was and what happened.. Sergei was kind enough to spare his life. Escaped successfully and realized that he was the one behind Kataron's base wipe-out. Spoilers says that he'll join CB but I first wonder how will both Kataron and CB react if they know he's the culprit behind this tragedy?
+ to Sergei! He's rational in not promoting violence (even though I think this time Saji deserved to get beaten) and not wanting to inform A-LAWS regarding this incident. He's really hates A-LAWS even though Soma and his son are in it, eh? ++ to Sergei Punch (although I "oppose" violence")! <3
Lousie makes an appearance but did nothing of importance. She did express her desire to face Gundam, but come on, you'll probably end up shaking and popping pills the moment you see them or something...
Boo to A-LAWS for using Automatons (they can't wait to kill all Kataron members)
Wang Liu Mei looked surprising pretty in that scene.. Was Nena in a mobile suit or the carrier "vehicle"?
Yeah, Allelujah is back to kicking ass! (Or was it because his opponents were just normal human beings and he would still sucked like in Ep 4 when dealing with Marie?) Hope he continues doing so.
Lyle snapped.. That's a hell of a scary scene. It's very obvious to say that he cares a lot for Kataron and is dead loyal to them. It's so obvious, will CB notice and question him? Now that Kataron's base is ruined, the time when Kataron members blame CB for the attack may come, and if that happens, where will Lyle stand? Continue to stay in CB to sap info for Kataron's benefit?
Soma's realization that her actions might be causing misfortune to others and the difference between A-LAWS and her own stand. It's possible that she'll have doubts in her own worth.. What will happen to her? Quit A-LAWS, accept Sergei's あの件 and be 幸せ? Join CB?
Ribbons x Ali --> Total evil!
Ali the destroyer! How can he simply destroy Azadistan like that?! Unforgivable! He has reached a new level of evil... Wonder if Marina do anything drastic?

I really start to wonder why that I had exhausted so many brain cells when watching G00; some other anime needs no thinking.. But I guess that's the charm of Gundam series.. ^^

Ramblings on Gundam 00 Season 2 Ep 4 (Spoilers!)

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 11:22:09 GMT

A little slow in flow due to some character interaction and character-centric development but the action towards the end summed the whole episode well :)

I was reading through some magazine articles on fan questions related to G00 in gundam00 and some questions were pertaining to Alle x Marie.. I didn't expect that part to appear that soon. Nonetheless, I was kinda taken aback by the close relationship Alle and Marie shared when they were in the facility. Wonder what happened to Alle/Halle to had caused him to react adversely to Soma's presence now?
Great slap by Feldt! The scene was shorter than I expected, but it leaves room for development in future episodes. Lyle's really loves to tease people, eh?
After watching the show again with subs, I start to realise that Lyle was trying to do things that hard way with Feldt. I can kinda understand that, but he could had done something conceited or something to make Feld hate him, not steal a young lady's first kiss... Anyway, he hates people see him as his bro, but he himself compares his performance against his brother's. Is Neil someone that he sees as a target to improve and push himself?
I'm a little surprised with the manner the Ptolemios 2 crew treat Marina, especially why Tieria will personally join the others to have a little chat with Marina. Oh well.
LOL when Mileina questioned Setsuna and Marina about their relationship and they denied in unison.. That kinda leave us some space for imaginations... Hmm. I seriously don't see Marina & Setsuna coming together as a couple, but rather as siblings who truly cared for each other (not in a romantic way).
LOL to see Alle taking the initiative to bring wine to share with Sumeragi.. Looks like alcohol-lovers' count has increased by one! (Although it may be possible that Allelujah uses wine to make Sumeragi listen to him talk about recovering Marie.) This also implied that Alle needs a listening ear and wants to seek comfort in someone/thing else besides his Arios.
Finally, our MISTER BUSHIDO has made an appearance in combat (why BUSHIDO?)! Seriously, what's the problem with his outfit, mask and the horned helmet? Initially I thought the one piloting the custom Ahead was Louise. How dumb I could I be, even if she took some super drug, she won't improve that much within such a short period.
Boo to Lindt. ~~Although I couldn't really understand what he said most of the time,~~ I was on Katie's side this time. Now after watching the show with subs, I still think that Katie's cool! Judging from her response, I guess she was involved in or had studied some of the battles in which Sumeragi was involved in... Hmmm.. Interesting. Even more interesting if they know each other personally.
I was taken aback by the deep bonds shared between Shirin and Marina; I initially thought it was Marina's one-sided feelings on her part. Kinda touched by the sentiments Shirin have towards Marina and how much she wanted to see and get Marina on her side. On the hindsight, this puts Marina in dangerous position as she's seen as having a good relationship with both CB and Kataron.
Not surprised at all to see Billy joining A-Laws, but got kinda freaked out to see his extent of hatred towards Kujou. Shows that it's not always women who will turn love --> hatred. After all, it's all his fault for disclosing confidential military info to Sumeragi as an excuse to ask her out. Not that she didn't warn him of going against soldiers' code of conduct...
Sumeragi fan-service, though still not ask flashy in S1 with her swimsuits and outing outfits.

Can't stop watching G00! 次回も楽しみに！

Ramblings on Gundam 00 Season 2 Ep 3 (Spoilers!)

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 09:09:29 GMT

OMG.. Just when the episode was about to end... We saw a preview for next episode of Lyle making moves on Feldt! :S (I hope Lyle's not just toying Feldt for the fun of it)
Anyway,

Great line by Setsuna cheering Sumeragi on! He seems to have grown a bit on this, since I couldn't imagine him doing that 4 years ago (Sees himeself as a part of CB and working as a whole). Awww... That's so sweet and considerate for him to rescue Marina too. Can I read something from the way he addressed Marina??? However, he's still quite a blockhead when he saw Marina crying without knowing that he's the cause.
Yeah, I'm suprised that Alle seem alright and could still pilot his Gundam without any main issues after being restrained for 4 freaking years
Aww to T-chan for being so sweet to Alle ("Okaeri, Allelujah".. "Tadaima"). On a different note, he seems to treat Lyle as a completely different person as Neil (which is a good thing). He has changed, but that doesn't mean he treats strangers differently from last time (S1). I find that this episode really showed Tieria's softer side.. although I did kinda freaked out when he told Allelujah that there's no need for him to change his personality (kinda out of the blue, wasn't it?).
Lyle seems too laid back to me... though I can see some similarities in the personalities between Lyle and Neil (I thought these siblings have different personalities? Was he trying too hard to act like his Nii-san, after stealing his bro's codename, lines ~~and woman~~?). He even teased T-chan!! (And I guess he'll tease Feldt in the next episode..) I didn't really see the need for him to be involved in this operation, but I guess Sumeragi wants to build teamwork or something. After watching this episode 3 times, I got the impression that he wants to "lie low" in CB while leeching useful info from CB for Kataron. Apparently, he's the one who provided the information to Kataron so they can rescue their people. I still have doubts of his allegiance to CB. I think Sumeragi seems to know that he isn't as simple as he seems; hopefully this will lead to some plot developments.
I'm a little concerned about that Ribbons said regarding the purpose of the existence of Innovators. Does that imply that the Innovators created just to mannage Veda and similar systems? Then if that's the case, how does Tieria come into the picture? He might be a Innovator member (or fated to be one) if not for CB...
Soma didn't seem to lose any of her capabilities while staying with Smirnov, I was a little surprised that she seemed to be doing her job well.. Seems like she got "brainwashed" or something after she officially joined HRL.. Suffered from some sort of memory loss. At least when Alle called her "Marie", she did responded with a headache and some flashbacks.

Anyway, I was freaking surprised that Ptolemaios 2 even came to help out in the rescue operation! Good thing that this mothership seemed more able to protect itself and be more aggressive.

I've been thinking about the units and pilots of CB.. Why can''t CB try to bring in fresh blood to replace the pilots (whom they thought they lost) in S2 instead of pinning on the hopes that they are still alive and able to pilot? In addition, are the Gundam units coincidentally coloured the same way as their old units?

All and all, a great episode! Love the teamwork and looking forward (but not the kissing part?) to how the "guests" onboard Ptolemaios 2 interact with Setsuna..

Fall 2008 Anime and Preliminary Ratings

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:36:25 GMT

Gundam 00 S2: Watched 3 eps so far (subbed) and I love how the story goes! 5 stars!

Nodame Cantabile Paris-hen: Watched the 1st ep RAW. I guess watching the live action and reading the manga does kinda spoil the story... Nothing came out as a surprise, but I do like the music! (Waiting for Froth-Bite releases before I start to watch the series) 3.5 stars

One Outs: Watched 2 eps RAW. 3.5 stars

Ep1: Couldn't understand a lot of dialogues (~50%?) and it doesn't help when I can't find any groups which had released subs for this show. Rather interesting show, a baseball anime far cry from sports anime. The main male character seemed to have monster capabilities, so I shall wait and see. (Although I'm a little sick of one-man's show.)
Ep2: Still couldn't catch most of the conversations although I could roughly follow the story through. The preview for next episode had kinda spolit the story since it showed the outcome of the game at the end. Now I'm more interested in how the Coach did it and what will happen to Tokuchi in the next episode. (Although I can't say I love gambling-related animes)

Chaos;Head: Watched 2 eps (subbed). This show's actually not the usual kind that I'll watch.. Not too fond of moe-s, harems and mahou shoujos. Read the story synopsis and thought that the psychological thriller so seemed quite interesting. The only similar show that I had watched is Higurashi no Naku Koro ni so can't help but compare that with this. 4 stars.

Ep1: Not deeply impressed. I guess some time is required for plot and character introduction...
Ep2: Now the story's becoming more interesting. Some freaky moments (though I wasn't that freaked out when I started watching Higu), and another twisted mind. That's what I call a psychological thriller! I hope the story gets better and better.

Shikabane-Hime Aka: Watched 2 eps (subbed). Some sort of supernatural show with the main female gun-wielding character doing dirty jobs. 3.5 stars.

Ep1: It's still a little early to tell but I can't say I'm deeply impressed.
Ep2: Same impression of Makina, more interested in how Ouri comes in. Perhaps I'll continue watching for Ouri's sake. (Btw, the talking cat kinda irritates me.)