Retail vs Corona

It's been three days since I've been back to work after a two-month personal leave of absence. Here are my thoughts about the safety conditions of working at a grocery store at this stage in the pandemic. 

Okay, so I would say that things are a little safer overall but not that much safer. Most of the customers are all wearing facemasks but there are always a few bad apples; eating, drinking, and talking. Management has called for a rule in the breakroom that only allows up to four people to be in there.

As for customers' wellbeing, there's always a courtesy clerk outside cleaning cart handles for each individual customer. I've actually never seen that kind of service at a grocery store and question if other grocery stores are as precise and on the ball as we are in regards to cleaning cart handles. We're doing it every hour for every customer. Many customers have told me that other stores aren't doing this and that's the reason why they come to my store. 

But to the detriment of everybody's safety, there is no longer a limit on the number of customers that can be allowed to enter the store. So at any given time if the store happens to be busy, it's a zoo. Management is no longer limiting the number of customers, probably as a way to boost sales as they are way down. However, late at night, there aren't as many customers as two months ago, so there are times at night now that don't require a limit on customers in the store. But I would say, overall, that during the peak business hours in the morning and afternoon, it's a very unsafe working environment with too many people too close to each other. I only wish management would put the limit back in place in order to make us that much safer. 

In terms of things that I do personally, one must be smarter than ever before in terms of safety. All the associates are wearing masks but unfortunately, most of my coworkers aren't wearing gloves. This is a grave mistake and management should step up the requirement of facemasks with the addition of gloves. The store has free disposable gloves but for some reason or other, most of the staff aren't wearing them. This is especially dangerous for the courtesy clerks cleaning the cart handles and doing carts. Personally, I wear thick latex gloves that I clean and sanitize every day. It's a hassle to wear them and my hands do get sweaty sometimes but it's worth it to be safer. Again, I wish management would step up and require gloves for the safety of everyone.

The morale of the workforce is at an all-time low. Some of the older employees as well as the young new hires have bad attitudes or they're just tired. Well, when you see that we're working for minimum wage with the addition of the company taking away our hazard bonus pay, you realize how demoralizing it really is. Again, I believe this is where management should step up and rally their workers into some sort of happy place or even just a slightly better place. They did this yesterday when management bought us all gourmet food from a high-end restaurant. It takes things like that in addition to personal talks with employees as well as general statements to the entire staff. I don't see that kind of leadership coming out of the store or the company. There's no mutual leadership to bring us together. Rather it is the employees themselves that rally together and brings the group together. Thank God!   

It's safer for sure but it's going to take a much smarter individual to truly be safe. If somebody gets COVID and can't afford to take off work because of bills, is there any incentive to actually stay home? The fear is still there. 

Let's hear it for all grocery store workers! 

Hurrah! 

Zen and the Art of Positive Thinking

What's up my fellow late-night readers? Today was my first day back to work after two months off. Here are some takeaways about what it was like being back in a blog titled Zen and the Art of Positive Thinking. 

First, I went to work with a strong, positive attitude. I already knew that everything had changed; the store was remodeled, everything items' placements were switched around, most of the young people were replaced by other young people, there's not really any younger women or girls my age that work in my department anymore, hours have been cut severely, and on top of that, the windows and doors are shuttered with plywood for fear of rioters and looters. Whew!

Even knowing all that, I went in thinking this will be fine, this will even be good. And it was. For the most part. I only had a few moments of weakness at the end of the night, where business was so slow that for the last three hours there were hardly any customers at all. I was so bored that I mentioned it to the security guard and the manager. "It was the most boring night of work ever."

I've never seen that happen in any place of business that I've worked at before, and I've been in the retail business for 15 years. Where most of all the customers stop coming in at a certain time. Astounding. In fact, business is so slow that the company is losing so much money that they're going to have to cut hours even more. You put that with possible rioters and looters and the COVID-19 pandemic and you have a recipe for disaster. 

So, yeah, there's all that. But where do I come in? Well, I went into work today and did the usual thing. An older coworker who knows me really well said, "You're different." I said jokingly, "Oh yeah, a lot of soul searching, good time." I played it off as a joke but the fact that she recognized that was an important moment of the day. For it was at that moment that I realized I had become more relaxed. I'm not talking as much because I don't feel I have to fill in space as much. And when I speak I only say what is needed, only going into more details if time and interest are there. Girls are more responsive. Women too surprisingly.

Second, it's not all about being a hippy and having good vibes. That's one aspect of this. It's also about the body. At my job, the work is very strenuous and if you strain yourself just a little too much doing one little thing then you're body's equilibrium gets off balance. 

I was jokingly thinking about this today at work as if I were thinking about 'nen'. Nen is an idea I got from a Japanese anime called Hunter x Hunter. Yes, this is a little silly but hear me out. 

Nen is the body's physical energy and capabilities. Differing from the mind's energy, nen is what's used to focus the body, keep it in shape, and allows you to do strenuous activities for long periods of time without using too much energy. This saves you time by allowing you to work hard in a reasonable time period, getting your tasks done more easily, while at the same time, conserving your body's energies so that not only will you not be tired at the end of the night when you go home, but you might actually be re-energized. 

Yeah, that sounds pretty wacky, doesn't it? What if I told you that nen, or something like it, is actually a real thing? Of course, you won't always feel renewed after a hard day of work. On the contrary, some nights you'll be exhausted, but the point is that you work in such a way that you're hardly ever straining your body, and your muscles are so lucid, that there's hardly anything you can't do, and it won't make you too tired when you go home at night.    

You don't have to be super athletic or strong. Simply standing up straight with no tension is nen. Breathing slow, small, shallow breaths is nen. Even breathing takes up energy. If you breathe too much too fast your body will respond in a certain type of way that is stressful and energy-consuming. Breathing is an essential and important element. "Breathe, breathe in the air," as the Pink Floyd song goes. 

Obviously, these things aren't going to save the world. But they will make your workdays a lot more manageable. Some days will be like today; essentially perfect for all practical purposes. The point is to put this to practice all the other days and not weaken. 

Back to work. The grind continues.

The Importance of Rest

One of the things I, as well as others, overlook is the importance of rest. We live in a 24/7 news hour frenzy where new things are happening all the time. Including when most of the population is asleep in America during the late evenings. 


One of the things that have helped me to deal with the stress of today's turmoil is making sure I get enough rest. I've even experimented with changing my sleeping patterns. I'm mostly a late night sleeper. I like to go to bed at 2-3 am most days and wake up around 1030 am. For about a week I tried a morning schedule where I went to bed as early as 930 pm and woke up at 5 am. As you can imagine, if you're a night person, no matter how much sleep you get, you will not like being a morning person.

Anyways, I can't stress enough the amount of turmoil going on in the country right now. I believe that most of my friends, peers, and acquaintances have been lulled into a false sense of security. The reality is that COVID-19 is still running rampant, killing people every day, and the protests while itself is a good thing, is actually bringing out all the provocateurs and racists to the streets, where more black and brown people will get hurt by said racists as well as cops. What's a guy to do? 

Well, for starters make sure you stay informed and that you vote. Stacy Abrams had a good op-ed in the NYTimes yesterday about how important the vote is. Don't forget that. Read through a variety of news periodicals online and not just your favorites. Take part in political talks on Facebook if you like to get your point across to a lot of people. Always be aware that we are not safe right now, nobody is really safe from COVID right now, nor is anyone safe from police brutality, especially if you're a black or brown person or protester. If you aren't worried about anything you are completely oblivious. Not everybody has the luxury of being oblivious because we work hard jobs, have rent, and have family to support here or abroad. 

Remember those white people who stood on state capitol buildings because they wanted to go back to work during the height of the first wave of the pandemic? [They were carrying AR assault rifles, some of them.] That's what oblivious looks like. Protesting something so trivial in the middle of a pandemic. Now, some people have compared that to the protests that are taking place now, protesting the brutal murder of George Floyd. To that, I say it's not the same thing at all, yet the risk is the same, if not worse. The problem is that we have a serious pandemic sweeping the globe but nobody seems to take it seriously enough because if they caught COVID they had a very mild case or they don't know anyone that's died from the virus. Trust me, if everyone had a personal friend, family member, or acquaintance that died from COVID, every American would take this virus so seriously that we would've already quelled the disease like China, South Korea, and Japan. 

Start me up, I never stop. We are not like computers. We all need to make sure we get plenty of rest. The body must be shut down and restarted like a computer every day. Some of us need more sleep than others. I would say the average for me is 7 1/2 to 8 hours but I've done well with six hours as well. Although that isn't ideal. 

Today I had a lot of errands to run. I left the house at 1030 am and got back home around 5 pm. I was so tired from all the running around that I slept from 5 pm to 11 30 pm almost straight, waking up but not even getting out of bed. Obviously, for most people this would disrupt their day, they would fall behind on their plans and errands, not contact their friends and family, it would cause them to stay up much later, and overall they wouldn't like the experience. 

However, although I know that sleeping the day away isn't ideal I also recognize that I needed it and that sleep is more important than ever nowadays. Think about how important sleep is for our mental health and well being. Without sleep or only a little sleep, we would all be mindless zombies. I missed my usual daily activities today but in the end, I was greatly rewarded because I got enough rest, I feel great, and I'm fully recharged for whatever the night brings me as well as tomorrow's morning. 

Sleepytime, time, all the time. I can't stress enough how important sleep is. Most of the time when I'm irritated, annoyed, or stressed out its mostly because I'm too tired and need sleep. With all this chaos going on in American cities right now, the pandemic ravaging the land, the highest unemployment numbers in record history, and a possible rigged election already in the works for 2020, I would say that this is the most stressful time period of my young life. The kicker is that it could only get worse. 

The second wave of COVID could hit much harder and cause a longer and more extreme shutdown and quarantine. The protests and police brutality could fizzle. They could pass measures that attempt to reduce police power but in the long run they might never defeat systemic racism and the brutalization by cops unto black and brown Americans. Trump could win reelection and the United States could become an even more diffusive firepot led by a despotic Nero. 

So sleep it off. Tomorrow never knows. Keep everything in your memory and your records because everything going on right now is particularly noteworthy. This is a historic time period. Always be skeptical, always be questioning. Don't focus on the noise being made by idiots or people dumber than you. The future is you. The world outside is important but so are you and your own personal life. In order to be at your best, you need rest.

Battle Angel Alita [anime movie]

Battle Angel Alita [Gunnm, literally translated "gun dream"] is a Japanese cyberpunk manga series by Yukito Kishiro. To be clear, this is the OVA [anime movie] I'm reviewing. It consists of two parts-Rusty Angel and Tears Sign. Kishiro has no plans to revisit the anime. The film was adapted to a live action movie with motion capture in 2019. Check out my Alita Battle Angel live action movie review here. I wanted to do a separate post about the anime movie, titled Battle Angel Alita because I thought the anime movie was better than the movie in some ways, but not others. Lets discuss the differences. 

The story is fundamentally the same and the film follows almost the same course of events almost to a tee. However, the anime movie looks much better than the film adaptation. The artwork here is quite stunning. The characters all have that late 80s [this was created in 1993] anime look: tall, short, wide eyed, glasses on some characters [super circular oval glasses and googles]. That was the style back then. The backgrounds in every scene are highly stylized and textured but the characters themselves are simple. This was the state of anime back in the late 80s, as this movie was created in 1993, just a few years after I was born. The biggest and best reason for the anime being better than the live action film is simply the cinematography. The hand-made drawings can't be beat, even with a motion capture suit [which is still pretty cool]. 

Next, the anime does everything the movie does plot-wise, but faster and with more skill. The anime movie is only an hour long. The live action film is over two hours. Quite a difference. Although the anime film crams everything together super fast, I actually think it does a better and more concise job. When you watch the anime you realize you don't need to have all that extra clutter of plot.

In addition, another thing the anime does better than the live action film is action. The amount of gore in the anime is at an all time much higher level than the live action movie. In fact, there wasn't even red blood in the live action film. There was this weird blue blood when the cyborgs got killed in violent ways. However, the anime takes that to a whole new level. Some of the killing scenes in the anime will stick with me for a while. They were just that gruesome. When the dog gets killed in the anime it is a grotesque death. Likewise, when cyborgs get their skulls bashed in, there is a freaking pool of blood smeared across the walls, floors, and characters. Its a blood bath. Much different from the live action film, which of course couldn't be that violent, otherwise it would be rated R, which means no kiddies get to experience Alita fanfare. Also, in the anime Alita seems to have some extra powers that weren't shown in the live action film. She has these power-up moves that are quite cool. Instead of having these power-ups in the live action film, they simply gave her a 300 year-old sword [her age].  

Another thing that stood out is the fact that Alita doesn't seem to be objectified or sexualized in the anime. In the live action film they give both of her suits breasts and stuff, which doesn't really make sense, but whatever. In the anime they downplay the feminine aspect of her cybernetic body. Just something I noticed. Its a good thing.

What the live action movie does better that the anime movie doesn't do quite as well is create a likable sympathetic character. In the live action film Alita's actress does a fantastic job portraying herself as a young, naive, empathetic cyborg girl [with those big anime eyes you can see into her soul]. We feel for her. I know that sounds cheesy but when I saw Alita Battle Angel [live action film] I really felt for Alita: for all her problems, not knowing who she was, how she couldn't get her boyfriend to Zolumn, and if she was capable of being loved by a human boy. These are realistic things that people can feel and understand. Again, I know these seems cheesy but I thought it was a very important aspect to the film, maybe the most important one. Blue-blood-oozing-sickle-wielding cyborgs aside. 

All in all the anime is pretty damn good. Its only an hour long. You really can't go wrong. If you watch the live action film I think you can benefit from watching the anime as well, provided that you like anime and you would like to see a different interpretation. Sure, the live action film is a $300 million dollar movie and the anime was probably nowhere near that budget but they got some things right. They don't make anime like that anymore. In a sense, because of that, it is priceless, a relic of the 90s. Something that can easily be forgotten and lost forever.

Check it out, you can watch it on YouTube. 
Part 1 Rusty Angel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKTxbZPqzFM 
Part 2 Tears Sign https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaidL6_fE_c 
Make sure to add the English subtitles on the YouTube options. Enjoy!

Check out my Alita Battle Angel live action review http://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2019/02/alita-battle-angel.html

Alita Battle Angel

Alita Battle Angel is the latest anime inspired flick to hit the big screen. Its an adaptation of the 1990s manga Gunnm, also known as Battle Angel Alita. Directed by Robert Rodriquez, written by James Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis, and produced by Cameron and Jon Landau. As you can see this is a multi-million dollar movie with James Cameron [of Avatar fame] involved. 

Alita Battle Angel reminds you of a lot of things. Avatar because Alita is acted out using a sensor capture suit, with big wide-eyed anime eyes, complete with a cyborg body, which is totally Ghost in the Shell. The actual city that the movie takes place in, Iron City is complete with neon signs, multilingual people, and different races. Very reminiscent of Blade Runner. Those are great things to be reminded of. 

Alita is found in the scrapyard by a paternal scientist named Ido, who gives her a cybernetic body that he was planning on using for his daughter [not weird at all!]. Alita is mostly cyborg but she has a human brain intact, giving her emotions. Hence, she's a lot like a teenage girl at first and gets a teenage boyfriend, who turns out to be a bad guy. Turns out this guy is apart of a youth gang that hijacks cyborgs and steals their parts, while they're still alive. Then his gang sells the parts to Vector [a guy who gets his fashion sense from the Matrix], in what they believe is the only chance to get to the utopian city Zolumn in the sky above Iron City. Sound convoluted yet? It is.

However, it is not the razor-blade addled cyborg fights or the intense violence of Motorball [basically death race, a futuristic sport where you throw a ball and try to kill your opponents, while racing on motorized roller blades]. Nor is it the fact that Alita learns that she was an ancient weapon used some 300 years ago in some battle, possibly fighting to destroy Zolumn [again convoluted]. 

The thing that makes this movie good, maybe even memorable for a few months [for me at least] is the sheer emotional appeal of this cyborg girl. Some people would find the emotional scenes in this movie to be corny. I did not. I was moved when Alita was trying to justify herself to her boyfriend, only for him to respond, "You're the most human person I've ever met." Their love was real in that scene. That shows that even a cyborg girl is capable of loving, and of being loved back. Very powerful indeed. 

Another characteristic moment was when she was talking to the boyfriend about going to Zolumn. She says, "I'll do anything to get you to Zolumn. I'll give you my heart. It's so powerful it can power the city for a whole year!" Then the boyfriend responds, saying "I can't do that to you. You can't just give people things. You can't be so naive." And the reality is that Alita is quite naive, she's basically like a teenage girl. 

The climax of the movie is when the love interest dies, killed by an unknown villain in Zolumn, [who like a characteristic anime character wears some cyberpunk googles that look really cool]. At some point Alita finds her 300 year old Erhm bodysuit and she discovers that she's a Battle Angel, an ancient weapon, which is the reason why she was able to beat the crap out of Hunter Warriors, cyborgs who do the policing in Iron City. The new suit has bigger breasts and a small waist. There's something of a feminist affect in Alita Battle Angel but for whom, and why? I can't really say. Some scenes have feminist overtones. Like when Alita beats up everyone in the Hunter Warrior bar and when her boyfriend says not to challenge them she says, "I'm gonna need you to step back." As if men should sometimes take a step back from women, that kind of thing. But the fact that her body suit is sexy and sleek, with the 'ideal' feminine traits, I think that is something purely for the male fanboy audience. Of which I am apart of [lol]. The one thing that I liked regarding Alita's physical appearance was her big anime eyes that never seemed to close, and that seemed to change during emotional scenes. I think they did a great job with those eyes. You can see Alita's soul through her eyes. However, I can also see the eyes in a negative sexual sense. Someone might say she looks like a sex doll. Or something.

Alita becomes a Hunter Warrior and a pro Motorball player in her attempt to get to Zolumn, to discover more about the world, and herself, I presume. The movie ends much better than it starts, on a cliffhanger. Rodriquez and Cameron believed that the world would catch Alita fever. While I don't see that being the case [most of my friends haven't seen it], I do think they had something here with this movie. It may not even be as good as Ghost in the Shell [it lacks the maturity that Ghost in the Shell had] but I think that the little bit of pathos utilized here was good enough for me. However, I'm a fanboy that has watched years and years of anime, so I'm a bit biased. 

I'll definitely watch the anime version sometime soon. 

Dragon Ball Super Broly

The new Dragon Ball Z Super Broly movie was pretty cool. It became the best selling anime movie on opening weekend. Although I thought the movie was 'good', I didn't think it was great. However, I don't think one should go to an anime movie expecting something to be great, or for it to change your life. You go in, sit down, suspend your systems of belief for an hour or two, and then move on with your life. I'll explain my problems with the movie as well as what made it good. 

First of all, Broly's origin story in this movie is bare bones basic (b-b-b, anyone?). In the original movies they didn't even try to give him a story, which I almost respect more. Instead they explain how when Goku was a baby, Broly was trying to sleep in his Sayian tank, and Goku kept waking him up with all his whining.Then at some point he broke free, and tried to whoop Kakkarot's (Goku) ass. Pretty simplistic, but it worked well.

Here, we have Broly as a vengeance story. Broly is a baby in his tank and King Vegeta sends the baby off-world because he's seen to have such incredible power, that he might destroy the planet and everyone on it! (surprise, surprise, Frieza ends up doing that anyway) Anyways, Perigues, Broly's father ends up high-jacking a ship to Broly's destination. Once there, he grows up with his son on a desolate planet where everything's trying to kill them. 

Fast forward to Super's time period and all of a sudden Frieza's henchmen (not really lackeys, just peeps doing their jobs as Freiza Force members) find Broly and Perigues on said remote planet. They take them to Frieza, who is in awe of finding more live Sayians. His plan, to pit Broly against Goku. 

Vegeta goes up to bat first. At first Vegeta is beating on Broly pretty hard, even just in base form. Then he realizes that Broly is learning how to fight better the longer the first continues, like a true Sayian warrior! Eventually Vegeta has to keep powering up from Sayian 1-2-blue-god form and every time Broly goes down he keeps getting back up. Eventually Vegeta can't take him on anymore. The power within Broly is immeasurable! 

Next, Goku steps up to fight. Its a brutal battle. In fact, Goku gets thrashed around like a rag doll, screaming in agony, which prompted this writer's laughter in the theater. Super Sayian God form isn't enough to take down Broly, who again and again, keeps getting back up, and powering up even more and more!

Goku talks to Piccolo and they come up with a plan. The only way they can defeat Broly is if they do the fusion dance (embarrassing for Vegeta, a Prince), and become Gogeta! (Gogeta is canon now) Once they combine to become Gogeta, they fight Broly in an epic splatter of cartoon pixels and animation. (the best part of the film) 

Before Gogeta can really do bodily harm or dare I say it, [KILL] Broly, the Frieza Force henchmen steal the dragon balls from Freiza's other henchmen and they make a wish. You see, one of them was a girl that really felt sympathy for Broly, and she even stole and broke Perigues' super strong shock collar that he put on Broly, thus the reason why Broly kept powering up more and more, and he (Perigues) had to just let Broly go on like that. 

Anyways, so the girl wishes Broly to be put back on his faraway planet, away from Gogeta, right before a super strong energy blast is shot at him! This shows you that most fights in Dragon Ball are for the ultimate costs and also for no costs at all. (the true lesson of Dragon Ball) Goku ends up using instant transmission to go to Broly and his two new friends (former Frieza henchmen who saved him), gives them a house capsule, food, and says he will come back to train Broly himself. 

One last thing I'll say is that Broly himself is a simpleton. Although the old Broly movies he was even more of a barbarian who couldn't even speak sentences, here he is still simple minded, like a child. His only friend on the planet was a giant monster that tried to kill him, a play for sympathy that works on the audience. I like the idea of Broly being canon, although I don't think his backstory is very interesting. 

One minor complaint I have about the movie is that the English voice acting isn't as exciting to me, nor did I think it was all that great. Give me Japanese subtitles for any anime or anime movie. I don't mind the reading, plus I think the emotional gravitas (or lack there of) is much easier to accomplish in the native language of the artists themselves.

The animation in this movie is some of the best Dragon Ball I've ever seen, especially in a movie theater where you can really see all the pixels flashing across the screen more easily. Early Super animation wasn't very good but now they've got it down to a t. I'm definitely going to watch this movie again in Japanese and see if I like it any better. 

"We are Gogeta." 

Your Name 君の名は

So I saw a fantastic anime film the other night called Your Name. The film is arguably science fiction, romance, and deals with the fact that nothing lasts forever, which is very Japanese. You could say the film is science fiction because its about a boy and a girl who swap bodies through the mystic mystery of a shrine and the impending doom of a large crash landing comet. And the film is obviously a romance because although they don't realize it at first our boy and girl are star-crossed, and this is made even more evident when they finally meet, where instead of the boy writing his name on the girls' hand he instead writes I love you. The film was a huge commercial success and aired at Anime Expo 2016 (which I attended, but didn't see the film at), but only recently came out on DVD, made available through Netflix shipping.

The film is very slow-paced and mysterious at first. But once the film gets going about thirty minutes in you start to understand where the film is going and the fact that they are living in different time periods, although its only a small difference of three years. But its still so much of a time difference for them to have a hard time finding each other. There's religious elements because the girl lives with her grandmother and they take care of a shrine. The shrine is said to be ruled by a guardian spirit who rules human experiences and connections.

There's a comet that the boy finds out is going to destroy the girl's town and he tells her to evacuate the town. Once back in his own body and time he finds out most of the people survived the comet miraculously and he spots the girl with her soon to be husband in his Tokyo hometown. They chase each other down and ask,"Your name?"

The artwork in the film was very good too. There was some 3D shading effects and details, like when the comet came crashing down. Apparently the art work was all mostly done by one guy. Pretty impressive stuff. The anime art style of the characters is drawn in a modern way and there are some funny Japanese sort of mannerisms, like how every time they swap bodies the girl always touches her breasts, and likewise the guy always grabs down there. Pretty funny but not something that would happen in an American animated film made for the box office.

This is a film I would recommend to all anime fans because although the film is slow it has a lot of meaning in it. The idea of love, trying to find love, always having it within your grasp but then only to have it slip away once again. This is an idea we think about our entire lives even if we think we've found our true love, weather it be a person or vocation. For that reason I'd even be down to watch the movie again with a girl or even my friends who like anime but not so much the thoughtful sorts of anime like this.

Highly recommended!

Anime Expo Day Three

So I went to Anime Exp yesterday for Day 3, the final day of the event. I was kind of dreading it at first and I was even planning on not going. However, my friends really wanted me to go so I bought my ticket. Getting the pass turned out to be a hassle because I had to take the bus downtown LA super early in the morning on Friday (also called Day 0). But even that wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was fun just cracking jokes all morning on the bus with my friends. Now onto the event itself...

I wasn't really too sure what to expect other than a bunch of weebs in cosplay and hot cosplay girls. The best thing I can say about the event was that there was a lot of hot girls everywhere wearing skimpy cosplay outfits. There was a lot of t and a at that convention. It was pretty good. But that's pretty much where the good ends for me. I'll explain further.

So we get in, walk around, and start looking at merch. I actually ended up not buying anything because I didn't see anything that was cool enough or worthy to buy. But that's besides the point. So I see a Reaper cosplay (from Overwatch) with pies instead of shot guns in his hands and nearby I spot a Blizzard merch stand! I love Blizzard so this should be cool right? I look at this awesome D.Va statue model for like 15 seconds and this employee there comes up to me and tells me I can't look at it any longer unless I buy something of worth at least $8. Talk about a fucking rip off. You mean I gotta pay just to look at Blizzard merch? That was too much. Of course I didn't pay for that but man that kinda put a bad taste in my mouth considering that I've been supporting Blizzard for years. This blog is a testament to that. They're really grubby when it comes to money.

After that we chilled at this bar/lounge area and it was probably the coolest place there. There was a live rock band and they were playing anime/gaming songs. The guitarist was great but there were three female lead singers and their voices just clashed so hard on every note. It was like listening to three annoying women singing the Pokemon theme (it literally was that). However, I'd like to give that band credit because the guitarist, bassist, and drummer were all great players. I could tell in their tone. That was fun.

Later we met up with two friends which made our party five and we went to a Dragon Ball Super panel, the only panel I went to for the event. We got there two hours early because if we didn't we wouldn't have been able to get in (too many people). So we sat down for hours just waiting and I just kept falling in and out of consciousness because I kept sleeping because it was so boring. Once the panel started I found out that the voice actors for English version Goku and Vegeta were pretty arrogant. They thought they were just the coolest guys in the room. English Beerus and Japanese Vegeta especially were very humble. Sometimes I think the creators and/or actors behind the scenes are very undeserving of the fans' love and I would say that guy that voices Goku perhaps doesn't deserve the goodwill of the fans with the way he was talking and presenting himself. It was quite troubling considering I've been watching since I was a kid but let's face it these guys aren't perfect. The panel itself was super boring because they didn't talk about anything interesting or new about the show and the Q & A was just general dumb questions from fans. There was no talk about the current events of Super, just mostly the Battle of Gods and Resurrection of Frieza. In that respect it was also a letdown.

We ate at a food truck which was actually surprisingly good. I got a grilled cheese spicy chicken sandwich with tator tots that was actually pretty good. However, it did set me back like $16 so its debatable if it was really worth it. Overall, I found the event to be just a money grubby give me your money! kind of thing with no real benefit other than to buy cool anime merch that you wouldn't be able to find anywhere else other than online. The real disappointing thing was that Blizzard charged to view their gear and I didn't get to meet any of the Overwatch voice actors. That was the main reason I wanted to go.

I think between falling asleep out of boredom and the fact that Blizzard wanted $8 just to look at their merch, I found the whole event to have been a waste of time and money. However, the convention experience (the people and the cosplays) was a lot better than I thought it would be. I really enjoyed all the Overwatch cosplays! So many Hanzos! I did find it a little weird how many guys there were dressed as girls. Apparently this is an event where you can cross dress and not be called a fairy. There was a lot of people but it never felt like it was an unmanageable amount of people so that was good. Even though it turned out to be a bad experience for me at least I can say I've been to one of the biggest conventions ever! I'd be down to go next year but I'd want to go for more days so I can spend more time to really enjoy it.

Dig the Overlord cosplay!

Ghost in The Shell

So my friend hit me up on my day off and we ended up going to see Ghost in the Shell at the Van Nuys plant. The ticket was only $7.50 and the movie was pretty good. Here, I'd like to give you a little rundown of the movie and my thoughts on it. If you haven't seen the film stop reading here as I don't want to spoil it for you.

This movie is pretty much a condensed version of some of the anime Ghost in the Shell movies. It stars Scarlett Johannson as the Major. She's the first successful human-ai hybrid and she works for this organization called Section 9 that fights terrorists. In the movie she's fighting a terrorist who turns out to be a failed human-ai hybrid. There were tons of experiments done on other people and they were junked, left to die.

Let's make one thing clear. Scarlett is a beautiful woman, pretty stunning sometimes in certain angles but when it comes to acting in this film her performances are very lukewarm. She shows little to no emotion, just like her acting in Avengers. She has the t and a but when it comes to the acting talent she's close but no cigar. With that being said the acting in this movie could've been way better. However, I still give Scarlett points for being hot. And trying. A lot of people online (reddit and elsewhere) were upset that the Major wasn't going to be played by an Asian actress. In the end they went with Scarlett and I think that hurt the film. But hey they wanted to get the sales and Scarlett brings in the sales.

There were tons of action shots and scenes all over the movie. The most memorable action scene was at the end when this evil corporate dude is using the spider tank (from the anime) to kill the Major and the Terrorist who had supposedly turned her. It was great to see the spider tank from the anime set to a live action film set. That might have been the most authentic Ghost in the Shell thing in the entire film. Everything else was close but no cigar. It was a massive firepower weapon and it looked damn cool. Most of the other action scenes were stereotypical shooting, punching, and kicking. Nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, I thought most of the action scenes in the movie were quite boring. I kind of tuned out during some of the fights because they started and ended so fast and I was just like "okay".

The story for the film was actually not bad. The anime movies have various plot lines but they all revolve around Section 9 fighting terrorists. In this movie it asks bigger questions. Questions like what is consciousness? What is the soul? What is ai? Things like that are questions that will continue to be important in the world in which we live. A world that has been overtaken by technology and perhaps in the future by robotics.

We live in a world controlled by technology. Technology has helped us but it has also hurt us. This movie brings to mind the fact that one day people could actually be enhanced by cybernetics. There's going to be a human head transplant done in a few months. And there are already people in the world who live on artificial hearts being kept alive by machinery. In a way ai has already been brought to the forefront in our world. The bigger question is how does technology affect consciousness? I think this movie asks those kinds of questions if we want to think about it in a more metaphysical and philosophical way.

Just because the movie brings up important questions about the world we live in I found it to be a thoughtful and engaging film. On the other hand I can also see where the movie threw out everything that makes sense and just turned it into an action flick. In the end it was just okay. Sometimes anime movies turn out like this because the important features from the anime (which is made by Japanese producers and artists) are lost in translation to the American audience. I think that happened with this movie but it was still a fun movie to watch.

7/10 by my book. Good to see Ghost in the Shell get some on screen love in a movie theater.

Crunchyroll and Funimation Team Up, Bringing Joy to Everyone

Today, anime streaming service titans announced that they were going to work together. Crunchyroll now offers titles from Funimation's summer simulcast. D. Dray-man Hallow, First Love Monster and Puzzle & Dragons X will be available on Crunchyroll. What's so awesome is that Cowboy Bebop, PSYCHO-PASS and Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash will follow suit. Dub-centric Funimation will host Crunchy summer anime 91 Days, Mob Psycho 100 and Orange. Later down the road Free -Iwatobi Swim Club and The Testament of Sister New Devil will follow suit.

This is all amazing, right? Yes it's incredible that anime viewers won't have to sway from different websites or services for their subbing and dubbing needs. Although both services are working together this is not by any means a merger. Funimation COO Mike  DuBouise said, “No. Funimation and Crunchyroll have entered into a distribution partnership. Our goal was not a merger. We will still continue to be separate companies serving the anime industry.”

This is pretty cool news. I am a super big anime fan. I wouldn't call myself an otaku or nerd about it but all my friends would. It's my favorite thing to watch other than comedies on Netflix. It's just so relaxing and chill late at night after work. I've had a Crunchyroll subscription for over a year now and I've seen so much great anime there. They stay super updated to all the latest stuff. It's great.

I'll write about some of the better anime I've seen on Crunchyroll sometime. Good day for anime fans.

The Abyss looks back

      Just wanted to do a little mini essay. I'm not usually a ranting guy but I sure can write and talk a lot! First off, things have been great ever since I got back to normal life from the vacation. I miss my brother a bit but we've been keeping in touch via Facebook and emails. He's a cool guy and I can learn a thing or two from him about blogging. He's been doing his blog since 2010 and its only gotten better over the years.
    I read a New York Times piece called The Abyss Looks Back and I thought it would make for an interesting blog post title. However, I'm happy, healthy, and work has been going great! In fact, next week I have a ton of hours.
    Lately, I haven't been interested in gaming and this past Thursday I even decided to skip out on going to the Smash tournament, preferring activities like going to the record store and swimming with my friends. In addition, I've been keeping in touch with a lot of people that I know and I've come to see them as strange people. "people are strange," as Jim Morrison sang. But at the same time I'm not surprised. I could easily say things like ah its just white people, or California people, Black people, Hispanics, or just people in general. I think of myself as quite a nutty guy but I'm far from strange compared to other people that I've gotten to know personally and online. Some of these people I call my friends and others are just acquaintances, but I still care about them the way I would care about a friend. You don't truly know someone for quite a while until after you meet them.
     The more I get to know people the more I see where they're true intentions lie. Most of the time I'm just a passer-on with people but I have made quite a few good friends. I'm great with making friends, and generally people like me.
     I've been keeping up with a lot of free jazz and straight ahead stuff online. I've been listening to tunes that people post in the Free Jazz Facebook group that I'm in. We currently have over 13,000 members and from what I make of it most of them are Europeans. I'm probably like the youngest person in the group and I occasionally post tunes. It's a great feeling being apart of a Facebook group that is actually interesting and somewhat intellectual. Although all anyone really ever says about the music is "great!" or "terrific!" its still fun listening to what people are listening to. I love it when they post the good ole Black American free jazz music from the 60s. I'm also into newer stuff but again more so the Black Americans rather than the European bands. However, I can give them credit because they are just as great as the Black musicians musically.
     As Frank Zappa said,"music is the best". I've also been reading a lot of Stanley Crouch's essays and its given me a more scholarly stance on jazz where as my previous opinions were all based on my talent as a musician. It certainly puts it all in perspective. Crouch is a great man just for the fact that he's the most well known jazz critic today. He's as well known in the academic circle as Wynton Marsalis is in the jazz world. He's a giant. Although I don't agree with everything he says he gives me a lot to think about and doesn't give anything a free pass if he feels that somethings not right. He's become my favorite Black scholar.
     Lastly, I've been keeping  up with a lot of the new anime and I've finished quite a few as well. I finished Gate and Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans. I also finished this Cyborg 009 vs Devilman crossover mini series that was great! Anime just chills you out. You just sit there waiting to find out what happens next. I love the art work, the Japanese voice acting (I can't stand English in anime), the powers, magic, or future technology, and the fun story-lines. When I sit back and watch anime I feel like I'm a kid again, watching Dragon Ball Z on Toonami at 10 pm right before bed. Again, it certainly puts things in perspective. Sometimes you don't need the hot girl friend, the fancy car, or the best job in the world to truly live. As they say,"c'est la vie!"

Little Tokyo

     Today was a great day off. My friends and I went to Little Tokyo, which is downtown LA, somewhere around there. It was the first time I've ever been there and it was a treat! The drive wasn't too bad but there was a lot of traffic going both ways. The first thing we did when we got there was eat at this place called Mr. Ramen, this tiny whole in the wall sort of restaurant with all this colorful artwork all over the walls. It was so colorful to the point that it looked tacky but my friends said that all the artwork was something new that they added to the restaurant recently.
     When it came to my meal I ended up getting the beef ramen. It had slices of shredded beef, cilantro, those vegetables that's always in pho (see through veggie), and noodles. The broth was so good! I ended up eating/drinking all of it. We ate a bunch of great snacks today. We got these things called Pocky's at a grocery store and there were all kinds of flavors. It's basically a chocolate/other flavor sweet cookie sort of snack. And then later my friends got tacoyaki, this fried bread-like ball with meat and sauce inside. Really tasty stuff. I really enjoy Japanese food as well as other aspects of Japanese culture-anime, gaming, waifus, swords, women, lol.
     We ended up walking all over the place. It was a little hot under the sun but we endured it. In terms of appearances Little Tokyo doesn't look very Japanese. It looks like a rundown area of LA. We saw plenty of homeless people, one guy even coming up to us and shouting,"Give me some money" lol. The shops we went to were all great but at same the time I thought I didn't have very much cash so I didn't buy anything substantial like a toy model or other bric a bracs. Instead I just got this cool black and red Japan rising sun head band that said kamikaze. I only hope it doesn't stand for kamikaze pilots lol. I won't be wearing it, its just something I wanted as a neat souvenir.
     The best part of the trip other than the great food was the anime/hobby shops we went to. I saw great anime model toys, waifu pillows(!), keychains, pins, anime, posters, shirts, manga, and trading cards. What really caught my eye was this Kirby (Nintendo's very own pink marshmallow) toy model. It was very detailed and if I knew I had the cash I would've definitely bought it. Oh well, maybe next time. It was a fun experience and I would definitely want to go back in the future, this time looking for things in particular that I can't find elsewhere.
     After we came back we played some smash. I've reconciled the fact that I'm going to be a Bayonetta main with a strong Zero Suit Samus secondary, sometimes even preferring to use Zss over Bayonetta in certain match-ups. For the time being I want to focus on Zss until I can master the Bayonetta 0-death combos that are so popular. I've got a tournament tomorrow at Fire and Dice, we'll see what happens. I'll probably use Zss if I feel like Bayonetta isn't as strong in whatever match-ups I get thrown into. I've been playing a lot of smash with my friends but they like playing free for all with the three of us, and that's just not going to help me in a tournament setting. We do have days where we just play 1v1's and take turns but that doesn't happen nearly enough for us to keep improving at the game. I've definitely got to get us out of playing those dumb free for alls.
     Hope you're all having a good work week. In other news I'm going on vacation next week but I'll probably still be blogging with my laptop. In addition, Pokken Tournament comes out on Friday, March 18 so I'm definitely excited for that. Wish me luck in the tournament tomorrow!

Update 2.0

     This is just a general whats up kinda post that I wanted to do. I haven't written for a couple days and I don't the blog to get too stale. I gotta keep up the content to keep things interesting. Life has been good, better than usual. Last couple of weeks have been rough at work because I was getting over 40 hour weeks with one day off or no days off. It was all good though because of that money! This week is super relaxing and I've got a couple days off to boot. I even got to hang out with friends earlier this week and today I was chillin' at my friends house playing the Overwatch beta.
     In terms of music I've been listening to all kinds of stuff. I got my Ipod loaded up to the max with rock, metal, and jazz music. Right now I'm listening to Yngwie Malmsteen's 1996 album Inspiration. The album opens up with a cover of Kansas' Carry on Wayword Son, such a good song! I remember in high school doing a marching band show while playing trumpet and opening up with that tune. Brings back many memories. It sounds so much more bad-ass and neo-classical when Malmsteen solos over the changes. There's even a sick cover of Hendrix's Manic Depression on this album. Malmsteen does a sick Hendrix impersonation!
     Speaking of Malmsteen, I have his autobiography. I got it not too long ago but I haven't finished. The beginning part of it is all about how he was such a great musician but nobody noticed him in his native Sweden. It wasn't until he came to the States and played with some bland hair metal bands that his talent was appreciated. Other stuff I've been listening to is Eric Dolphy, Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Symphony X, etc. All the standards that I've come to know and love over the years. I'm always searching far and wide (through the net) for new music to listen to. It comes in any and all forms really. Lately my new thing has been electronic music, which is a little strange for me because in the past I'd always hated electronic music because I thought it sounded bland and soul-less with no musicality. But tastes change as time goes by. Who knows, maybe there will be a time when I don't really want to hear the sound of post-bop saxophones?
     Lastly, gaming has been fun. Last night we had a smash-fest at our friends house. We were playing five player smash for a bit and it was really fun! I've played eight player smash before and that is just absolutely stupid because there's too much going on and you can't even really see the screen and what your character is doing. Once we started playing 1v1's I absolutely dominated, defeating everybody in the room convincingly. I would say my neutral game with Bayonetta has improved a lot and I've learned to switch up my style mid-match more if my opponent starts baiting and reading me. The weekly smash tournament at Fire and Dice is tomorrow (today, technically speaking) and I'm excited to go and try out my newfound skills on people there. The people at Fire and Dice are really good, some of them are even way better than me but I can still beat them if I play a nearly perfect game or pull a rabbit out of my hat. It's going to be rough but I'm going to give it all I've got and see what happens.
     I've also been playing a lot of Heroes of the Storm and Diablo III. Today I got most of the set items for Immortal Kings, a good set for Barbarians in the game. It gives me all kinds of buffs, its really sweet! In addition, I want to get back into playing more Street Fighter V but I just haven't been up to it lately. Maybe I'll play a bit tomorrow after the tournament. Life just moves so fast and there's only so much gaming you can get in on a busy day when you still have other commitments. For a while I was focusing on playing only smash but I felt like I burned out pretty quick. I have to get a variety of games in otherwise I just don't feel it. I'm still working on the Fire Emblem Fates Conquest campaign and I gotta say that the game is hella difficult. Chapter ten took me three tries to beat and all it was just a hold out mission where you had to hold out for eleven turns. Doesn't sound difficult but it took everything I had just to win. Looking forward to more chapters like that lol. I've also been watching a lot of anime at night. That's it for now, sayonara!

Gate and Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans

     I've been keeping up watching all the latest cool new anime. I've been trying to keep it down to anime with very few episodes so I don't have to put too much time into it. I am most certainly not down to watch something like One Piece or Naruto-way too many episodes.
     Gate is a really solid anime I've just started watching this week. Basically a gateway opens in modern day Japan and all these warriors, warlords, orcs, and dragons come out trying to pillage and kill everybody. Of course, modern day Japan reacts to this with advanced weaponry and easily takes out all these invaders. Then, Japan goes through the portal, creates a base of operations, and sends in this otaku main character to become a peace negotiator and stuff. He's really dumb but he's actually a really high up soldier with a code-name. He does everything in his power to help the citizens of this other world, even taking on a fire dragon to protect a town. There's a cute blonde elf girl, a gothic lolita, and young mage girl from this other world and they're pretty interesting characters. This anime started off being all about war and killing, but in the end it really turned out to be more about drama and suspense. I'm super hyped because tomorrow the last episode will be available to watch on Crunchyroll! Basically at the part I'm at the Emperor of this other world is letting the peace negotiations go on, but it seems to me like he really doesn't want to give in and let Japan have everything. So I'm thinking in the last episode there's going to be something sneaky happening. We'll see. I'll probably write a full review of the anime sometime after I've seen the last episode. Check this one out its called Gate, and don't be mistaken by Stein's Gate, which has a similar title.
     I started watching Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans today because the last episode of Gate isn't out yet. I gotta say that I don't like the art style at all. It seems to be too much of a modern anime art style. Well, I mean of course its going to be that way because it was made in 2015, but what I mean is that everything looks like it was drawn with computers. I mean, it isn't bad and it probably won't stop me from watching more of the series but it just looks like all these modern anime all have the same art style. Everything begins to look the same despite the fact that they are from different artists and maybe even different parts of Japan. Anyways, the first episode was actually pretty good. Very drama and dialogue focused but it ends with a great big battle scene against mobile suits. It was cool.
     That's all the anime I've been watching recently. Let me know of any you think are worth watching. In the past I was watching JoJo's Bizarre Adventures but I've kind of lost track of whats going on at the part I'm at. Sayonara! 

Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon

     Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon is one strange name for an anime. This anime is a harem which basically means that the main character is a guy and he's surrounded by all these girls who are fighting for attention and affection. Some people don't like this kind of anime because sometimes it can be kind of lame. But this show was awesome! The best thing about it is that its only 12 episodes, perfect for people who don't have a lot of time to put into an anime. I would say this is a great newer anime (from 2015) and I would recommend it to any anime fans out there. But first, what is this about? 

     As the name suggests, the show is about a platoon of young people (not quite kids, but not quite adults) who are studying at a school how to take out witches and stop magic from harming people. Basically its like Harry Potter except these platoons use guns, swords, and special magic things like the main character's samurai mecha armor and one of the girls uber guns that absorb blood from her body the longer she uses them. So there's some interesting ideas here and some of the fighting gets gory (a little blood, not too much). As far as plot lines go the show is pretty much all over the place. We don't really get if the Platoon is secretly like the best platoon in the entire Anti-Magic Academy. Because they take out all these magic baddies and witches yet they're labeled the worst platoon in the academy. Then suddenly everything changes when Kusanagi (the male lead character) gets this power armor that he uses a sword with (he uses a samurai sword in a world of magic and guns, comes from a samurai family) and the whole show changes. The platoon is able to tackle anything that comes across their path. The fights were okay but not great. They were short and often unsatisfying. But I still liked them because of the characters. That's where this show really shines. All the characters are interesting and you care about each of them. The platoon becomes like family. And yes it is a harem. So there's a lot of scenes where the girls are trying to hit on Kusanagi and they love his attention and affection. But I felt that this show doesn't have too much of that. I mean Tenchi Muyo, now that's a true harem. A better word to describe this anime is action and ecchi-basically playfully sexy or erotic, but not all-out sex or something vulgar. I found this element of the anime to be great! The show has a couple waifus in addition to them having great personalities and being interesting characters. In terms of cute waifus there's even a swim suit beach episode! One of the girls is a sniper on the team. Another joins the academy as the first witch. Another one uses special dueling pistols that absorb blood the longer used. And another one is the brains of the whole operation and handles technology stuffs. And then there's Kusangi leading the team into battle. And is always victorious. 

     The ending story arc of the anime is about Kusangi's sister. Apparently she has this magic power that can destroy the entire world unless she's always kept asleep. Sounds like something that doesn't make a whole lot of sense but do animes ever make sense? Back when Kusangi was a kid he could've killed her and that would've meant that the world would've been safe but he choose to run away. And now his sister asks for Kusangi to kill her so that she wouldn't have to deal with the suffering and the idea of possibly killing more people. In the meanwhile there's this evil wizard who's trying to kidnap Kusangi's sister and use her power for Valhala (some evil magic group, the main enemies). So there's a big fight and in the end Kusangi saves his sister. But at the same time its like for how long? And would've he have saved the world if he just killed her? He could've bring himself to kill her but they make it seem in the show when he's going back for her like he was going to kill her to stop her powers from destroying the whole town. Her power was a little bit weird. It was like these giant meats of flesh with eyes that could talk and attack people. And then there were these giant bats that had an eye for a body. Pretty strange stuff but it definitely fits in an anime about magic. There was a lot of sibling love at the end there. And a lot of love with and for the 35th Platoon in general. They rose together as a group and overcame every obstacle through teamwork and by "letting me carry half of your burden", Kusangi's best one liner to all the girls in the show. And they all fall head over heels for it. Came for the magic and fight scenes. Left having had a good time watching a guy and a bunch of girls develop and mature as a the 35th Test Platoon. 

Gurren Lagann

     Gurren Lagann is one of the best modern anime. Being from 2007 its a little old compared to all the new stuff like One Punch Man, Attack on Titan, and Sword Art Online. This science fiction/action anime is about a young boy and his older friend fighting these animals (monsters? not sure) called Beastmen. They fight the Beastmen in these giant mechs called Gunmen. Their goal in the beginning of the show is to overthrow the Beastmen King and bring all humans back to the surface. The King is forcing all humans to live underground, but its for a special purpose. If the population goes over a million people on the surface, something dire happens. Basically these aliens attack the Earth and stuff. None of this makes any sense! But this show is so awesome. Every episode except the compilation episode is full of great action and fighting scenes. There's a cool villain named Viral who's a Beastmen that comes to join the humans in the battle at the end. The show has a lot of cool interesting characters.
     Simon is the young boy and main character. He lacks confidence and is very unsure of himself. But with his best friend from his village Kamina he can do anything. During a battle Kamina gets killed and Simon almost never gets over it.
     Kamina is kind of the main character as well because without him the humans never would have rallied together to fight the Beastmen. He was like their official leader. He had a lot of charisma and leadership ability. He believed that Simon could help him accomplish anything he put his mind to.
     And then we have Yoko the scantily clad dame that joins these guys in the battle. She's a great shot with a battle rifle and she kind of has a thing for Kamina.
     Viral is a Beastmen that fights Kamina early in the show. He kind of looks like a blonde elf with sharp teeth. Basically he's a really cool character. The thing I didn't like about him was how weak he was in the show. It wasn't until the very end when he was piloting Gurren Lagann with the adult Simon that he showed his true ability. There are more interesting characters but these four really made this show. Now I'd like to tell you a bit about my favorite moments.
     The fight between kid Simon and the Beastmen King was amazing. There were moments where I thought that Simon was going to lose and that humanity was doomed for sure. But he pulls through in Gurren Lagann, surprisingly. Once the fight is over humans take to the surface and seven years pass. Now everybody's older and Simon and a battle buddy are leading the new government system. It was just awesome to see Simon as an adult and more mature. In the last episode we see an old man Simon telling a young boy that he can do anything he puts his mind to.
      The whole ending of the show was magnificent. It's kind of hard to say what happened at the end but I'll try. Basically these aliens that are so advanced that they live in their own space/time dimensions attacked the Earth with this advanced spacecraft weaponry. Their plan was to drop the moon on top of the Earth so our heroes had to come up with a plan quickly.
     To summarize this was one hell of a an anime. Everything was just good. The story didn't make sense but that doesn't matter in anime. At least it never mattered to me. The characters really carried this show hard. It was a great journey with them and learning all of their individual stories. The fighting scenes in this anime were also very well done. How can you not love giant mechs fighting? This reminded me of my days as a youth watching Gundam Wing. Although Gurren Lagann isn't as serious and has a more happy and comical effect. Definitely watch this anime if you haven't seen it. It's one of the best out there. Listen up, Simon. Don't believe in yourself. Believe in me! Believe in the Kamina who believes in you!

One Punch Man

 
     One Punch Man is simply put one of the greatest anime I've ever seen. I can compare this anime to something great like Dragon Ball Z, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, and Gundam Wing. This is the reason Japan is awesome (among other things like great music). This is a very basic anime. It's a bit of a comedy with a bit of drama and lots of action. It's all about this guy named Saitama and he's a hero for fun. He wanted to become strong so he did this crazy training regiment where he trained so hard that he went bald. And now he's the greatest fighter out of all the heroes. In the show there are other heroes who are ranked in a list online and they're all different. There's this one old guy who's a martial arts fighter. Then there's this gay guy who gets naked and is super powerful. Then there's a young woman who has psychic abilities. Then there's Saitama's disciple, a cyborg named Genos who isn't really that powerful but somehow managed to rank up to S rank, higher than Saitama on the hero scale. There's all kinds of baddies in the show, like a Bee woman, a cyborg gorilla, bald headed footmen in power armor, a giant monster man made in a lab, and the last enemy (and the only one who could take one punch w/o dying) the alien at the end of the story. The thing that I like about this anime is that the fighting is so great. There's so much destruction and chaos. The anime is a little gory as well, as well, things get smashed into a bloody pulp from one punch.
     This is one of the best new anime and it's a must watch for any serious anime fan. But it did leave behind some questions. The 12th episode ends on a note that there won't be any more. However, there was a lot of unknown cliffhangers. On the 12th episode this ninja warrior guy who fought Saitama earlier in the show tells Genos to watch out for Black Knight (another hero), and that Black Knight's not his friend. Also, we never had a truly great fight where Saitama was fighting someone who was equal to his level of power. Even the alien at the end said when he was dying that Saitama was holding back and that he never even had a chance to begin with. It was a great fight visually and the music was awesome but come on, this uber powerful alien King of the Universe died in two punches! Talk about an anticlimactic way to end a great show. But I can't be mad because the whole show was just so good. Another thing left unanswered is the fact that the ninja guy fought Saitama earlier and they were suppose to eventually fight again. This ninja guy was like the only guy who could really stand a chance against Saitama and it would've been great to see them duke it out. Because of these unknowns I don't think that this series is over. I believe that they will make a second season. I was on reddit reading about it and people believe there will be a second season in maybe a year or two. That would be sick.
     Lastly, there's so many memorable moments from this anime. Lately I've been watching a lot of anime, mostly because I'm subscribed to Crunchyroll and I feel like I have to keep watching a lot to get my money's worth. When I finished Hunter x Hunter I took a long break but now I'm watching Gurren Laagan, which is turning out to be another great anime. It's an old one from 2007 that I missed. GL's (Gurren Laagan) about these humans who are forced to live underground by some kind of monster King but the humans fight back using Gunmen (basically giant mechs). It's so cool. I could compare it to other great mecha anime like Gunsword, Gundam Wing, and Evangelion. Anyways, One Punch man is just amazing. You have to see it if you like anime. Chances are if you've been on the internet a lot, you've seen all the One Punch Man memes, quotes, and pictures. They are literally everywhere on Facebook. There's a lot of great cosplays too. This anime is a 10/10, must watch!

Update 1.05-Competetive Gaming, New Headset, Dirty Bomb Beta, Plans

     Lately, things have been fabulous. I had the weekend off, went to a concert, hung out with a friend, did a lot of gaming, and hung out with my older bro. It was so fantastic that it kind of changed my outlook on life at the moment! Spent the day at work thinking about plans for the future, things I wanted to get for my birthday next month, stuff like that.
     First of all, I got a brand new gaming set from Gamestop, my favorite store. It's a HyperX Cloud pro gaming headset endorsed by ESL, MLG, and Intel Extreme Masters. It's pretty nice, I've only had it for 3 days and I can honestly say that I got my moneys worth. It wasn't cheap either, it came at a price of $69.99, which is a steal because online they go for $79.99. I gotta say that these are the best headphones I've ever had. When I'm playing Call of Duty Advanced Warfare, I can actually hear people's footsteps coming up behind me as I'm running around. Pretty sick. In addition, the headset is great for music too, I listened to a lot of music today and it works well for that as well. Not too shabby. The thing about gaming headsets is that the price range can go from $100-to over $300 but when you're going that far you might as well just get great regular sounding headphones that audiophiles use, and not just stick to just gaming headsets. Anyways, it was expensive because its a brandname (HyperX), which is part of Kingston technology, they do everything from computer memory, ssd, usb drives, headsets, and mouse pads. Here's a little info about the headset here if you're interested-http://www.kingston.com/us/hyperx/cloud#h3cl. Basically, the best thing about this headset is that I can game without that feeling that I have something on my head, sometimes it feels like I'm wearing nothing at all, nothing at all (thumbs up if you got that reference).
     Next, with the addition of the HyperX Cloud of course I got into some major gaming, some might call it major league gaming (ha, get it?). I haven't tested the headset on all my games but I did test it out on the ones I play the most. Mainly Heroes of the Storm. I've gotten so into Heroes that in some ways I've become a god at it. I mostly play competitively but I'm still in the unranked stage in the ranked matches ranked thing. I really want to get a team and play on it exclusively and talk through vent or teamspeak and really enjoy the game that way but I don't know enough players who play it as much as I do. My favorite characters to play in Heroes are Novazon Nova (Nova w/ the Amazon skin from Diablo II), Leouric (from Diablo III, that's a cosplay of him in the picture), and Kerrigan (from Starcraft II). I'm honestly great with all three of those characters but I do play them all to do those quests that the game has. When you complete quests you earn in game gold that can be used to buy characters, mounts, and skins. I've unlocked most of my characters that way, although I did finally break down and buy a Blizzard card to buy the Novazon skin. I still have $10.01 left but I'm going to save it until there's something really cool that comes out in the game. Anyways, I've been playing Heroes really competitively and so far I've been pretty successful. I didn't think I'd ever be good at a moba. League of Legends and Dota 2 are way harder than Heroes but that still doesn't make Heroes an easy game for noobs. No filthy casual here.
     Also, I've been playing competitively in Smash 4 3ds. I figured out that I will be using 3 mains: Fox as my number 1 character, Zero Suit Samus when I can take things easy, and Sheik when I want to try to throw my opponent off. I usually play late online on For Glory. I've gotten so into Smash 4 that I've been thinking about saving up and buying a Wii U for my birthday next month. Might have to save up a little and spend less money because even used Wii U's go for $260, and that's the one with the smallest storage space. I don't need the Wii U but it would be nice to play online against people with better graphics and not having to look at a tiny ass screen. Sometimes the stages are so bright on that tiny screen that I can hardly see when I'm in battles. In addition, it would be a good investment because I'm thinking about going to Smash tournaments with my friends in the future and for the most part everyone plays the Wii U version at these tournaments. It's a great game and a fantastic E-sport as well. My favorite Smash pros are Mew2King, Zero, Mango, and Korean DJ, I'm the stereotypical Smash Brothers fan xD. By the way, I can beat most people online with ease but every once in a while there are people who are just on a different level than me. I have a win rate of about 50% at the moment in For Glory.
      Next, I decided to partake in this fps (first person shooter) beta called Dirty Bomb. This is a great tactical, objective, and team-based fps game where you choose from about 12 hero soldiers that all have special abilities; like orbital strikes, healing, and throwing out ammo packs to your teammates. I only played it just yesterday and I can honestly say the game is amazing. It's only in beta so it can only get better. The only bad thing I noticed is that even though its still in beta, there is a cash shop, which sorta makes it pay to win in my opinion. The thing that I like about this game is that it isn't about who can get the most kills or headshots, its about working as a team to complete the objectives. Without the objectives you can't win, which is an awesome idea for fps's. I heard about the game because steam emailed me about it telling me to participate in the beta. For the longest time I held off because I am not particularly into fps's. But I saw TotalBiscuit's review for it on the youtubes and I was pretty impressed with it. It can only get better with this winning formula of objectives over kills or team deathmatch stuff that is prevalent in fps's.
     Lastly, I'm waiting on the next Starcraft expansion to come out. My pre-order for the deluxe edition says its coming out on December 31st, so it will be after Christmas. I'm thinking about starting to play Starcraft II again competitively so I can gain my skills back and get back where I was, maybe try to get higher in the online ranking system. Last time I left off was in Gold League, at number 1 or 2, so I can easily get into Plat, if I try hard enough. The ranking system goes like this-bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, masters, and grandmasters. Koreans are all grandmasters. Us Americans have to work harder at it haha. Also want to work on playing Warcraft III, I've always loved the game but I've never played it long enough to understand the mechanics, especially online in 1v1 matches. When I did play I mained the Undead race because of the Death Knight hero. Also, in November I want to get a BlizzCon virtual ticket so I can follow everything that happens, especially the Starcraft tourneys, I know some sick Korean players will be there. One day I'll have to go to BlizzCon with my bro, he's gone once with his buddies. It's always in Anaheim, here in California. As you can tell, I am a huge nerd, haha! Then, there's going to the jam sessions for the Baked Potato on Mondays as well. So I'm really stepping up my guitar game as well as competitive gaming skills. Also, there's anime that I want to watch too; JoJo's Bizarre Adventures, Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece. So many plans! I hope you all had a great summer and enjoy the fall coming up soon here in September, my favorite month because of my birthday and my step-dad's birthday. Figueroa out.