on earth as it is in heaven ;; life, the universe and everything
Alright, I’m being hosted, so I’m abandoning this old blog. However, it’s going to stay here, I have emotional detachment issues and also because for like a week, I poured a lot of useless work into this. There ya have it. Find me here, but it’s still not finished or anything, so yeah.
Thanks for read, XD, I doubt anyone did.
We all the red haired heroine of what is turning out to be my favorite show running right now touts a large sniper rifle everywhere and is a damn fine marksmen (or should I say markswoman) with it. If you ever look at the pictures, that rifle is huge. It’s almost as tall as she is!! For a person who’s pretty obsessed with mecha, guns and most military (predominantly military history) related things, I started to wonder just exactly what kind of rifle it could possibly be. And so this post was born.
To begin with, we’re not going to dwell on technicalities, like whether it’s gas operated or blow back or recoil or whether it’s a semi automatic or full or both, I’m just judging by aesthetics to locate a possible inspiration. I’m obviously not going to find an exact copy of Yoko’s rifle, but I’m gonna try.
Yoko’s rifle packs a lot of power, judging from the damage (namely blowing a gaping hole through Adine’s ganmen and destroying Nia’s hair,) I’m guessing it fires a pretty big caliber bullet. Think along the lines of a .50 cal or more. Anyways, it looks like the magazine is detachable and it can’t carry that many rounds even though she shoots and never seems to reload.
There are no good pictures (discounting screen shots because I’m too lazy) of Yoko and her actual rifle. I managed to find a picture of an action figure that will suffice for now.
Figure 1. Yoko and Rifle
Okay, so ignoring the stock design, the abnormally long barrel and other minor details the closest thing I could find that fired a .50 caliber bullet and looked remotely like her rifle is a Barrett M82.
To quote Wikipedia
The M82 rifle is a high-powered heavy sniper rifle developed by the American Barrett Firearms Company. It is currently used by many units and armies around the world, including the American Special Forces. It is also called the “Light Fifty” for its .50 caliber BMG (12.7 mm) load. The weapon is found in two variants — the original M82A1 (and A3) and the bullpup M82A2. The M82A2 is no longer manufactured, though XM500 can be seen as its spiritual successor, in that it also employs a bullpup configuration.
Anyways, it looks something like this
Figure 2. M82 ‘Light Fifty’
The M82 is about 31 pounds and depending on the variants 48 or 57 inches (almost five feet.) Assuming that Yoko is a bit over five feet, it’d come up to her chin or maybe shoulder, my math is shaky. Disregarding the detachable rear grip, it comes pretty close to Yoko’s rifle.
Figure 3. The .50 cal (12.7mm)
For a size reference, the .50 cal is about five inches. I’m not sure if fives will do that much damage to a pretty big ganmen and destroy a Nia’s pretty blue and yellow hair, but it can do some pretty series damage. There are other rifles that can fire higher caliber bullets, like the XM109 which fires a 25mm round, and also manufactured by Barrett. It’s about 46 inches, 33 pounds and has a range of about 2000 meters. A .50 cal is about 12.7mm. The XM109 fires a round that’s about twice the caliber of a .50, and a .50 is pretty big.
Figure 4. M82 vs. Yoko’s Rifle
Alright, so it’s a very crudely cropped picture of Yoko’s rifle against an M82 with the bipod folded. The stock and butt of the rifles are pretty different and for our intended purposes it’s a pretty good match. The muzzle brake on Yoko’s a bit bigger, pretty sure it’s just for decoration.
This whole post was decidedly pointless. I’m pretty sure half the things I said here aren’t technically correct and no one will read, but, hell, I was bored, I like guns, I love Gurren Lagann, can’t blame me for wasting my own time. But if anyone ever wants to cosplay Yoko and has a thing for large caliber rifles that cost about $8000 a pop, buy a M82 or any of it’s variants.
Right, because I wasn’t able to watch the anime online and sure as hell didn’t have the patience to wait for bittorent last night, I just went and read the manga. With the advent of Claymore, a series actually true to it’s manga predecessor, I was hoping that it’d be the same for D.Gray Man…Then I somewhat realized, D.Gray Man probably started before Claymore…and eh, whatever. I went and read it.
And by the time I made it halfway through the manga, I was honestly screaming, “What the hell!! What the hell!!! WHAT THE HELL!??!!?!” So much happened, god the plot got so DAMN complicated and it was just like, christ. I never thought D.Gray Man was like this. The whole church and exorcist thing and their funny uniforms covered in holy symbols was the thing that kinda drove me away from the series, manga and anime, but after having a taste of both, booy what the hell did I miss out on?
So, right after that thing with Suman (it’s so weird because I know someone named Suman and I’m not quite fond of him) and Allen almost getting by Tikki, I can honestly say the whole thing went to hell and then several chapters later came back. They’re looking for Cross man, giant disembodied thing appears in the sky. Walker goes to save it, Walker can’t, Walker is furiously frustrated and going through a semi-emotional breakdown. Tikki guy shows up, does this, does that, plows through Walker’s heart, destroys his left arm and innocence, leaves him for dead. Linali and Lavi does looking for Walker because Walker sent Timcanpi to them. Walker’s not there. He got picked up by a bunch of Chinese guys.
You know what, I’m not even going to TRY to summarize, dear god. Let’s just leave it as it, being totally mind blowing. Judging from the direction that the anime is headed in after episode 26, I’m sure that they’re not following the same plot line which really really disappoints me. But anyways, I’ll keep up with both.
Alright, pretty much tried to watch all 37 available episodes of D.Gray Man because while attempting to blog about Gurren Lagann I saw a pic of this “Allen Walker” kid and decided he was cute enough for me to check into the series. So half way through, at around episode 23 at three or four in the morning Veoh.com stopped working. It does that sometimes, it just stops working and it really pissed me off. So, I went and read all of the available manga chapters, skipping the first…forty…under the assumption that they’re the same with the anime.
Alright, so first impressions of the anime….
I loved the opening theme, it’s another abingdon school boys song. All things aside the plot was just so damn interesting. It reminds so much of my experience with FullMetal Alchemist. Maybe it was the whole there’s an organization of people with super powers! Yeah, I’m way too FMA obsessed and link instantaneously everything and anything to FullMetal Alchemist (and occasionally WWII.)
Anyways, I thought it was pretty strange they called the source of this power “innocence.” Is it supposed to be symbolic? As in when they scream “WHERE IS THE INNOCENCE?!” it’s an outraged metaphoric scream about the total lack of innocence in the world? Or did ‘innocence’ just have a nice ring to it? Anyways, after twenty something episodes, the terminology stopped bothering me.
As for the characters, I’m in love with Allen Walker. Couldn’t help it. Since I’m winding down from my Gundam Wing nostalgia, he reminds of Quatre so much. The fact that Quatre is a platinum blond and Walker has grey hair, the fact that they’re just SO DAMN NICE! It’s a killer, to me anyways, when the main character is a nice, I-can’t-hurt-people, I-have-to-save-everyone-even-if-it-means-I-die kinda guy. And Allen here fits that role so perfectly.
The first several arcs of the anime really caught my attention and probably choked me to death with my own emotions. What really made an impact on me was the Aria of the Old Man Earth and the Night Sky. Guzol and Lala, their love and how they wanted to be together until the end, that stupid akuma and all that STUFF that happened. Oh man, it killed me. And then Allen goes all nutty and Kanda was being such a bitch and, and and….You’re just sitting there in front a little player in a web browser, crappy low resolution fansubbed anime and it’s managed somehow to make me weep almost. It really bothers that what brings forth such odd emotions from me some people consider childish because it’s animated or ‘meant for kids’. I don’t get it.
For all the emotional agony it put me throw, D.Gray Man has so much humor! It’s funny! It’s so funny! Every character at one point or another provides comic relief and it comes at the right time too.
Oh! Another FMA connection! Kanda calls Allen bean sprout! Roy calls Ed shrimp! They both gets so pissed off about it! Yeah! Ehehe….right.
Anyways, since I’m not done with all 37 the long summarization can wait, I’m not sure if I’m going to write one for this, the plot is crazy (just like FMA!) But anyways, I’ll start blogging about this, see it through to the end and what not. It was good, I say that about everything, but it is.
Alright, oh man, I’ve been for waiting for 13 for a damn long time and finally, someone had it up on Veoh. And now, I’m going to blog about it. Well, I noticed that I have this marvelous habit of writing huge, tedious summaries that I’m guessing no one reads so, I’m going to try something new this time…BULLET POINTS! Yeah, a quick summarization of only the important things that happened because no one wants to listen to me blab when you can, honestly, just go and watch it.
Plot Points (haha, plot points…bullet points…funny, you know? Eh….) Okay, so the story picks up where it left off with Clare and Raki parting, Ophelia chasing after Clare and all that…
Preview Eep, I caught a flash of Ophelia’s boobs. I guess even after awakening she returned her human…body. Maybe not so human. And then there’s a shot of some girl with one eye and you know previews don’t really help. The text that comes with previews do not help…but I guess I don’t want them to, they’ll spoil everything.
Musings/Comments Alright, so first off, I just thought of this, what if an Awakened Being killed Ophelia’s brother? Am I reaching here? Did it not happen in the manga? But yeah, that thought just hit me. These two episodes she’s been in she’s always talked about how much she wants to kill Awakened Beings. Earlier in this episode, when Clare still had her body parts, Ophelia goes: I’m going to kill every single one of you Awakened Beings. That’s obviously not word for word but it seems like both her and Clare has it out for these transcendental monsters. Ironically enough Clare broke her limit and Ophelia here just transcended. Her latest transformation really shakes my theory here but anyways.
And that theory from last time that Clare and Raki would part for a while, oh…I’m actually saddened by this. But, it’s interesting the direction it’s headed. I was hoping for a while through the episode that Clare would regenerate her right arm, seeing how she has a thing (like most protagonists) to defy the impossible. But it didn’t happen. I’m hoping she gets her right arm back, so she knows the Flash Sword and has both arms to kick Priscilla’s ass.
I’m less for the whole “die Ophelia you evil maniacal bitch” after the scene in the rain. It occurred to me that she too might have her own reasons for being the way she is. Maybe on the inside she’s just a scared and lost little girl wishing for her brother. I’m guessing that her family life is non existent and her childhood past tragic, like everyone else’s. This series really has a knack for dealing out characters, really good, solid characters. I’m hoping her own grudge against life gets straightened out, but now she’s an Awakened One, I’m not so sure what she’s going to do…Eeep.
We’re also halfway through the series, exactly. Man, I’m glad I saw that screen shot of Clare and Raki kissing or I would’ve missed out on one hell of a great series.
Alright, I admit, I’ve never seen Endless Waltz. I just did. It feels like I’ve been shot several times and it hurts like hell. I wanted more out of the story. I don’t know, maybe it’s because….I don’t know anymore. Getting shot by imaginary bullets that are probably a figment of my imagination and just me being melodramatic, but it hurts like hell…I. WANT. MORE.
Curse my ignorance, god, I wish I finished seeing GW sooner…Separation anxiety, maybe? The animation was amazing, loved it. The story….the story. Perhaps the reason GW had such a nice plot as a series was because it took forty nine episodes for it develop and fully escalate and conclude. Endless Waltz, I felt, was a bit rushed. But it served it’s purpose. I didn’t want to destroy their gundams, I’m so utterly selfish, but I didn’t want them to. But, hell, they did it anyways.
Eh, maybe because it’s almost six in the morning. Waited all night for this darn thing to finish downloading and it doesn’t even give me proper ending credits. I enjoy ending credits at the end. So that it when the screen blacks out and even the credits are over. You know it’s over! Without ending credits, it feels like I’m not seeing the ENTIRE thing. Don’t ask why, I’m just weird. I’m, if anything, going to go and buy this. I have the need to own this on DVD or something. And I sure as hell am not buying the dubbed version. I’m usually alright with dubs if I have to watch them. I mean, you’re there for the plot and the story. But after watching subbed, I couldn’t handle the dubs….Their voices…oh dear god.
However, I am rewatching it again…in English. Just for kicks.
Any case, it was good, the whole thing was good, yeah, it’s good….it’s better than good.
Gundam Wing is a blast from the past. I mean it aired in ‘95, I was three. Gundam Wing was one of those series that was such a hit in the States that almost everyone I know watched it, so you tell everyone that, “Yes, I remember Gundam Wing! Why, it was such an excellent series!”, though I barely understood the plot. It’s like an amnesiac suffering from hallucinations, walking around know fragments. It bothered me that all this time I’ve been telling people that I’ve seen the show, but I really haven’t ’seen’ the show, as if I’m just trying to be cool. Alright, I was trying to be cool, never speak of this again.
In any case, to settle with this issue that’s irked me since fourth grade and with the discovery of my unused external hard drive and the fact that my grades have not plummeted to the depth of hell, I torrent all 49 episodes of the show. It’s probably the biggest thing I’ve torrented, save for FullMetal Alchemist (I just ended up buying the thing on DVD, I loved it so much,) and had the patience to see it hit 100%. It was worth every minute.
In all honesty, the most long lasting impression I had of this series were of the five main characters. Their individual personalities, their quirks and eccentricities, their character design…just something, something about the five of them that captivated me. It was paramount that I watch this entire thing and finally understand them. They struck me as complex but at the same time simple people and it was absolutely remarkable that they’d be the protagonist of what my mother calls “cartoon.”
And, a side note, I fell in love with Quatre first.
The thing took three days for me to finish watching the entire thing. The plot has a way of convincing me thoroughly that at one point or another so-and-so managed to actually die but at the same time deny all possibilities of them killing off a main character. The thing basically had me in shreds even though I knew that if Heero blows himself up, he’s going to live because he shows up in thirty more episodes, several manga side stories, and 3 episode OVA turned movie. I can’t handle character deaths in books and anime, movie and television shows.
And you know what else was great? The gundams. Oh God, the fact that they five really adorable kids had five customized kick ass Gundams, cmon! That’s better the Matrix and Harry Potter together! To hell with magic wands and dodging bullets, say hello to my big ass laser cannon in your face.
What was even more impressive about this series is that it managed to tie everything together. There were times where I’m just looking at the plot, all that’s happening, and I’m just at a loss as to exactly how all of it will end. The whole peace and war and colonies and the earth, the Sanc Kingdom, the White Fang guys and oh my god, I was at a total loss. But they did it! They picked up every loss plot line and tied it together beautifully into a damn good ending. I have, right now, no complaints about the ending.
There’s a certain disappointment that accompanies an unfulfilled ending no matter how good the series was. But the Wing ending was good. It had that happily ever after feel and I can’t complain. I wanted that “everything is alright” feeling. I wanted have that conclusive feeling, that everything is right where it should be, that the end is only the beginning. Not a lot series give me that feeling. I can think off…half a dozen and I’ve seen a lot of animes. Sometimes you just feel like there’s something missing, there’s something missing and it just irks you. It bothers me that sometimes I don’t get the happily ever after at the end and sometimes I don’t get that feeling of closure.
And, I’m googling for scans of the manga…to no avail. I’ve managed to locate and read Ground Zero and Blind Target. However, the one that I’m most interested in, Episode Zero, the one about their past that’s like the entree to a three course dinne, I can’t seem to locate. So far, I’ve only read the one about Duo and it was everything that I expected it to be. I have to say, for a manga side story, they did a good job.
And! Endless Waltz is talking forever to download, curse my crappy wi-fi connection. It fluctuates between 4 hours and 1 hour every two seconds…Oooh, it breaks me heart.
Anyways, in conclusion, I think I’ve been in love with Gundam Wing since I saw it on TV those many, many, many (yeah, I’m overdoing it on the melodrama) years ago. Or else I probably would’ve never spent so much time watching it, googling it, waiting for it and blogging about it. It brings a certain sense of nostalgia, like going back to an old neighborhood, visiting your old school, or something as simple as digging up anime series from the ’90s. Whatever, it was a damn good show. Loved every single second. Heh.
I picked this up due to boredom and some random web surfing. I’ve never actually played any DMC games, not even at a friend’s house. Truth to tell, I love blood, gore, the bullet casings flying everywhere machine gun demon zombie action, but DMC was never really my thing. I usually got my bullet casings flying everywhere machine gun -alien- parasite action from Halo and GoW and my historical I kill Nazis with a tommy fix from the various COD games. Third person, aside from GoW because the graphics are just so beautiful I’ll deal with the fact that I suck at it, were never my thing either.
In any case, I watched the first episode, I’m not THAT impressed but this Dante character, in certain shots, is hot. Sometimes it looks like his neck is too big for his head, other times his damn silver hair and gorgeous physique makes me melt on the inside.
The first episode was basically an introduction. Starts with Dante in a bar ordering a strawberry sundae. Obviously, they laugh at him and several seconds later they turn into big ass demons things and Dante blows their heads off with that brutishly large silver gun of his. There are also a bunch of moths around, I have no idea what they’re there for. Anyways, Dante’s mission for today is apparently to deliver some millionaire heiress safely to inherit the money. The three brothers who probably doesn’t want the girl to get the money are brooding in their mansion. Long story short (as always): little girl almost gets killed, Dante saves her. Evil brothers turn into demons and tries to kill the REAL woman inheriting the money after she reveals that the little girl was actually a decoy (you clever little bitch,) Dante saves her with some sword and pistol action. The emotional issues aside, the little girl decoy (whose name I forgot, I didn’t think she’d be a permanent character) is here to stay. She fixes up Dante’s house with cute little stuff and eats his strawberry sundae (now he gets pissed, go figure) and it ends.
As to whether or not I’ll continue to watch and blog about this….maybe. I mean, the action scenes were pretty good, the character designs are nice, there is no apparent plot but I’m hoping they’ll have one. Overall, I think it’ll be interesting to see where DMC is heading, after all Tokyo Majin was a based on a game and look how nicely that one turned out. It looks somewhat promising, like a picture on a restaurant menu, always look better on the menu than it does on the plate.
Oh my god, after watching the entirety of Iroha, I go online and they have BOTH Gurren Lagann 13 AND DtB 11 subbed (finally!) Rejoice! My good fortune brings me such joy on this night. Okay, so, here’s the game plan: Darker Than Black, Gurren Lagann and then Iroha, all in one night and hopefully in the span of three hours so that I can get some sleep.
Here goooes, Darker Than Black 13! My weekly Hei fix!
Plot Okay, so the story starts off on a bus traveling down a very lonely, moderately futuristic highway, headed for PANDORA. Hei, eh, we’re gonna refer to him as Li-kun for this one because he doesn’t go all contractor and kill people in this one. So, Li’s sitting in a window seat on this bus traveling (in my opinion into an absolute lunatic hell, PANDORA gives me the creeps) to the Gate. A girl next to him asks if he believes in the urban legend that you’ll regain what you lost in the Gate but for a substantial price (this just screams FMA, the Gate? Equivalent exchange? Guys with superpowers, alchemists? Roy and Hei? Yeah? Yeah?…No?…eh, fine.) Li blinks quizzically at her and answers, “Who knows.” She chuckles at his skepticism, admitting that she doesn’t really believe in it either and introduces her self as Corinna Moku, third year (assuming she’s a junior) at Beijing University. They shake hands, he introduces himself, the entire bus starts gasping as PANDORA appears.
The magic school bus, O_o
PANDORA, in the words of Corinna, is larger than I thought. The place is completely white, I guess it adds to the scientific nature of the installation. The entrance is apparently a giant circular tunnel that leads inward to an elevated highway sandwiched between two enormous walls rising out of the ground leaving only a narrow band of the night sky visible. Shocked and in awe everyone, Li and Corinna included, are staring and gawking at the place. The actual facility soon shows up, under the eerie light of florescent street lamps the bus pulls up to the front gate. Etched above the entrance are the words: Phisicalqantity Alternation Natural Deconstruction Organized Research Agency (just what in the hell does that even mean!?) The bus continues into PANDORA and the gate. Everything on the inside is white, too. The rooms are white, the equipment is white, the MRI machine, scanner type…thing that Li’s being tested in is white. Even Li’s sister’s name is white (Bai.) Just exactly what is NOT white?!
Just exactly WHAT HELL IS PHISICALQANTITY!?!?
As to why Hei is going to PANDORA….Mao, Huang and Hei sitting on the playground slide for the mission briefing. Mao’s disbelief is evident when he finds out that they’re planning to send Hei to PANDORA, knowing the consequences of a contractor being near the gate, not to mention he probably won’t be able to, as a contractor, just waltz into the agency. Huang insists on the seriousness of the ’syndicate’ and that it must be done. Hei asks what is it they want him to do (excellent question.) Apparently the purpose for Hei’s visit to PANDORA and the gate is to retrieve, not exactly what he lost but he may just pick that up along the way, but a meteor that was the target of a failed CIA attempt under the guise of an explosion caused by faulty wiring. Mao concludes that the meteor is still in the gate, Huang confirms this and adds that the goal of the ’syndicate’ is for Hei to transport the meteor out of the gate. He pulls a matchbox out of his pocket and slides it across to Hei. At first it appears to be nothing, but the light reveals the clear rectangular sticker in the box. Huang goes down the slide, his last comment being, “Just do as you’re told. It’s business as usual,” and leaves.
That sounds so perverted, “You’re coming with me.”
Back to the present and PANDORA, after physical tests, Li’s subjected to further questioning. Do you consider yourself a patient person? Have you ever seen an UFO? Do you believe in the existence of God? Do you know any contractors? He answers “No” to all of the questions and the next scene they stamp a large 18 across his identification papers. Apparently “No” is the correct answer to everything. He also runs into Corinna again who’s looking paranoid, neurotic and hallucinating. Concerned, Li asks her what’s wrong and the girl in pink turns to him with the most crazed look in her eye. Li involuntarily jumps. She snaps out of it long enough to tell him it’s nothing and then suddenly she jerks back up and is glaring worriedly into empty space. Naive as always, Li tries to ask again what was wrong but she cuts him off halfway and shouts, “Didn’t I already say everything was fine?” Li instinctively apologizes. The commotion brings out several police officers (or would it be better to call them MPs? they don’t look civilian.) Corinna tells them it’s nothing. The people at the entrance calls next and Corinna starts walking. One of the police officers grabs her wrist, impeding her advance. She struggles and yells for them to let go, instead she gets zapped and blacks out. The officer, a rather brutish man with the typical misplaced arrogance of a know it all policeman tells his subordinates to bring her back to testing. All the while Li and the rest of the soon to be employees of PANDORA are staying and gawking at the scene. The person calls out next again and Li proceeds through the gate, the policeman watching him suspiciously all the while.
This is my mop, there are many like it but this one is mine…XD
Welcome to janitor boot camp. Armed with his trusty mop, bucket and other sanitary supplies, Private Li Shen Shung is ready to tackle the paranormal, the supernatural and his short yapping boss. Lined up with other prospective employees who, in the fine words of the unnamed, yapping boss, will provide an optimal working environment for the hardworking scientists of the institution. They’re stuck under the command of this yapping creature for the next month, even if they die. So much for rest in peace. As you can tell, I’m hating the boss even if he’s a minor cameo. Despite his lowly position as only a janitor, he needs to flaunt what minuscule power he holds and it irks me that he does so. Any case, they take a tour of the facility. Sector three is the most important sector under their cleaning jurisdiction, all of the cleaning is done at night. Halfway through his speech, Li’s distracted by a set of telescopes in the room across the hall. The boss immediately tells him that that particular room needs no cleaning, the scientist working in that lab is meticulous. Just then, Chief Sergei passes by, his entrance to the lab blocked by Li and his superior. Immediately the yapping boss pulls Li out of the way to let Sergei, a balding man with sideburns and a beard, pass by. A tan skinned girl (is it safe and non discriminatory to assume she’s Indian?) follows but bumps not so accidentally into Li causing her to drop all of her papers and Chief Sergei to ditch her. Extremely angry at his clumsy subordinate and extremely apologetic to the girl, the yapping boss yells at Li to help her pick up her stuff.
Oiy, teh library, the forbidden section, O_o
Li also picks up a note to meet the girl in A-3 equipment room in an hour. They meet in A-3 equipment room in an hour (strangely reminiscent of underground library stacks I visit sometimes.) The supposedly Indian girl is Li’s man on the inside, if you will. She states that she knew that they were sending in someone to work in sanitation. Li asks if there are any other people from the ’syndicate’. The answer is yes but it’s of no real help since she confesses in the next sentence that she doesn’t know any of them. She also bluntly states that she will be of no help whatsoever. She joined the ’syndicate’ for the sake of researching in PANDORA and nothing else. Two years passed with no word from her parent organization, until now. She tells him not to rely on her and since it’s Hei we’re talking about, he doesn’t need to rely on anyone. Li also asks her about the meteor. She doesn’t know much about that either, but researching it’s origins is invaluable to solving the mystery behind the gate. Rambling on about the meteor, she realizes it has nothing to do with the actual mission and takes her leave, saying that if anything comes up, she will tell him. Also, she adds that her name is Mina Khandar Swami (I think it’s safe to call her Indian now) and that the translucent sticker Huang gave him isn’t necessary. There are no ways to tell who’s a contractor.
Ah yes, I insist on wrapping myself with a large hideous brown towel when stargazing.. ._.
Back on the job or maybe, on the contrary, off the job, Li wanders into the telescope room. Just as he is about to place a hand on the telescopes a voice tells him to stop. The voice belongs to a blonde man, the meticulous scientist of this lab. He tells Li that he’s in the middle of an experiment and left explicit instructions not to clean this room. Apologizing, Li lies or maybe not, and tells him that he use to have telescopes just like the ones in the lab, Satake models. Possibly surprised the scientist asks if Li’s a stargazer. He replies yes, but before the sky disappeared. The scientist, after asking for Li’s name, invites him to see a ‘real’ star.
They’re up on a room, each with a large brown sheet wrapped around them, I’m assuming it’s either cold or all stargazers working for a craze facility in the near future take large blankets with them. Some telescope techno jargon later, the scientist peers into the telescope. Curiously enough, the sky’s gone and they are no stars to be seen, Li inquires what exactly was the guy doing. He replied, with a matter of fact tone that he’s stargazing. No matter what happens to the sky, he remains in complete denial, loyal to his stargazing hobby. He asks Li to take a look. Li sees nothing and reports this to the scientist. The scientist, a blonde man with what looks to be green eyes, is pretty mild mannered, congenial man, the kind that makes a good father (in my opinion anyways) and on the flip side all the kind most liable to go crazy in the second half of this arc for some insane cause. Anyways, the scientist tells Li to forget everything (easier said than done), forget the moon isn’t there, forget the fabrication of the sky, the disappearing rockets, everything and just remember and envision what the night sky use to be. Li takes his advice and upon gazing a second time into the telescope, he is astonished to see actual stars. He immediately asks why and the scientist gives him the hand wave-y subpar answer that the impossible is possible within the gate. Then the scientist gets all philosophical and asks Li what would happen if all the people in the world undergoes this epiphany. He concludes that only then will they be able to see the true sky. Li gives him the most skeptical of looks and the man chuckles telling Li he is a honest man, his face speaking the words of disbelief for him. Then he tells Li that he should join his group, him and his sister who is unable to move apparently. The scientist adds that someday he wants to remove the false sky and take his sister into space. Knowing that Li also has a sister, although not incapacitated in the sense that she can’t move, but being a far removed entity, he wishes that the man’s dreams would come true one day.
The next day, Li sees Corinna in the lunchroom. She’s acting even weirder, making an absolute mess of her food, even crushing her milk carton. Li’s situated across the table from her with a large bowl of ramen, chopsticks in midair when she start screaming at her hallucinations. Freaking out completely she mutters something about getting out of here. Li looks alarmed and asks her how. She continues to mutter incoherently about handing ‘it’ over to a man and after screaming about betraying the country and mama, about how she is who she is, she runs out of the empty cafeteria. The scientist holding a beverage carton walks past, commenting in her present state it might be hard to return to society. Li divulges to him about her plans of escape, both men not knowing exactly how she was going to accomplish said escape. The scientist declares her statement a cause for concern and leaves. The yapping janitor boss, with his own bowl of ramen, watches.
Traveler’s myth #4: American spies do not work in Japan
Later that night, as Corinna takes apart a telescope in the off limits lab, she hears a noise. Stupidly she shines the light on the main entrance, nothing was there, she sighs and continues. Several seconds later, she’s electrocuted and dies. At this point you think it’s Hei, that creepy contractor background music was even playing and it’s evident that Hei, BK201, is the only contractor thus far able to manipulate electricity.
The lab is quarantined. Li asks a fellow employee what happened and the man tells him that Corinna was murdered. Looking considerably shocked, whether sincere or insincere, Li before being able to do anything, is framed by the yapping janitor boss (very suspicious…) and is taken away for interrogation. The yapping boss even claims to have seen it with his own eyes (at this point I’m thinking he did it, then of course, he saw it with his own eyes.) There are so many despicable, conniving characters in this episode. The police guy is one of them. He, stupidly, asserts that if Li killed Corinna, it was a crime of passion. However, his test results confirm that Li was innocent. The police guy tells the yapping boss to keep an eye on Li after the interrogation.
Gestapo, O_o, still can’t believe a corporal is in charge
Li, suffering from the side affects of the interrogation runs into the Indian girl. Meeting again in A-3 equipment room or where ever, she asks if Li really didn’t kill her. He replies that he had no reason. She muses whether or not contractors really need a reason to kill. Moderately ‘upset’ by the incident and her comment, Li tells her coldly that if she has nothing else to say then she should leave. Finally realizing that Li might be ‘upset’ by this situation, she explains that she was simply surprised, assuming that like other contractors, he’d be emotionless. Then she pries further into who was the actual killer, but stops herself from making anymore unnecessary comments. Li tells her that is he wants to continue her research she should not act alone.
Later in a phone conversation, the police guy tell someone (who?) that Corinna was CIA and had asked in exchange for her departure from PANDORA that she’ll hand over the meteor. Judging from the stripes on his uniform, I’m thinking he’s either military or paramilitary. Also, two stripes, he’s a corporal by American NCO ranks. There’s an announcement over the facility loudspeaker system dictating that Chief Sergei, bald man with side burns and beard, is going to conduct a surveillance run with a camera gadget of sorts. Li, among a handful of others, is summoned. Apparently, the people gathered is for more data. Nick, the stargazer in denial, “I have a dream” scientist also shows up, being apart of the Third Sector team. Patting Li on the back, Nick confides in Li’s innocence saying that he’s not the type to kill people. He also says he understands the harshness of an interrogation, wonder why…
Two words: Oh, shit
The surveillance run starts. The little camera gadget hums through the ruins inside the gate, zooming in past a car, the scientists discover a previously non existent crater and this new development, Chief Sergei notes, will force them to redraw all of their present maps. Right about now, Li starts going a bit crazy. The Indian girl notices. Freaking out and breathing increases, Li sees an image of his missing sister by the white van. Her lips are moving, no words, and it fades out. To the scientists, this incident translates into a large blue flash that Sergei concludes was the meteor.
Preview Flashbacks, I’m assuming of Bai and Hei when they were young, stargazing together with what looks to be a Sakate telescope. He’s standing in a large pool of blood, his sister talking with streaks of blood down her face, he’s shaking hands with Nick-san, the weeping Indian, something about the starry sky being the mirror I saw you with, contractors not dreaming (neither do electric sheep, or do they?) I really, never truly understood their previews, I just go along with the transcendental…vagueness and ambiguity of these ramblings, it sounds like Yin.
Comments Oh boy, it looks we hit the jackpot this time! So much plot development (XD Draft Saved at 3:33:33, just had to get that in there.) A LOT of stuff happened in this, more than I anticipated. I guess it’s logical, it’s approaching the midway point of the series. Alright, so here’s my random…musing, if you will.
THAT YAPPING JANITOR MAN IS EVIL! That guy with the bad haircut and squinty eyes is bad business, I’m telling you. I don’t like who he’s pretending to be and I sure as hell won’t like who he actually is. Then again, everything I say can be wrong, but that guy got on my bad side. For one thing, his presence in the lunchroom during the Corinna-Hei encounter I found to be suspicious. AND the fact that he framed Hei for Corinna’s murder sets off the alarm. The man said that the video surveillance cameras were broken, yet the yapping janitor boss insists that he saw it with his own eyes, what’s up with that?
And then there’s Nick-san. I really have no misgivings about him, I actually find him to be a pretty decent character. If he dies, I’m going to be pretty sad, I dislike it when nice guys dies. But there’s always the possibility of Nick-san turning into a dream obsessed lunatic. Anyways, I don’t think that’ll happen.
In any case, regarding Hei and Li…They are completely different people. This character confirms and shakes my assertions that Hei is an excellent actor and liar, but also the honesty and sincerity with which Li acts with Nick-san in that scene makes me wonder. Perhaps he’s like a rainbow with the red and the violet but nt quite all of the colors in between. At one point, he would’ve been a blank slate, emotionless like the rest of the contractors. But somehow he managed to salvage a few colors of his personality. Is he a living collage….of something? Or maybe it’s all him, all one person, he just acts according to his situation. He steps back into Hei when he speaks with the girl so effortlessly, I wonder..
Also, as a side note, it says on his identification papers earlier in the episode where they stamp it, that he’s Chinese. Is he actually Chinese? This show incorporates many Chinese aspects, especially in the last segment where it….pretty darn Chinese. Alice, Wei, Misaki’s dress….Not to mention the people’s names, Hei, Bai, Mao, Yin, Huang. Strangely enough, with my bad Chinese I managed to pick up on their names and their meanings early on and it was (Haha, draft save time 3:43:34, don’t ask, it was just funny) pretty….funny. The guy’s name is black, literally. Imagine replacing Hei with Black. And also, they pronounce it He-ey, almost like mispronouncing horribly ‘hey’, but in Chinese, hei is monosyllabic. Also, when I realized his sister’s name is Bai, I had such a laughing fit. It was so….obviously! Hei and Bai, black and white, the ying and yang thing. And before the preview for this episode I always thought the girl in white in the opening was his sister. Now I’m at a loss again as to who she is.
This was the first episode I really paid attention to who was backing Hei’s operations. This ’syndicate’ thing bugs me. Reminds me so much of Bebop and that ’syndicate’. Remember what happened with that? Ooh, the Bebop ending tore my heart into pieces. I loved that show. I have this ominous feeling that this ’syndicate’ thing is going to ram horns with PANDORA and the November 11 people and tossed up in there will be Misaki and the police and in the center of all of it, Hei and his sister. I hope it’s going to be epic, I love it when it’s epic. Either it’s epic as in it’s action packed and just…grand and fantastic when it ends, or it’s epic on a lesser more emotional scale. I’ll do for both as long as it’s damn good.
The last, I swear, the last thing on my mind: why does Darker Than Black remind me of FMA somewhat? Is it the fact that they have a “Gate” too? Or the whole you need to pay a price thing in the beginning, Equivalent Exchange ring any bells? And alchemists and contractors? Maybe I’m just over thinking, but I’m beginning to see some parallels.
Anyways, overall, this episode was good. It was good, thought provoking, no steep cliffhangers but I’m itching to see what Bai is all about and exactly what the hell happened with her and South America. I’m also interested in November 11 who played a minute role with Havoc and is sure to return as a perennial villain in this. I’m hoping Darker Than Black is finally taking off, I want the plot to escalate because it has such potential. Oh man, did we hit the jackpot.
Okay, okay, okay, 13 hours of straight anime watching, my eyes, my poor eyes are bleeding but it was so worth it. This show, this show killed me and I enjoyed every goddamn second of my death, I swear. I’m at a total loss for words, as in, I have an inability to speak, speaking is, it’s, oh my dear god. Two words: watch it. WATCH THIS! After I rewatch my favorite episodes three times I’m going to blog about this, I will be back, I swear, this show is the new love of my life. Among several other things.
