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After years and generations of surface pro 2 and pro 4, I am finally switched! (note, this is early review, will update as I use the device more and more
Recently picked up this https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-spectre-x360-2-in-1-13-3-uhd-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i7-16gb-memory-512gb-solid-state-drive-poseidon-blue/6301163.p?skuId=6301163
before you say anything, yes I know it does not have a dedicated GPU, but I already have a stationary PC that's powerful enough for gaming, this is used for portable work and entertainment
I got the 512G, 16G ram, i7 version, not going to list all the spec as you can view from the link above
Pro:
best in class keyboard on laptop
color accurate 4k bright screen
long lasting battery life
very light (about 1.2kg) and premium build (yes it can definitely turn some eyeballs)
Con:
Trackpad (using synaptic driver, it is been the biggest complain in the past few generations and I am surprised HP still hasn't switched over to Windows precision driver)
The bigger than modern top bottom bezel, this is purposely designed this way for gripping since this is 2 in 1, but in my case I don't use the screen veridically
Surface pro 4, Mac book pro (use for work), spectre x360
and if you ask why I need a 2 in 1 ? this is the answer (GalGame!)
I briefly owned Lenovo Yoga C930 before this one, the biggest issue that caused me to return C930 is their screen panel has a warm tone
which I heard it is good for displaying asian skin color, but I didn't like that, and did different color profile and calibration which did not work
lastly, here is some pictures taken from my new work place (Time Square)
Due Defect unit of my previous setup, decided to pull the trigger on this upgrade (also small treat for myself for the new job)
Here are just some day one impressions
When talk about tube amps, people generally say they are warm and smooth, it gives me an impression that it is best for midrange frequency
You know me, I like Japanese music and Anime, it is full of female vocals
they are very rich in the high frequency spectrum, to the point sometimes even piercing trebles
For that reason I was hesitating for not picking a solid state amp, after hear numerous good things about Schiit products I decided to give it a try
The Valhalla is not tubey at all, neutral, it preserves the brightness of my HD800
Of course early input means it hasn't completely burn-in yet, but as of now it suits me very well and I don't need any tube rolling
As for the Bifrost, there is not much to talk about other than delivers cristal clear details, very good sense of sound stage
note that this setup has high amount of output, and it is designed specifically for high impedance headphone like my HD800 (600 ohm)
And I forgot to mention the DAC and AMP are all made in USA while the headphone is hand made in Germany
This is just my review of recent personal owned HD800, HE-400i, AD900X
Since I have owned many other headphones currently and in the past, I feel that I should have a good taste of the audio world
My desktop setup: P1 > M8 > VA2
This is the SMSL stack consists of power supply, DAC and AMP
Sennheiser HD800 was widely regarded as world's best consumer headphone when it was released
Til today it is still considered by many, the best dynamic headphone in the world
Sennheiser is known for making legendary audiophile headphones like HD600 and HD650
despite those two being over 20 years old, many still recommend them as one of the best entry level
Now back to the HD800 impressions
The sound is crystal clear and accurate, use it to listen to music I have been listening for many time before and I would notice some details that I have never heard before
Being a neutral headphone, suitable for almost any type of music
No matter low, mid or treble, the headphone outputs amazing sound from whatever you throw at it
This is very AMP picky headphone for very good reason, because it will show every single detail so having a bad source will give you same result (also poor recording as well)
And I was skeptical when people told me you can hear the differences in bad recording VS master recording, I sincerely believe it now after listened to this phone
even though you can drive it with your smartphone，but to get the best performance out of this pair of cans, you will need a dedicated setup
HD800 A/B compare against HE-400i (It is not a fair comparison, more like if you upgrade here is the main difference you will get)
First thing I noticed is HD800 opens up a huge sound-stage
Despite both headphones are fully open back design, meaning if I talk to someone while having them on my head, I would be able to hear every single word like I am not wearing anything at all
So in comparison, the HE400i sounds narrow
both headphones have great charity but unlike the HE400i
HD800 has very bright and energetic vocal
In comparison, when female vocals reach their highest point, that impact is missing in the HE400i, while it is well presented in the HD800
at high frequency it might be little piercing for some but it all comes down to personal preference
In regard to this, I have to talk a little bit about myself, I love Japanese Anime and the shows are very much female voice centered
when I watch anime with HD800, those brightness piercing female voices sound extremely satisfying
At comfort stage, HD800 is little lighter than HE400i in terms of weight
However when I put it on my head, the comfort level is not just a little
this is due to overall design of HD800 that evenly distributes its weight with headband and earpads
it doesn't have the huge clamping force like HE400i
Normally with other phones, you eye glasses bands with be pushed against your head and fixed at one location
but due to the large ear cup and small clamp force, I am able to adjust my glasses with them on, however the small force still present
If I wasn't wearing glasses, I would totally feel like the headphone melts on my head
In terms of dimension, even though both are full size headphone, but HD800 ear cups are wider and longer than the HE400i
When I try to watch Anime while laying my back against the back of my bed with resting pillow, I often find the HD800 hitting the pillow
For those of you interested in major change between the HD800 and newly released HD800S at the whopping price tag of $1799 (other than the color of course)
1, the HD800S smooths out the somewhat piercing sound in the treble area
2, Improvement over bass
Some example tracks:
虹の音 - 藍井エイル | Shirushi - LiSA : not sure if I can describe well, if you have heard both sounds, you would know the first song has a climax (high point) and there are two for the latter song, they sound very clear but not over piercing, HD800 reaches that highest treble at the exact right point before gets annoying
My Treasure - 茅原実里 solo sounded as her voice bounce back in space
So in the end, my favorite female vocal tracks sound very much alive and lovely satisfying
Hifiman HE400i People would think entry level planar magnetic headphone is already mid-gear in audiophile headphones
This is somewhat not true, at least to this date, Fostex has some sub 300 level planar cans that are beloved by modding community, although you can't find anything planar lower than that, that's why I said "somewhat", the price level is subjective after all
HE400i A/B compare against AD900X
Again, like the previous one, this is not very fair comparison because their price point is at different level
The first thing I noticed is the big improvements over the low and mid range
due to this sound signature, it is very good at genres like rock, jazz and male vocals
Being a planar headphone, BASS of HE400i is in a huge lead does not come as surprise to me
However, in contrast to the above difference, the highs of HE400i do not wow me
It has very good clarity, but the female vocals sound flat, there is not particular bright point
The sound stage is tight, especially after tried HD800
In terms of comfort, I think the AD900X wins here by being a much lighter headphone
as I didn't feel any clamp force from the pads
Audio Technica AD900X is probably the best value phone at its price point
Due to Japan's pop and Anime culture, most of the Japanese headphones I have heard have done a wonderful job on trebles
Among all those Japanese headphone companies, Audio Technica still stands out to be the top in regard to special tuning for female vocals
Like the HE400i, the AD900X is particular good at certain genre of music (e.g Anime, female vocal, Orchestra)
Due to the nature of open back design, AD900X lacks bass
The highs sound fun, but low and mid are medieval core
Because the nature of its sound signature, AD900X can be little fatiguing when listen over long period of time
In terms of comfort, I think the self adjusting headband has done an amazing job
The headphone feels plastic, but it is understandable for this price range
I don't recall I have notice any big difference in how large the sound space is between the HE400i and AD900X
In other words, AD900X has very wide sound stage as one of the selling points for its price
In the end, I have settled with my HD800, is it worth? you might ask
All I can tell you is, this picture summarized my feeling when I put the cans on
I am planing to purchase desktop VR, can't wait to combo it with the HD800
Legend Proof and deck list plus win-rate against all class graph: http://imgur.com/a/VYC90 (all games are recorded in ranked)
According to the record, it took me total 300+ games to reach legend (-_-)/~~~ピシー!ピシー!
Just to clarify, I did not make the deck myself
Warrior deck credit to Sjow's original deck
Druid deck credit to neviilz2 made that post just couple days ago
So why only showing 29 cards?
Yes, I find most people post complete decks
I think this can create a completed figure for the players trying out new deck and they maybe scared to modify them
guides on how to mulligan is all over the internet so I'm not going to talk about them
but I'm going to show you card choices based on current meta due to time shift
that's why I leave 1 slot for you to adjust, and it is easy to understand
but when to tech cards in/out?
I switch cards base on the opponents I see at the time when I play
for example, I play 8 games in the afternoon, 5+ of them are aggro face rush, I will tech in aggro counter cards
and then at night, I find 5+ of them are control style, then I will tech in e.g black knight
the key is find the right card that can help you beat most decks you see at the time when you play, not try to win all of them
to find out which one is the right card to swap, see below
Let's start with warrior (got me from all the way to rank 2): deck / win-rate
when facing a lot mech heavy decks e.g mech mage, mech druid - add mind control tech or second brawl
to better understand the card choice, let's look at their objective, in this case is to flood the board with minions that are not cheap enough to be removable by whirlwinds
when facing a lot hunters / zoo / paladin / most aggro deck - add whirlwind
creepers, muster for battles, imps, all the 2/1s, snakes
when facing a lot warrior / handlock - add second big game hunter
eh... kind of obvious
when facing a lot control-ish / midrange decks / especially druid - add black knight, considerable swap iron juggernaut with sylvanas
black knight chop chop (ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ
bad match ups: priest, mech mage
Now let's talk about druid (got me from rank 2 to legend): deck / win-rate
when facing a lot of mech heavy decks / paladin / zoo / hunter / shaman - add second mind control tech
the nature of this deck is taunt up and have your opponent to do the trading instead of pointing your face
these flood the board type of deck is basically free minion for you to grab
plus it is not bad against others as well, I find a lot of people overlooked the second one (*´ω｀)
when facing a lot warrior / handlock - same
the rest - add black knight
since now a lot of people carry it due to rise of druid
even it is not druid, belcher is more than good enough, and chopping a giant is the dream ＼(゜ロ＼)(／ロ゜)／
this card is also very important when playing against
you always want to drop your cheaper cost taunt first to bait out black knight to save your ancient of war
why no dr.boom in this deck?
this card is certainly a very popular choice nowadays for most decks, therefore the increased number of big game hunters
if you look back at this deck, we have no card that is above 7 damage, so screw bgh haha, jk
back match ups: freeze mage, handlock, the summon a lot of copy mage from echo and duplicate (don't know the exact name, it is not really miling tho)
again, I encourage you to modify your deck to better adapt to the environment
there are numerous tools that can help you track your games, the one I'm using the hearthstone deck tracker
you can look back at the record to see what kinds of decks you're facing the most to adjust your cards
My stream: http://www.twitch.tv/eudemon
I don't have webcam right now, but I plan to adding one in the future
for now you may enjoy my play and my anime music collection (*'ω'*)
Good luck on the climb!
Let me just quickly summarize the last few episodes
setting is the same virtual game world
Our main character "Asuna" met a girl named "Yuuki" through a dual and helped her clear a dungeon boss with her friends
When Asuna got denied further communication from Yuuki, she found out Yuuki has final stage aid and have been in bed for 3 whole years
Since then, Asuna used the terminal machine made by Kirigaya
to let Yuuki enjoy the real world, everyday Asuna carried it to transferred vision and sound between Yuuki
in the end, Yuuki lived through the full 3 months of life that have been announced
now, I really want to talk about the connection between the 3rd ED song and the plot
the name of the song is "シルシ" which means "sign/proof" I can't think of any better word due to my poor English
the first person word used in the lyrics is "ボク" which is also what Yuuki used to call herself
"ボクが生きたシルシ" translates to: the proof/sign of my living
there are two signs/proofs of Yuuki has lived in this world we can tell from the plot
first, the reason why she wanted to clear the boss is to have her and her friend's name listed in the huge stone board
second, her original sword skill - "mother's rosario" that was gifted to Asuna
流れてく時間(とき)は容赦無く いつかボクらをさらってくから - the flowing of time will eventually tear us apart with no mercy
represents her disease is taking her life away as time passes
this one is pretty straight forward to understand, there are other parts of the lyrics also link to the story and I'm not gonna talk about all
when I first listened to the song I was only enjoying the melody but once I knew the story
this feel carried out by this synergy between the plot and the lyrics has stunned me
I love songs that have connections to the stories, in this case I think it is very nicely done
here is a link to full lyrics if anyone interested - http://eudemon.org/lyrics.html/_/%E3%82%B7%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B7-r186
Today was a busy day, woke up early in the morning
spent whole day doing presentation and exam plus my boss' "come to work" email spam, was about to head home and noticed car key was lost
so I spent another hour running around the campus where I've been and asking the security guards, finally found it
thank you so much to the anonymous person who turned it in (/ω＼)
btw this is my second time this year lost and found my key, the first time was dropped in the snow where I spent two hours to dig it out
今天很忙， 大清早起来
一整天在做演讲稿跟考试加上我老板的夺魂工作邮件， 当我要回家的时候发现车钥匙弄丢了
于是又花了一个多小时走遍校园我呆过的地方，跟询问保安，最后终于找到了
非常感谢那位陌生同学把钥匙交给保安
附带一提，这已经是我今年第二次弄丢钥匙了，第一次是弄丢在雪地后来花了两个小时给挖出来OTL
Went to the cinema last week with friends to watch this awesome movie
while the a lot of content of the movie has not much to say, it is those irregular type of storyline, where you can't really tell what happened at every detail but I can tell you, the story itself gave me a big impact
the story is a continuation from the last two movies or the Anime series (since they are almost identical) =============spoil part============================ the plot starts after Madoka changed the theory of the universe where soul gems will disappear in the end instead of turning every magical girls into witches, Homura calls this phenomenon "haname madoka"
Incubators, however, wanted to observe this phenomenon, homura who appeared to be the only one who knows about this, when her soul gem is about to disappear, they isolated it from all matters ultimately, their final objective is to capture and have control over "haname madoka"
on the other hand, Homura created a completely clone of the city where she met Madoka within the seal of course with her being existed in that city (since being able to see Madoka once again is her wish) after found out Incubators' conspiracy, she forced herself to turn into a witch, wanted to forever be locked in that isolated space being a witch so that she could protect Madoka
her friends who have been lured into that seal, after knowing the truth, broke the enchantment so that "haname madoka" could reach her (those who have been captured by the isolated space including madoka's family and her teacher, and a new character "bebe")
here comes a turning point, when everyone thought this was going to be a happy end right there Homura held the hands of Madoka who reached out to her, and again, like what Madoka did, changed the theory of the universe, but turning herself into "evil" =============spoil part end============================= These changes of mind scenes in plot really creates a big impact to the audiences
As for the music, I have noticed that they have arranged few old BGMs and the songs are awesome, expecially the ending song (君の銀の庭 by kalafina) as I listen to this song right now, all the scenes come back to me in my head (memories, whoa)
Here is the sad part, Homura's ending is so that Madoka will not be forever alone and will not be forgotten by everyone and Madoka's ending was to end Homura's forever loop of trying to save Madoka Both of them tried to save each other, but both endings, sadly, they can not be together
And the old one I had is Bose AE2i
This is my first time trying out a noise cancelling headphone
At first I was not used to the hizz sound made by active noise cancelling
but it only lasted a day, plus, if you listen to music, you won't be able to hear that sound at all (unless you turn it to very low)
The battery will run around 10+hours, I am a pretty aggressive music listener
and it can last around 3 days withou charging it again
The other good part of having a built in battery is, it doesn't drain my iPhone's battery when playing music
but drawback is once the battery power is out in the headphone, it will no longer function until I recharge it
Let's talk about the most important part that caused me to buy it
when putting it on, it immediately cancels around 75% of the noises
sometimes when I try to sleep in the school's library I like to just put it on for a better sleep quality
and when I am on a bus or somewhere with loud noises, I noticed I have 20% less volume than using my old headphone
(you know when you're in a noisy place, you need to turn the volume up to hear clearer sound)
what I like about my old is the surface that covers my ear
I wear glasses, while the beats headphone does pretty good job on confortness than most other on-ear headphone
my old bose headphone was even better
Lastly, since I always have this on my neck, I can feel a lot of sights of people looking at me
(those who know me in personal know that this has became my symbol, I have been having an on-ear headphone around my neck wherever I go for more than two years now)
I guess it's a pretty good acomplishment(platinum) since I only started playing this game half year ago
and hopefully I will reach even higher tier next season
so according to Riot, by the end of this season (this month 11th to be exact)
I will receive loading screen border, avatar, victories skin etc reward, and they last until the end of season 4 (which is another year)
Anyone who interested in playing with me in game, you can find me at North America server, player name: Eudemon369
note that since now that I receive many friend invites, please send me a PM here to verify =)
This is two weeks delayed post, as I'm just too busy with school and works
here is the spec
1 x HP Pavilion 23xi Silver / Black 23" 7ms HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor, IPS Panel 250 cd/m2 10,000,000:1
1 x Thermaltake Overseer RX-I VN700M1W2N Black Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell 3.5GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I74770K
1 x ASUS GTX760-DC2OC-2GD5 GeForce GTX 760 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
1 x MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Extreme OC High Performance Triple CFX/ SLI Intel Motherboard
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 Professional 64-bit (Full Version) - OEM
1 x G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL10D-16GBXL
1 x SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD128BW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
1 x CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready
1 x LG Black 14X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 12X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA BDXL Blu-ray Burner, Bare Drive, 3D Play Back (WH14NS40) - OEM - OEM
1 x Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM
1 x Logitech S-150 1.2 Watts 2.0 Digital USB Speakers - OEM
1 x COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2
1 x Intel EXPI9301CTBLK Network Adapter 10/ 100/ 1000M
some stuff, like my mouse and keyboard are from my previous PC (not included)
keep thinking that I forgot something... well
Went on a family trip to New York up state last week
Below are some major viewpoints
Thousand islands - literally 1864 islands along the Canadian and US border river
and this always reminds me of the community "thousand eyes" from mondaiji (ﾟ∀ﾟ)
Three star hotel - the place was pretty comfortable, but due to our tight schedule, didn't have enough time to enjoy it
British and French Fort - during the time of colonization, until took over by the U.S, the forts are 300 years old
Power Plant
Indian show - well, wasn't so clear, I do have a picture taken with the performers, but I don't feel like showing it
Niagara Fall - we had to wear raincoat before we enter the falls, and still, we all got wet
and when I was in the center of the big falls, couldn't see anything (*ﾟ∀ﾟ)
So today is the first day of classes of fall
Looking back to the things I have done in the summer, hmm
Basically: work, website, dentist and some game time
(You may wonder how dentist can consume that much time, the answer is, I got two root canals and bunch other treatments
which cost me like 15+ visits to the dentist, and still haven't finished yet, sob sob)
Follow by the school start now I have to be a full time student with two part time jobs
Which is going to be pretty hard for me, hmm
Recent purchases? It's been a while since my last update, of course I have bought bunch stuff but they all scattered with my other collections, can't find them lol
Below are images of the new car that my parents bought: Toyota RAV4 XLE 2013
and here is their old car, which eventually become mine now: Toyota Corolla (I think it's a 2000 build, old hey)
So after having internet latency and package loss issues for over few month with time warner
and called 30+ times had them came over 10+ times, and they couldn't fix the issue
Now I switched to Verizon Fios,
Besides the stability (which is the reason why I switched)
I am also very happy with the speed
Download whole season of an anime (3.5G) only took 5 minutes
which mean uploading whole season of an anime should take about 8 minutes
below is the speed test
Recently I tried with flash, but failed
If I ever gonna go about changing the homepage, it will be responsive (meaning it will support tablets and smartphones)
However, since there are limitations using our own framework, the homepage may (yes, may or may not) use a completely different stand alone page
while the rest of the site remain unchanged
Speaking of our own framework, I will try apply it to our music system once I have time, not sure about how it will go since the setup structure is so different (but, trying is better than not trying)
The other issue we have is, the current home-page size is too big
Although we have tab content for you to switch around views, but the content that was hidden are loaded when the page is loaded
this slows down the overall speed
to change this, I am thinking about using AJAX technology, which will display a type of block similar to what we have right now
but all the other tabs except the main one will not load all at once, instead, it will only load when you click on it
this, picks up the load speed dramatically
P.S I have two jobs this summer, and now getting my third job, so busy XD
(there is an issue with gallery image phrasing, please right click and open new tab to view the images for now)
Just bunch stuff in no particular order
newest iPhone 5 (funny thing is right after we ordered it, apple announced 5S
And whatever happened, my whole family just switched from free phones to smart phones (my parents use samsung, me and my sister use iphone)
some of you were curious
so i took some screenshots from the KTV events
Ice skating in the park in the city, the contrast between nature and the city is beautiful
A squirrel is having a sun tan
An American anime shop
Korean style dinner
Did a temporary part-time in a Manga store
Japanese food (sakura blossom) festival
We waited more than half hour in line for yakisoba (fry noodles) and it was sold out
so we bought okonomiyaki (vege-pancake) instead
By the way, that just reminds me of a moment from K-ON
there was once they went to the mountain lives, and Tsumugi was so looking forward to the yakisoba
but when they got off line it was sold out too
just some recent purchases
love the gift clock came with the magazine
at last, here is a beautiful sun-set picture from today's festival
The game is out for few days now, and I just started playing it (too much things going on and so little time)
For those of you who already watched the anime
It's kinda long if i have to write what happened, so basically
After they beat the final boss (game maker) at 75th floor, system error occured
most skills, items are lost and they stuck at 76th floor and decided to finish off 100 floors
according to one of the spoiler videos i have seen, the error caused the loss kirito and asuna's marriage data
so in the game you can aim for a different main female character
my subject is of course asuna hehe
about the system, kind of obvious, unlike the anime, upon death your char goes back the the last save point
note that if you partner dies, it's also game over (happened to me once with asuna, not sure about other char, probably same for all main chars)
attacking and defensing is automated, I can see this serves two points
one the console (I have an old PSP 2k) won't be able to support full 3d battle
second to keep player from bored out (from clicking the attack button n times in every battle)
instead you get to use sword skills and battles skills, and communicating with your partner (e.g switching, healing, attacking from the back..)
although I only played it couple hours (bit slow too, because it is in Japanese, I read a little slow and once a while find a word that i don't understand, but i still glad that since i started taking jap classes now i'm able to play jap games with no problem)
anyways, already feeling a decent game, really looking forward to continue playing
here is their official home page for the game: http://swordart-online-game.channel.or.jp/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=direct&utm_campaign=direct
Some of my friends are organizing an event to bring figures out for picture taking
which is going to happen very soon, by then I will have more photos available but the main issue is this figure is huge (the biggest one in my collection)
and as well as my other figures
P.S. should have received this figure a week ago, but due to miss delivery and I just found the notice today so.. (ﾉ´∀｀*)
anyways here comes the photos
The post office lady said: "This package comes from Japan, a surprise present hey"
true that, my friend bought this for me as a gift (thank you friend (*´ω｀*)
Compare with the TV at the back (showing my website)
Just some other figures I have
I will take some photos of my room some other time, since it does not relate to this topic
In conclusion, The figure is very well made (the second most expensive one I have atm)
and features 2 different bows, the arrow and wings came separately, you can to put them on
the right hand is rotatable too (provide different shooting angles? (´・ω・｀)
At last, staying home, cook for myself
here is a picture of my lunch
today after a doctor appointment, went to the bookstores in the city
It seems like due to Japanese yen price drop or whatever reason, magazines and some books have price reduced by 15%
so I went to check the latest release of Dengeki(電撃) G'S like usual and found that each one has a note under the plastic wrapper
it prints "The attached figure can not be sold in the US due to law restriction"
unfortunately the store doesn't allow photo taking, else I would take a picture
here is this issue's image taken from their site
now, I can guess the reason why it can't be sold in the US is not because it is a little buster's naked figure
but the naked figure looks like a child
(you probably know the majority Japanese drawing styles make characters look like low age range (especially genre: loli) which caused quite some problems with other nations (we being one of them) who take child rights seriously)
anyhow, even the store drop the price for this particular magazine for 20%, I still didn't buy it (see how important the attached gift is for magazine buyers)
Dinner： ramen + beer (because they have a special price when purchased with ramen) + nikuman (肉まん)
General ★★★★★
Majority of the scene plays took place in VRMMORPG (Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game)
The first thing I have to say about this Anime is the world setting is definitely fantastic. (´・ω・｀)
The fighting system broke the traditional scenes with the MMO setting
For example, battle in regular anime, if the main character's heart is stabbed, or if the body opens up a big wound
it will definitely weaken him, and in most cases the end of the fight (in real life: death)
but Sword Art Online (SAO) as a game can represent this element in HP, brings battle into its full potential
and they don't just limit on this one factor, e.g when their hand is cut they lose it (although it can be restored later if the character still alive)
also weapons, armors and food, even pets are breakable.
not to mention potions, skills, poisons like paralysis that often used by the cheaters in the Anime
together they bring battle into next level
Story ★★★★★
If you have read my other reviews, you know I don't write plot summaries
in fact I avoid to tell the plot story as much as possible, so that those who haven't watch it yet won't be spoiled
while my review is focusing on the details and important elements that made up the show hoping it can also give those who already watched it a meditation (・ω<)
The 25 episode length definitely didn't give the animator enough time for fillers
Course of events seems bit rush, especially the first part of the anime when they try to clear the world of sword art online
It quickly skipped through many floors leaves viewer a bit empty feeling
Other than beating the game, the most important scenes of part one no doubt is the love chemistry between our main char Kirito and Asuna !! (≧∇≦)/
The love scenes of them falling in love and getting married at first is heart touching and later sadden the viewers when they got separated
which makes me feel deeper connected to the character's feeling as Kirito later returned back to MMO Alfheim to rescue Asuna
P.S. the way I watch anime (in this case I finished it in 3 days) has boosted up my feeling since my plot memories are still fresh
The most important moment in my opinion is when the raider team was having trouble with a boss
and both of them were called back to front-line after a short vacation, when Kirito heard about the danger of the boss they were about to face
He wanted Asuna to stay in the base and await for his return, but she refused and replied
"If I stayed, waited, and if you didn't come back, I would suicide"
These lines really moved me
Setting ★★★★★
So I decided to rework the structure of my reviews, now I will include a rating and talk on the leading element of the Anime
In sword art online, I think the most appealing factor is their setting
Although as a computer science major, I feel a little awkward when Akihiko (the scientist behind the game)
who locked up all ten thousand players and give them death penalty by sending strong signal to the brain for dying in game or disconnect from the server
the reason is, being a crime in this large scale should bring international top computer pro to hack into the server
or track down the source and disable that functionality locally
Apart from the things I have already mentioned above
The makers really made very good use of the setting of the world of game
PK (player killing), item, party, guild, boss, level etc system
These elements are indispensable and bring more color into the show that created many different user types like
the bads: guilds that focus on killing other players for their money and items, cheaters who try to force players who fell asleep in the public into dual
the neutral: players who have adapted to the life style of the game and want to live a normal life there
the goods: the raider team which both our main characters are in, who try to complete the game so that everyone can be released from this world
and the smiths who work hard making/fixing weapon and armor to support those in the front-line
The contrast of Asuna being the guild raider team captain who known as Senko（閃光） Asuna in the first game
and later being imprison in a cage like a bird who has no strength to fight is a quite interesting concept
And I think most of you would agree that the setting and story of first game is better than the second game
almost forgot to mention, going back to the marriage system, they even have kid, yes "KID!!" ｷﾀ━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━!!
The creation of the AI (artificial intelligence)program Yui and she considering Kirito and Asuna to be her papa and mama bring many joys to the Anime
P.S In sword art online, I was exciting to see the society and their friends' reactions when they both get married but that never happened
this is one of the pity for a rushed series
Design / CG ★★★★★
Here comes another change I did for this review and will continue to be (hopefully, positively) for the future reviews
Since a good design needs good CG to maintain, and same for the reverse case
also these two elements are very close related, I have decided to put them together to talk about it
It's very easy to notice the main character's change of cloth/armor as he advanced through the dungeons
With the fabulous look of costume, weapons, united guild costumes, number of monster designs and beautiful environments
together with the awesome CG to bring them all alive, no doubt they deserve full star rating (・∀・)ﾓｴｯ
I personally love watching the scenes where Asuna sticks to Kirito in bed (FFF tan(misery sound echo in the air): burn! burn! BURN!
Music / Sound ★★★★★
Despite there ain't many memorable BGMs, the sound effects (especially battle sounds) has filled this small vacancy
The OP/ED songs are very nice too
OP 1 crossing field by LISA
ED 1 Yume Sekai (ユメセカイ) by Tomatsu Haruka (戸松 遥)
OP 2 Innocence by Eir Aoi 藍井 エイル
ED 2 Overfly by Luna Haruna 春奈るな
P.S 戸松遥 does the voice for Asuna (she is one of the people that I like who keeps the jobs of CV and singer, after Mizuki Nana (水樹 奈々)
End:
This is the longest review I have ever written, hope you enjoy it (-ω☆)ｷﾗﾘ
below are sub'ed and raw anime torrents
http://eudemon.org/topic/2374-raweng-sword-art-online-tv-rip-720p-complete/
This is a collection of around 3 weeks daily
no wait, i wasn't being lazy, i have been working my ass off since the vacation (cough)
so here we go
A Christmas event (karaoke) me and like 14 of my friends have been preparing for quite a while
unfortunately, i didn't get to go because the night before i had a sore throat, and the next day a cold that kept me in bed
TES, according to the pictures, they had a gift share, and this is what i wasn't able to give out
the direct translation of the text i wrote literary means to throw away your dignity
meaning to be open, like 'really OPEN' (´・ω・｀)
and yes, little while before, the dog i took care of as for like a part-time job
I guess you don't wanna open this blog post and the first thing you see is my face so i moved the order for this one
anyways, i wasn't able to continue dog host because my dad was pissed about floor being scratched by their nails (´；ω；｀)
too bad for the products i bought for taking care of dogs, cause i thought i was gonna able to continue it
the reason why i started this is i can able to continue programming for the site while earning some cash to keep the site running
and also, because i love dogs
however, in the end i gave these products for free to my first client
if you were to ask me "you want coffee or tea?" i would definitely say tea
me liking tea has been decades but only recently i purchased full equipment to be a 'real tea drinker' (イェー～）
from left to right: green, black and oolong tea
due to last time i didn't go, so i organized another karaoke
let's start off where we had lunch -> 回転寿司！rotating sushi (a very popular sushi serving method in Japan, but very hard to find it in America, even-though we do have tons of sushi restaurants)
so basically you can pick up whatever you want from the rotating platform, and the price will be counted by the number and color your disks
of course you can order things directly from the waiter like regular restaurants
day view of manhattan
just a demonstration of one of the pages from the karaoke book, you may be able to see the page number if you enlarge the image
they have two books (japanese) like this, total thousands of pages
unlike some modern ktv places that have digital touch machine where you can easily navigate and find songs with other useful settings
this place still uses the traditional (although not that old) way where you have to find song off the book and enter the number yourself
the reason why we came here is this is the only place we can find tons of Jap songs (as it's opened by Japanese people) _(:3 ⌒ﾞ)_
night view of manhattan
supper -> カツ丼 (breaded pork on rice) (in-front of me is udon)
just a day ago, we went to play badminton
lunched at a north korean style hot pot place I usually go
--> (playing badminton) for 5 hours -->
ever since the winter break started, i have been staying home programming for our site
so the lack of doing sport resulted me next day muscle aches (although same thing has been said by the six that went with me)
lastly, dinnered at a BBQ place, plus one friend that bumped in later, 8 of us had to squeeze into one table
and we were battling for cooking spaces, but it was fun
almost forgot to mention, i wrote 2 free plugins(scripts) recently
not a bad download amount for couple days in one site since release (consider it took more than 1 day to be approved)
and i'm quite glad since some of them replied my support topic and thanked me for my work (´・ω・｀)
So I have decided to write site development updates before our official releases
and maybe in the future as well, yea~~ (ヽ´ω`)
(probably not all of them, because some i can update immediately in the annoucenment board, but i will write as much as i can)
Been writing the homepage for the past couple days
also fixing some layout issues, just yesterday I grabbed some of the codes I wrote, put into a plugin and released it over to the system site for free (like always)
the wiki (open database) that I have been teasing about is at the finalyzing stage
going to write a tab content bbcode to help member editing the content too (I will also write a resource page regarding how to use it)
and then, back to the shadow (´・ω・｀)
General ★★★★★
Recommend to those who like me love war genre and battle strategies
The anime sometimes popup some event image as mentioned by our main char(monkey) are from the game Nobunaga no yabou (did Koei(the game maker) dropped some money into it for advertise? I don't know)
the wars make my heart pounding and wanting to play the game again (yes I have killed some great deal of time with it before, it also taught me a lot of sengoko histories) unfortunately it's been sometimes since previous version, no new work yet (sob
Story ★★★★★
Unique and interesting course of events while respecting the historical ending of the Japanese Sengoku era
However, our main char who is from the future, and in favor of Nobuna he prevented some bad events from happening, e.g rescue of Saitou. his move should slightly change the history as we later started seeing some unique events
Most famous characters get female forms in the anime and eventually turn into a pattern when you see a cute enemy, then you know she is gonna turn into our side (or our main char's harem?)
Design ★★★★★
Another thing I love is the illustration and design done by Miyama zero (one of my favorite artists)
Fabulous costumes, character designs and art style
CG ★★★★★
Very nice graphic to set off battle scenes, costumes
as well as keeping the art style with detailed motions
Music ★★★★★
Awesome song and BGMs
OP - "Link" by Aimi
and ED - "Hikari" by Mizuta Makino
Just by looking at the enemies that are still there, there is a lot of room for new season
and I will be glad to see if there is one coming
