Wednesday, July 25

Heroes and it's BS ending

Wow, I wasn't gonna update but that was laughably retarded.

If you haven't seen the finale of the first season, stop reading.

If you have, then you noticed how the last episode was idiotic, otherwise your brain wasn't functioning at the time.

There are plenty of plot holes and trip-ups all over the series, but the real circus begins when Peter and Sylar meet in the square outside that Kirby place in the final episode.
And no, I'm not complaining about the building being named after that round bouncy little guy from video games.

8 reasons why the script writers pulled the last episode out of their rear.

#8. That flashback with the dead guy. Wtf? Enough said.

#7. That schizophrenic woman with the super human strength whacked Sylar with a parking meter and he crumpled to the floor. That doesn't sound too bad right? Until you remember she tore numerous people apart with her bare hands on multiple occasions. I know she wasn't her alter ego "Vanessa" at the time, but she was shown to have possessed her strength earlier in the episode, and what, all she can do is make him fall to the floor and hold his stomach? Hell I could probably swing a parking meter at someone and at least knock them out.

#6. Speaking of that scene, if you were a fairly intellegent guy who had very strong telekinesis, controlled extreme radioactivity, the ability to freeze things, melt objects into goop, slice people open by pointing your finger at them and probably a great deal more, how do you kill a guy you've already half choked? Well just doing it properly and crushing his neck instead of lightly squeezing would be boring I guess, so you'd have to find the nearest object, tear it out of the ground with your telekinesis, and um, hit him with it using your bare hands.
I say "kill" but it appears Sylar's physical strength isn't up to par with the rest of his abilities cause the guy sorta got back up a few seconds later, but hey, better luck next time.

#5. Here, let me rewrite the final scene as a comic book sketch and fill in a few thought bubbles.
Peter: "OMFG I can't stop myself, shoot me already"
Clair: "OMFG why are you facing me, we agreed it wouldn't work unless I shoot you in the back of the head, and then you turned around you ass."
People in the background: "Sweet, she's gonna try and pop him in the head while wielding the high calibre gun with one hand. $5 says it flies out of her hand and hits her in the face while she leaves a hole in that fountain."
Clair: "Wait a minute, how did I even get here."

#4. You know, I liked how the series built it up and made it clear that the only person with the power to stop Sylar was Peter. I mean it's obvious, when you consider they both have a large arsenal of powers as opposed to just one. Especially after Sylar got Ted's mini nuke abilities.
Too bad the little "fight" between them consisted of a brief staring contest, Peter being force-choked Star Wars style, and er, that's about it.
Seriously even if Sylar failed ultimately in using his powers effectively, at least he gets bonus points for using them to damage public property.

#3. Sorry I forgot, Peter's one mean hero after all, throwing all those spectacularly normal and human punches at the spontaneously defenceless super villain who's been stopping bullets and making armoured vehicles do somersaults with his fingers.
Anyway, I guess everyone knows little Japanese guys with swords are far harder to stop than bullets and cars. Especially when they show up a few meters away, pause for a moment, scream and run at you.
I'm sure fans may argue that he was damn fast (like all little Japanese men with swords should be) but uh, what's the speed of sound? Well I dunno, I'm too lazy to look it up. Sylar was quick enough to turn around stop bullets after hearing the sound of the shots being fired. Go figure.
The guy even turned around and said "...you." and waited as he got impaled.
For the record, the future versions of Peter and Hiro were infinitely cooler.

#2. "How to stop an exploding man" is the episode's title? Is that mockery?
I mean, ignoring that he did actually explode in the end, let's discuss how it came about.
Oh dear Peter's going nuclear. Let's stick to the plan and shoot him. It's no big deal really, he'll just pass out and we'll take the bullet out and he'll regenerate. We can work on him controlling his powers later.
Wait wait, hold up. Nathan's got a better idea - I guess if Peter gets shot it might hurt so we'll let him explode instead.
Hang on he's been working awfully hard lately, so he should take it easy now; instead of him using his own powers to fly himself up out of harm's way, Nathan wants to end his career early and will do the honours of flying him up there and exploding with him.
This is much better you see, cause New York now gets a free fireworks display; raining happiness, body parts and deadly radiation down for everyone to enjoy.

#1. What could possibly be worse than the last point you ask?
Well think about it, what did they really conclude in this episode. I know Linderman's bitten the dust and a few other things were tied up including emotional resolves and unveiling the last few scraps of plot fragments for this season, but... we're left with a small problem.
The most important point is they stopped New York from turning into a wasteland yes? Not really, considering both Peter and Sylar, both radioactive suspects, are still alive (we discover Peter survives the explosion from the short trip to the future remember?). This sorta puts us back at the beginning in regards to the harbinger of doom which the plotline was focused on throughout the latter half of the series. Oops.

And to top it off here are a few gripes I have in general with the series.
- You gotta love it when the villain just won't die, because people repeatedly refuse to, neglect to or just plain forget to kill him, over and over again.
- Hiro needs to grow a brain and use his powers better. Don't get me wrong, he's awesome and probably my favourite character, but why he doesn't just stop time more often instead of teleporting around is beyond me - he could have single handedly ended the series half a dozen episodes short.
- It's cool that they made the bad guys into good guys, then back again etc. and vice versa all throughout the series to keep people on their toes, but it's a little annoying when you think back and notice that they've gone out of the way to actually subtly change the character personalities themselves to portray this. It wasn't as well done as it could have been.
- Wow what a smart way to cheat in poker. Stop time, switch the hands, and assume they forgot what cards they were holding/betting on all match. For god's sake.
- Claire is the ultimate fan of extreme masochism. Taking a bullet to avoid a dangerous situation fine, but why would you randomly put your hand in the garbage disposal. I think this series severely understates the concept pain, or at least she doesn't seem fazed enough by it to stop herself breaking all her bones repeatedly.
- The concept of time travel used in Heroes doesn't work. It just doesn't.
You don't go back in time further than you expected and as a result, return later than you planned to.
You don't accidently go into the future, notice that NY has been blown up, and then give up in exasperation and despair because you failed at preventing it.
Infact... ah I can't be bothered. Geez.

There's a lot more than that, trust me, I just put down what I have in the top of my head right now.

What a crap way to end a decent series. I don't even know where the next season is gonna go but I've lost a large chunk of interest all of a sudden.

Wednesday, July 18

Q's update

You know what's really cool?

Smoked ham. And maybe those lightly frosted layer cakes.

Mmmmm.

But not both of them together. Cause that's just sick.

(OMG did you see what I did there? You know, with the useage of italic, then bold and then... BOTH. Like, outta nowhere, but y'know sorta almost expected but not. Man I'm so cool.)


Smoked ham DIY kit. All of the ham and only most of the hassle. What are YOU waiting for?

Wednesday, July 4

Apartment

If anyone's curious this is where I'll be living when I'm in Japan.

Edit:
Nope, actually, this is where I'm gonna be living now. It's nicer.

A good 19 minute walk from the nearest Yamanote station, Tabata, which makes for relatively easy transportation to all the major places.

If I'm feeling lazy it's also a mere 5 minute walk from the Odai station of the Toden Arakawa line.

The Toden Arakawa is the only remaining tram line in Tokyo, and not only does it run past my apartment it also goes to and terminates outside my school.
How convenient is that?

Monday, July 2

Sola - Final Review


Spoiler Free

Alright, the last episode of Sola has been and gone, and I feel somewhat obliged to give some sort of comment on the ending given how much I was praising it in the initial review.

Ended at 13 episodes, and I have to say it wasn't a very predictable anime, depending on the type of stuff you're normally into.

With the large myriad of plot twists happening towards the end, and not to mention all the fighting, it somehow still kept it's dreamy atmosphere. I blame Matsuri's seiyuu.

While the ending itself didn't disappoint in terms of tieing up loose ends, I can't help but feel it was one of those last episodes that paint a happy ending over what wasn't really a happy ending. Not in the ideal sense anyway.

Also a few things didn't make much sense to me and they didn't bother explaining it, but it wasn't anything unforgivable in my books.

Being only 13 episodes long I can still recommend it, but it might not be everyone's cup of tea.
The action scenes aren't up to scratch with the more... well, action-themed anime, but hey that's not what this anime's about.
That said, I'm not sure what would be the best way to describe the genre it falls in. Let's call it a fantasy drama romance(?) for now.

Final Verdict: 7/10

Worth watching, but look elsewhere for your dose of action.