Well, well, well, look what the cat brought in for us anime fans to watch.  It’s the one and only catch-22 anime series of this season where there’s only one (yes, that’s right, only one (if you can’t read worded number’s, that’s 1 to you)) trap in this series (and thank god, I can deal with just 1 trap but no way in hell can I handle 2 or more).  If you want a quick impression summary of this series then check out bluesnow’s entry over at zokatu.com since this is going to be kinda long (but entertaining nonetheless, like any of my entries).

Anyways, just like how I like to start any of my initial review, a plot summary of what the series about.

Senou Natsuru is your normal, everyday high school student. However he’s been chosen to be a Kampfer, who’s objective consists on fighting other Kampfer with either guns, swords or magic, however, there’s catch; first you can’t chose if you´re a Kampfer or not, and second, you must have the body of a girl to use your powers. [ANN]

Alright, now that’s done, lets move onto the review, shall we?

So the series starts off with our heroine running away away from another girl shooting her trying to kill her.  WAIT, WHAT?! WHY!!! Just hold your horses, I’m getting there, I’m getting there, gez.

Anyways, after he was somewhat shot off a building the opening theme kicked in AND BEFORE YOU ASK ME ANYTHING ELSE LIKE ME FINISH!!!  Anyways, after the opening theme you find our heroine in her bedroom screaming her head off about her chest getting bigger, hair growing longer, and under that she never wear before.

Then a plushie started talking to her about how she was transformed into a female since all kampfer is females.

… Wait, what? You’re telling me that she, is a he?

So… that means…

So after we found out our heroine is actually a male that was transformed into a female because all kampfer fighters has to be females, the plushie continues to talk to to him and he’s in total disbelieve (and hell, I wouldn’t blame him, if I wake up one day and find my penis gone and my chest became larger and my hair grew longer, I’d be in disbelieve as well).

So, anyways, the plushie talks to him about what a kampfer is and that when his bracelet begins to grow it means he’s about to transform.  The plushie continues mentioning that he’s a messenger that was sent by the moderators saying that he’s something similar to an angel.

So what did Natsuru do?  Pick him up by his intestines, spin him around yelling out that he’s a guy and throws him against his stereo system.  Then he falls on his bed saying this must be a bad dream from which the plushie climbed up his bed asking if he wants to go back to sleep and does a drop kick to knock him out.

So Natsuru wakes up the next day and checks to see if his package is there and breathe a sigh of relief when it was there.

So he starts off his morning running to the bus but misses it but luck was on his side because the girl of his dreams, Kaede Sakura, run out and missed the bus as well.  Excited to see her like any guy would who’s not mainly enough would yelled out her name and she turned around an greeted Natsuru with a bright smile, so bright that even the sun is glaring off of her as well.

So our little virgin friend here decided to ask Kaede if she wants to ride the bus to school together with him (yeah, well smooth with the ladies there Natsuru).  Like a nice girl that she is, Kaede agrees and Natsuru’s blood starts pumping (alright, I made that part up but for all I know he probably had the biggest boner when she replied back to him).  So while they were waiting for the bus, Kaede noticed that Natsuru was was really happy and asked if something good happen from which he responded that he bumped into her.  And, of course, Kaede responded back saying that she’s glad that she bumped into him as well.

So while waiting for the bus you find out that the tiger plushie belongs to Kaede and she also saw Natsuru’s bracelet.  When she commented how beautiful it was to him, Natsuru had a rude awaken and guess what… it started growing.  Natsuru then remembers what that plushie said about what will happen when it starts growing so he quickly think of a reason to say to poor Kaede and pretty much ditched her but before he actually could because Kaede kept asking him questions and what not, the girl from the start of the episode shows up and took a shot at him.

So after the other chick confronts him, a bus some happen to drive by and Natsuru takes off with the other chick chasing after him and here’s the transformation scene where you see a guy grow breast and longer hair and changed into a female’s school uniform. *sigh*

So Natsuru is being chases around and even said to him self at the start saying it wasn’t a dream after all like he was hoping off (yeah, I was hoping you were just a figment of my imagination, but I guess I was wrong as well).

So during this chase he’s pretty much trying to dodge bullets and at one point actually jumped on top of a traffic light (yeah…).  Impressed, the unknown chick identify herself as Akane Mishima.

Before anything else can happen, Kaede comes running by looking for Natsuru and Akane turns her cut at her and was about to fire when Natsuru jumps down and shoots a fireball at Akane from which Akane finds out that Natsuru is a Zauber type (a person who can use magic).  While Akane continues to talk and about to fire her gun again, a telephone poll was falling down and Natsuru saved her.

So after he saved her life, Akane said this was boring and takes off and Kaede comes running up to Natsuru from which he runs off as well.

So at school, you learn that the school building is separated. One side is for girls and another side is for boys and the way you find this out because someone was calling for Natsuru because there was someone from the girl’s side calling for him and that random guy starts going on a rampage about the 2 idols of the school would make a big ruckus if it was Kaede or some other chick that came to the boy’s side.

Also went onto some other girl that Natsuru knew since childhood or whatever.  Not important, lets move on.  So after awhile of this nonsense went on, they started teasing Natsuru because of the fact that the girl looks like she was about to cry.

So Natsuru went out into the hall and met her and asked how she got over to the boy’s side.  Turns out that this unknown girl is a librarian so she had a pass.  So when he asked for her name, guess who… yes, that’s right, it’s Akane in the non-transformed flesh.

Cut to the half way point of the episode.  Wait, what?  Half way through already?  only dang this a big entry. But, anyways, lets keep moving, shall we?

So here we are, in the library and Akane and Natsuru is talking to each other about what’s going on. So turns out that Akane’s personality changes when she becomes a Kampfer. You also learn that there are 2 different color bracelets, a blue one and red one, which shows which side you’re on.  Turns out that Natsuru and Akane are part of the same side. You also learn about the weapon types such as gewehr, the Gun type, that Akane uses and the Zauber types that Natsuru uses. There’s also one more type, the schwert type, which they use a sword. You also learn that Akane has a real perverted mind.

So this and that happen, nothing too exciting, Akane starts acting like a pervert again and more misunderstandings,lets fast forward.

So you meet the student body president and more transformation. Lets fast forward again.

So now you learn that at first the transformation is random but you start to control the transformation and you see poor Natsuru having to go to the restroom and had to debate rather to take the skirt off or just flip it up.

Come towards the end of the day you see Natsuru transformed back to his male self and walking to Akane when Kaede comes running up to him. Akane takes off and Kaede asks Natsuru that if he knows the girl who saved her that morning to introduce that girl to her and Natsuru got all hurt because Kaede is in love with the female inside of him… wait, what? Never mind.

So back at home the tiger plushie is laughing at him because of the fact that Kaede is in love of the female Natsuru. The tiger plushie goes on to saying since he’s one and same it shouldn’t be a big deal but he rejects by saying that he wants Kaede to fall in love with his male self (yea… I don’t think he ever was a male to begin with).

So he also talks to Akane about what he should do from which you get into a whole scene of Akane telling Natsuru to just call her by her given name and so Natsuru responded back saying she can do the same and guess who came back? The badass Akane shows up and puts a gun to his face (yeah, she really love guns, if you know what I mean).

So another bunch of nonsense dialog goes on until they get attack.  By who? Who knows, just have to wait until the second episode comes out (and no, it’s not Kaede even though she just so happen to show up at that very moment, even though that would be pretty sexy).

So over all, the first episode got me pretty interested in the series and will give it a go to see where it takes me.

Anyways, since I’ve saw quite a bit of the episodes already, I think it’s time for me to say my 2 cents for these 2 series and the comparisons.

So, let’s see, Hayate no Gotoku and Lucky Star both started around the same time frame of April of 2007.  The only difference is that Lucky Star ended in Sept. of 2007 while Hayate continued on until Mar. of 2008.  So Hayate has more episodes then Lucky Star.  That doesn’t even include the extra OVA that was released a few months after the last episode aired.

Both series reference anime series, but how it’s reference is the turning point.  In Hayate, they actually become like the character’s they’re referencing to but they’re still playing as there own character which makes it fun to watch and laugh while Lucky Star might actually have a lookalike of a character or the girls might cosplay as one which is cute and fun to watch but not on the floor busting up laughing.

Also, the key thing that makes Hayate so great is the fact that they even change the art work style to match the art work style of the anime they’re referencing to in there own way which is sad to say Lucky Star fails to provide.

Other big difference is that you have an announcer in Hayate where the character’s actually interact with by responding to some of the comments that the announce says.  Hayate also got bouis points for referring to the viewers when something is happening or saying things like, “don’t try this at home.”  Lucky Star has something like that called the Lucky Channel that plays at the end of every episode and sometimes they’ll face the viewers to say something but only a few non-main character’s does that and it’s very small scenes.

Hayate this, Hayate that, what about Lucky Star? There’s gotta be something that beats Hayate!

There is, actually, cute girls and one of them plays H-GAMES!!! And yes, I am an avid H-Game player, I enjoy a few h-games here and there.  So there’s light at the end of the tunnel for Lucky Star in my heart but right now Hayate is winning it over with Hina being in the picture =D

First off, I’m going to say this now, if you haven’t watched Basquash at all and plan on watching it then I suggest that you don’t read this at all as it contains spoilers and/or confusions. With that said, lets jump on in.

First thing to get off my chest, how the fuck can she change in and out of her boy clothes into her girl clothes and back in only a matter of seconds?  I’m talking about Flora Skybloom (which everyone on Dan’s team knew as Alan until recently when everyone knew). But, anyways, from the last episode you saw her revealing herself to allow Dan and herself to get out of a situation where the town guards pretty much got them surrounded. Of course Dan is slow at realizing of what’s going on but took the fact that he was a she pretty real and pretty fast.  Cut to this episode, SHE’S BACK IN HER BOY’S CLOTHES!!!  How the fuck does that make any sense?

Probably one part that I always find in different movies and shit is that they always point out the most obviousness stuff like “troops all over the place.”  I mean, come on! We can see there’s troops all over the place! *Breaths in, breaths out*

So pretty much Dan and Flora was able to reach Rouge which turns out that her memories of Dan is no longer there.  Wait, what? No longer there? What the fuck does that mean? It means it’s no longer there meaning that some jerk with the power deleted all her memories of him! *Clears throat* Anyways, they get to her and she asked who he was and was even more confused when the other girls were calling his name telling him not to worry.

Ha, pretty much I was just laughing at this screen for the whole time the opening theme was playing, why? Probably because I’m a jerk… But, anyways, Dan is now even more confused because of her not remembering who he is.  But after Violette and Citron was able to blow Dan off taking Rouge with them, cut to the nerdy guy with glasses who’s a complete jerk setting everything up like a trap.

So,yeah, pretty much everything is pencil dick’s evil plans.  But how?  By using Basquash, of course.  What better way to cook up an evil plan and save Earthdash and Mooneyes by using Basquash?  Just play with me, here.

Anyways, the gang shows up and they got the “invite” to destroy Eclipse’s final concert and they went for it.  Come on, our boy Dan is in love with Rouge so it’s only fair, right?  Once again, just play along.

So What now?  Good question, why not CRASH THE CONCERT AFTER THERE FIRST SONG!!!

Yep, that’s pretty much how it went. Eclipse started singing, got through one song, then BANG! Bigfoots running around but wait, there’s more! Eclipse was actually waiting for them to play, guess what, BASQUASH! Yep, that’s right, the girl’s Bigfoots came out and a basket came out as well.  And guess who’s the only one who’s confused in the mixed… Yep, you guessed it, Rouge.

Of course, as they’re playing, Rouge’s memory slowly started getting back and, yes, you guessed it, they really start getting into Basquash, so much that they started glowing blue and made the same shape as the ruins.  Really?  Really, really?  Alright, I’ll buy it (I guess).

So, after those two play in the nude for awhile longer, they finally decided to “basquash” into the goal (during that time, of course, 4 girls yelled out “go”, although Miyuki quietly said it) which seemed to have awaken some stones… Like I said, play along.

So, yeah, happy ending for the two love birds in this episode?  Not quite as Dan gets shot down.  So what happen to Dan?  Who knows until episode 23.

So, I saw the movie, Role Models, on Friday, November the 7th and I got to say, it wasn’t bad.

The movie is pretty much about two salesmen that goes around to different schools to give a talk about how drugs are bad and how they should get there energy drink instead.  One day, Danny, played by Paul Rudd, gets dumped due to him becoming more of an asshole.  He snapped and parked in a no parking zone when he and Wheeler, played by Seann William Scott, went to there next job.  When they got out there truck was being towed away from which Danny snapped and tried to steal the truck back which lead both him and Wheeler into the slammer with two options, do 30 days in jail or 150 hours of community service.

You can see where this is going so far.  Pretty much they are to be role models to a few kids.  One kid is one that always pulls a fast one to try to get there "big" to not come back and another is into a foam sword fighting game called LAIR (I believe that’s how it was spelled, can’t remember).  They pretty much work together and work out there differences and became good friends in the end.

In the end of all things, it was a pretty funny movie that’s worth seeing.  By the way, I would write more but I can’t remember half the movie due to being extremely tired and don’t feel like remembering a thing.

So what is this movie all about?  Pretty much it’s about a guy name Max Payne who lost his wife and kid due to a murder and they couldn’t find the third suspect.  Because they couldn’t find the third suspect, Payne transferred to the Cold Case Unit.

Not very exciting is it?  If you ask me this movie wasn’t that exciting to begin with.  Anyway,

Payne is still out to look for the third suspect that everyone said that he was more likely gone anyway.  One lead got him to talk to one person who didn’t say much so he went back to his snitch.  At the "snitch" hideout he met this one girl who just wanted to have his body which he didn’t want to give up and threw her out of his apartment (oh, I forgot to mention that, he took her back to his place to try to get more "information" from her).

As the movie moves on you see more and more of those demons or "angels" as they call them.  Of course, only those who are on this one kind of drug is able to see those "angels" and most of them die by them as well.

The movie is just long, and boring, for the most part, with unneeded special effects in unneeded scenes.  Like I would say more about it but I don’t want to give away the ending since, I would admit, worth seeing at least once.  For now, just enjoy this boring movie review I just gave you.

So, this is what Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka is all about, random girl and random guy meeting each other on the streets and fate has brought them together…. Or not…

But lets not get too far ahead of each other now as this series can go either way at any moment right now. It’s anyone’s ball game.

So the beginning of the series started off with some girl name Yuuhi Katagiri walking on a sidewalk and bumped into a couple of guys by mistake. Even though Yuuhi said she was sorry the guy wanted to do something much more until they found out how cute she is without her classes on.

Comes Jun-ichi Nagase, coming up behind those guys and told them to back off.  Just then one of the guys stopped the other guy saying he’s the Geno Killer (which all Jun-ichi could says was, "not this again"). They gotten so scared that they ran away in a jiffy.

After the guys ran away they exchanged a few words the lady’s butler picked her up to take her home.

At home his sister gave him a bit of an hassle like brother and sisters normally do and the night came to an end.  Of course the name day for the new semester of school started he woke up late and just made it to school on time.

Now at school his teacher was giving him an hard time because his sister told his teacher to take good care of Jun-ichi.  While they were talking the teacher announced there was a transfer student coming in and comes walks in Yuuhi and they were both surprised to see each other in the same class.  The teacher asked Yuuhi if she knew him and she said that she didn’t but that he saved her.  The teacher was gotten surprised and said that he hoped Jun-ichi didn’t nearly killed the students (of course Jun-ichi declines it).

Here you meet Karen Ayanokouji, a rich girl who, from my eyes, always gets what she wants.  I have a good feeling she’ll probably play in a role where she’ll probably do something to get Jun-ichi and Yuuhi angry at each other but for now, lets just stick with the basic of this first episode.

So after the teacher left the whole class gathered around Yuuhi to asked her how she knows Jun-ichi from which Karen stands up and tells the class to settled down (probably because she’s jealous).  After which Yuuhi stood up, walk over to Jun-ichi asked him to go out with her from which the whole class was like, "HUH?!"

Cut to the next screen, Yuuhi is talking to Jun-ichi and his friends and they’re teasing Jun-ichi like they always do and keep bringing up those rumors.

So the introductions are done and here comes the next day where a few classmates are teasing Yuuhi asking her if she’s going out with him or not.  Now Karen is even more upset since Yuuhi is not giving her a straight answer so when Jun-ichi came in they asked him to clear things up.

When they pulled him up for the clarification his mind started racing telling him what to do and so… he kissed her… But… Yuuhi kicks Jun-ichi in the balls because he took her by surprised.

Day at school ended, Jun-ichi’s sister is yelling at him for being a moron and said she’ll apologies for him when someone came to the door to find out it’s Yuuhi at the door and she’s moving in, as Jun-ichi’s fiancee.  Where is the series going to go from here?  That I do not know but can’t wait to find out.

The movie stars Vin Diesel as some mercenary named Toorop who was once an veteran who takes on a high-risk job escorting a young lady named Aurora from Central Asia to New York.  He thinks this is just a basic pickup and delivery job but when trouble started coming he soon starts to wonder what exactly he’s “delivering.”

Alright, enough of the “Synopsis” gist of it, lets get down to business to the actual review.  Please note that there are some spoilers here so if you do want to watch this piece of shit movie, then I’d advise you don’t read on, otherwise, read on!

The movie starts off with part of the ending (believe it or not) then the actual movie starts when Toorop walking through the streets of Russia and beating up some guy for what seems like money he paid for a gun that didn’t work…. Yeah… *clears throat* anyways, after that he moves on through more streets picking up what looks like dog meat and up to his apartment.  After cutting up his meat and cooked his meal he was welcome by some uninvited guests (one of which he kills and tells the other guys that it’s cool and will walk quietly out as there was only unfinished business between the two).

Anyways, to make a long story short, he was pretty much forced into delivering Aurora to New York for some weird reason and truth be told I’m still trying to figured out what the hell is going on.

All I know is that this movie keeps jumping around.  At one moment you see Toorop arguing with Aurora then the next they’re like all buddy buddy.  Hell, they’ve gone as far as almost having a sex scene with Toorop and Aurora (and she’s like, what?  probably about 15 years old I would guess).  What kind of message is that?  That it’s alright to have sex with underage women as long as they consent to it?

Even the ending makes no sense.  Some how Toorop finds Aurora at the place where Toorop said he was going to fix up some day and some how the “bad guys” found them right away, even though the tracking device planted in Toorop’s neck is supposedly removed (at least that’s what I’m assuming granted that that doctor is smart enough to remove it out).

This movie, in general, has no plot and not worth your money.  In the great words of Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons, “Worst, episode, ever”

I was disappointed at first because it doesn’t do cross converting and I have having issue with HDMI (although I think I know what my problem is) but I was happy to find out that my remote allows me to change to the actually input of where the action is.  Although I’m still trying to figure out how I should connect everything up I found that I still have the use for my A/V switch.  I thought I’d still have to use a total of 3 remotes but found out that the A/V switch is actually part of this remote!  You know what that means, right? :)

I’ll get you pictures soon but here’s how I got everything setup so far.

The theater system is a 7.1 surround sound system, almost all the wires reached but I’ll have to find myself a new cable for the surround back left (that’s the one in the far back on the left of the TV’s viewing area) as that one is currently strung along the ceiling in plain view but off the floor so no one will trip over it.  I need the longer one so I can go around the room with it so it’s out of way and out of sight.

I have the PS3 sitting on the second to top shelf of this one rack from which is connected to a Pelican System Selector Pro 2.0 A/V switcher via component cable, my XBox 360 is sitting on top of my cable box which is located on the second to last shelf of this rack which is also connected to the Pelican switcher via component cable.  Whenever I mess around with HDMI more I’ll do away with the A/V switcher but until then, this is how it is.

Anywho, the cable box is connected to the A/V Recever via component cable for both video and audio and the PS3 and 360 is using optical cable to the A/V Recever for there audio.  Interesting and confusing setup, no?  But that’s where the beauty of this Logitech Harmony remote comes in!

At first I thought I was going to have to continue using 3 remotes.  One for the A/V switcher, one for the PS3 for playback of movies, and the new harmony remote.  But then I noticed that my A/V switcher is, in fact, on the list!  Also what caught my attention was the fact that the remote can also automatically set the correct video input on the TV for you, I nearly shit my pants when I saw that, it was just so awesome to know that and have plans for that as well to take advantage of it :)

On the intenial test of the system, before programing the new remote, I was kinda confused.  Sure, the setup in terms of connecting all the wires were easy enough although a bit of a pain but trying to get everything programmed right is still another thing that I have yet to get done.  Currently my DVD option is my cable box and the DVR/VCR is my A/V Switcher.  Whenever I get around to it I’ll get it setup correctly so that the cable box option will be, in fact, my cable box and the DVD option would be my switcher unless I decided to give HDMI another chance at it’s life (all the cables are still in placed, for the most part, just need to give it another whack).

But once getting the new remote programed everything seems so easy!  Just one click of a button turns off the unused devices and turns on the devices that I am going to be using and changed the options on the display for additional options like the X, Y, A, B buttons for the 360.

Anyways, this is just the beginning, I hope my new toy, my new love, will lead me through the way.  And prepard for a review for the surround system and for the Harmony remote (yes, I know the remote I’m using is the “latest” one out there but still a damn good remote).

At first, I had no intention of seeing this movie mainly because I “thought” it’d be a waste of time and money after the previous movies that’s been converted from comics (Spiderman, X-Man, Punisher, Daredevil, etc).  But then I’ve actually been hearing good things about the movie, and this is from word of mouths (I don’t read critic’s reviews because they’re biases in some ways) so I thought whenever someone feels like going out to watching it I’ll join them, sure enough, one of my co-workers wanted to see the movie too so I went with him.

My thought after watching the movie?  Wow…  Just… wow…. A lot, and I mean A LOT, better then what I thought.  I thought the movie would be some what of a bore fest and everyone who saw it and said it was good was kidding around but damn they were right, this movie was good.  If you ask me, this is probably the best movie I’ve seen that was converted from a comic.  The lines weren’t “Cheesy” per say and the acting was really good and well thought out.

Believe me, with this movie being this good, I wouldn’t doubt that there might be a sequel.

But what’s it about?  Well, it’s pretty much about this guy who is a CEO of this high tech end manufacturer company that manufacturers military weapons.  One day he went on a business trip to a hot spot to sell some new kind of missile system but was captured.  The people who captured him wants him to make that missile system for them but he, instead, created an iron suite to escape.  During the time he was captured he saw all the weapons that the enemy had was manufactured by his company.  Now that he’s finally escaped and back home, he’s pissed off that the enemy has his weapons that he design to save Americans life that he shut down the weapon’s department and created the actual Iron Man suite in his personal work lap and killed off those who are using his weapons and blah and blah and blah.  I’m sure you’re tired of reading this…

Anyways, point being, watch the movie, you won’t be disappointed.