Today's theme: GaoGaiGar Final 1-5

Current status: Looking at the snowy weather and ranting that it melts as soon as it reaches ground. I want a white Christmas, not a wet one. Also, I read that if they don't solve with the teachers' strike, it will go on until New Year. Bumbling idiots. >_>;;
Currently listening to: Yuusha Oh Tanjou! Mythology version, 2005 remix - The remix is just as good, if not better than the old version. Basically, still Masaki Endou singing, but there is a male chorus in the background at points. Now this fits the title of the TV version of the series, aired in 2005 - Grand Glorious Gathering.
Breakfast: Same old, same old. Still sandwiches.
Lunch: Grandpa came, so we had a good meal. I'll note fries, sausages and meat.
Dinner: Milk.
Quote of the day: "Have you forgotten, Mamoru? Victory goes only to those with courage!" Guy Shishio, episode 2 of GaoGaiGar FINAL.

While it was snowing, I noted that Anime-in-Action added their newest sub: GaoGaiGar Final episode 5. This happens to be one of my favorite serie, so I used the moment to download it, and watched it. As such, I want to review the OAV itself, up to episode 5, episode-by-episode.

Episode 1: Basically, it introduces the new characters - Renee Shishio Cardiff, Guy's cousin; Koryu and Anryu - the new Enryu/Hyoryu class female robots, as well as Papillon Noir, a new Orbit Base member and also the new chief and Leo's replacement. Old characters return too. GaoFar proves to be as useless as possible, so this offers a plot motive for the new Final Fusion to be performed. The Fighting Mechanoid, GaoFighGar, is formed, an proceeds to kick Gimlet's ass with his spankin' new attacks, like the new Broken Phantom, or good old Goldion Hammer. By far the only episode which has the old series' feeling. From here start the major problems. I'll rate it at 3.5 out of 5 because of the good battle, but the introduction of the new chief disappointed me, cause he lacked the 'oomph' that Taiga had. Figures.

Episode 2: We finally get in the plot, and in quite a dynamic way. Papillon dies while protecting the Q Parts possessed by GGG, Mamoru steals the Q Parts from all over the world, then the old Gao Machines, brings a white Galeon and attacks. Guy launches and performs Fusion into GaoFar. GaiGar and GaoFar clash, but Guy sees that it's hopeless, so both call their respective Gao Machines. Cue parallel Final Fusion. Star GaoGaiGar and GaoFighGar destroy each other's Phantom Rings because of firing Broken Phantom at each other. Then, Star GGG beats up GFG by throwing him around, because Guy had his second thoughts. Now, however, Guy calls for Goldymarg and starts the Hammer Hell and Heaven attack. This is where it goes wrong. Mamoru uses Hell and Heaven Vita (it seems to be stronger than the regular one), and destroys Goldion Hammer and Goldymarg, of course. Guy then is caught with GFG by the paralysis thing caused by H&H. Choryujin comes out of nowhere and blocks H&H with the Eraser Head - the energy absorbtion tool, unused since episode 27 of GGG. However, Star GGG breaks it and trashes Choryujin. Guy goes postal, and uses H&H himself. The two mechanoids clash and Star GGG still seems to win. Mamoru says that he's surpassed Guy-niichan. Guy yells back at him that only those with courage win, and destroys Star GGG. Arma returns and reveals that that was a Mamoru clone. Right then, they discover the true enemy: The 11 Sol Masters. 5 out of 5 for this excellent active and dark episode.

Episode 3: We find out that the 11 Sol Masters want to reform the Trinary Solar system by using the empty space inside the Universe, meaning that they'll destroy the Universe. GGG has to travel with the Galleolia Comet to reach the old Trinary Solar System. However, the UN refuse to let them go, and try to block'em. They delete the Final Fusion program, making GaoFar unable to move. Things look nasty until the old missing GGG members, Taiga, Stallion, Swan and Liger, return. Taiga uses his golf club as a key to reactivate the program and GFG is able to use the Gattling Driver and block the enemy's movements. As a result, the UN representative, an old hag, decides to banish them from the Solar System, as a sign of not being allowed to retreat from battle with the Sol Masters. They go with the Comet, and receive a transmission from what seems to be Papillon. Only 2.5 out of 5, because it's a bit anticlimatic, compared to the previous one. The fact that GaoFighGar is used only for that is silly, and not much happens. I expected to find out more about those Sol Masters, but we'll have to wait for episode 4.

Episode 4: Well, GGG (the TV series gang, not the new replacements) reaches a replica of Earth, where they meet a clone of Papillon, who has her memories. They shut down the AIs of the robots, and start being careless and having fun and sleeping. Only Guy, Renee and Arma, as well as Papillon, are unaffected. Renee and Arma get beaten up by Pillnus and Abel (!), both Sol Masters, and Guy goes against the other Sol Masters, including Palparepa, their leader. Palparepa is a doctor look-alike, but that's beyond the point. He performs Chemical Fusion and becomes Palparepa Plus, while Guy realizes he can't Final Fuse, since Mikoto and co. are asleep. He begs for their help, and Mamoru does the Program Drive in order to make GFG be formed. Palparepa uses God and Devil (another H&H look-alike) and GFG uses H&H. However, Cain (!) takes him by surprise and Palparepa destroys GFG's top half. 3 out of 5 because of the ammounts of time lost for Swan fanservice (she's shown in a bath), and for the GGG members fooling around. The only bright point is Guy's defeat.

Episode 5: GFG's battle goes on, Guy uses Drill Knee, which is destroyed along with the leg that flies off. Then, Palparepa blows GFG up by using a sword, and apparently kills Guy. Mikoto snaps out of the euphoric state and is found by the Papillon replica and Mamoru. They encourage her to help everyone else, because she's an Evoluder too. They save Renee, who had been captured by Pillnus, and then, after being a little repaired and having some sad memories, Renee goes to Mont-Saint Michel and finds J. Then, both fight Pia Decem and Pillnus, followed by Abel, after which Mikoto comes with Mamoru, GunDober and GunGlue and they find the J-Ark. Cue Mega Fusion (enhanced) into King J-der,and the discovery that Arma is the core of Pia Decem's battleship. They fight in space, where they're attacked by a copy of the Orbit Base and the AI robots, and, surprise, by Guy-niichan (GFG) and Goldy, who vow to destroy King J-der. Episode ends with J-Quath and Goldion Hammer clashing. 4 out of 5 because J returns, and Mamoru's back, and Mikoto's alive.

Well, to make it short, GGGF is a great OAV, and it's well worth getting.

Signing off for today.

Vlad the Impaler was not a blood-thristy maniac!

Current status: Happy at the news that it's gonna snow
Currently listening to: The Biggest Dreamer - Digimon Tamers opening theme. Yeah, it's Digimon, I know, but it's the best out of the other themes. It's really catchy, and it has rhythm - that matters a lot in my song reviews, but not always. Digimon Tamers was perhaps the decentest of all Digimon seasons, and I'm refering to the German dub version, because that's all I saw out of Tamers.
Dinner: A cup of milk and another sandwich.
Quote of the Day: "If your name is fake, so is your existance, isn't it so, Alex Dino... no, Athrun Zala?" Chairman Dullindal, Gundam Seed Destiny. - nothing new, but I'll comment it on another occasion.

First of all, there's something I see in common for everyone who asks about Romania. They say either that it's where Dracula is from, and I whack'em over the head, or that it's where the blood-thirsty Vlad the Impaler ruled and I still whack'em. I know this is their only known thing about Romania, next to Hagi, Ceausescu and "Numa Numa", but I'm getting sick of this confusion. I wanna make this clear: Vlad the Impaler wasn't a monster.

He lived in an era when the Turks were attempting to conquer Wallachia (one of the three principalities forming today's Romania; by the way, Vlad wasn't ruler of Transylvania) and were appointing some of our Voivods (a term for Prince - in Romanian, voievod [voh-ee-eh-voh-d]), but from time to time, there was a ruler who'd fight back. In the end, our only direct victory against a sultan on battlefield was about a century before Vlad ruled, and that was the battle of Rovine [Roh-vee-neh] in 1396, due to the fact that it was a swampy place. However, under that same ruler, Mircea the Great, we were forced to pay the tribute. Well, this Vlad guy was just one of those few Princes who stood up. You do realize he couldn't afford to have criminals and bandits roaming the streets in addition to the existent chaos caused by the Turks. We were at the geographical northern limit of the Empire, and from getting us to getting Vienna was just a step. Just that we were stubborn bastards.

Now, Vlad's methods were condemnable, yes, but had he not been a lot harsher, then this would have made us an easy target. Also, there was a problem: during his father's reign, Vlad had been emprisoned by the Turks along with his brother. It's then that he got a pesimistic view on life, and this became even worse when he returned and found out that the noblemen, under the rival prince's (Vladislav) command, but with their support, killed Vlad's father (Vlad II Dracul, _not_ Dracula) as well as his own eldest son, Mircea. When the Turks got bored with Vladislav, they sent Vlad, Dracul's son, to take over. Of course, he got his vengeance on all the noblemen that had killed two persons he prized, his father and his son, and killed the older ones through impalement (that is, he had them be dropped in a giant spike, not having them fall right on the heart or the head, but making the spike go through their asses, which meant they would get some pretty painful and long suffering). The younger ones were forced to march for 100 km, during which many died, and the survivors were never left to rest a second. When they reached their destination, they had to build a fortress. This way, Vlad got his vengeance in full AND had a new fortress.

Beyond the vengeance, yes, he killed many criminals and the like, in the most sadistic of ways, by cutting off noses, genitals, tongues or ears, or other pleasant tortures. Many accuse him of mercilessly killing German (well, Saxon, since they are called "sasi" [sahsh], which is different from "germani" or the popular form of "germani", "nemti" [nemtzi]) merchants. But they seem to ignore the minor detail that they weren't respecting the commerce laws. He also dared refuse to pay Mehmed II (a.k.a. the conqueror of Constantinople) the tribute, and killed his emissaries. Mehmed launched an all-out attack on Wallachia with an army thrice bigger than that of Vlad. Vlad burned everything that would've been in Mehmed's path, and on top of that, left a huge amount of spikes impaling clothes of 20000 captured Turks in the Capital. Now, the Ottoman forces were exhausted, and now they saw THIS scary sight. It seems they retreated in shame.

However, Mehmed sent Vlad's brother against him, and all of Vlad's internal enemies sabotaged him, forcing him to retreat to a castle. Some people say he committed suicide there, but in fact he ran to Hungary (which had Transylvania under it's control), where king Matthias Corvin emprisoned him. Vlad returned for a short period as Prince, but he was caught, beheaded, then impaled as proof of his death.

By the way, "Dracula"'s ethymology has nothing to do with vampires and such. Vlad the Impaler's father, Vlad II Dracul, bore the name of Dracul from the fact that he was part of the Order of the Dragon. "Drac" had the meaning of "dragon" (cf German "drachen"), and, extending the meaning, of "demon". However, the demon definition is much more recent. "Dracula" comes from "Draculea", showing the fact that he was his son. Kinda like the Norse name technique: Andersson = son of Anders.

The purpose of this history lesson is to make sure that the few people who read this blog will know WHO the ever-so-demonic Vlad the Impaler really was.

The beginning of all ~Subete no hajimari~

Current status: Enjoying the wonders of a teachers' strike
Listening to: Sure Promise, a BGM from the mecha anime with Batman influences, The Big O. Definitely a majestic theme for a series which starts from an original premise, that of people losing all memories preceding a mysterious event 40 years ago.
Breakfast: What I always eat on a non-school day - a ham and swiss cheese sandwich with toasted bread. Yummy~! Normally, due to something called 90 kilos of fat goodness, I eat cereals in the morning. Gotta keep fit, because I heard sumo doesn't pay XD.
Lunch: Sandwiches (salami and cheese), then home-made maccaroni and cheese (my favourite).
Quote of the day: "If your name is fake, so is your existance, isn't it so, Alex Dino... no, Athrun Zala?" Chairman Dullindal, Gundam Seed Destiny.

Well, here I start my first own blog, and I should introduce myself: I'm a 16 year old, 6 foot tall, 90 kg, dark blonde (or should I call it brown? What the heck) hair, brown eyed boy from Bucharest, Romania, Central Europe according to books, Eastern Europe according to other people, because we were communists at a point.
My name is... a secret (to quote the ever-smiling sly character of Slayers Next and Slayers Try, Xelloss). But because I'm in a good mood due to a very welcome 2-week vacation from the teachers, who are on a strike because of lack of money assigned by the Government, I'll give away that my nickname among my classmates is Mike (guess why).

My main passions are anime (comedy or mecha), football and playing a great Japanese game, called Super Robot Wars. I also know a few other languages, like English, French, German and enough Japanese in order to pilot a mobile suit (^_^;;). I'm in high-school, in a class formed of 27 girls and one other boy, giving an average of 13 1/2 girls per boy... Of course, the girls are interested in stuff like LOTR, TV stars, boys, and, ironically, football (European, not American). Also, a great pastime is imitating our professors' quirks and signature movements, and we have a girl who'll write a play with our teachers interacting. Our class is a philology one, this means more Romanian, Latin, English, History, Geography and Psychology/Logic/Economy/Philosophy (depending on the year), and less Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and other very lovable classes.

As a sports fan, I root for Steaua Bucharest since I was a wee kid (and that's not long ago XD ). Also, I'm an Inter/Juventus fan, a Manchester United fan, Barcelona (just because their colours are like Steaua's and because they're no cheats with a crapload of super-players; I prefer a balanced team).

Now that I'm done introducing myself, I'll end this post, and I would like to offer my thanks to Aslan J. Cross, another blogger, member on the www.srwg.org forum, whose blog has inspired me to write mine. Also thanks to YuuDestiny, another member of that forum, who had come up with the name you see in my signature long before I joined. Thanks, both of you.