More Souten Kouro

Current status: In a good mood. Not dying at kendo does that to you.
Currently listening to: "Dragon", the opening to New Getter Robo. See for yourselves.
Quote of the day: "Are you ready guys? PUT YA GUNS ON!" - Masamune Date, one of the main characters in Sengoku Basara. Yes. A Japanese guy from the Middle Ages. Don't look at me like that, see for yourselves. If you're disgusted by this horrifying anachronism and start writing about the terrible state of contemporary culture, then get the hell out of here, I like it for its sincere insanity!

Hah! I've managed to post again!

I've finally started playing Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI, a turn-based strategy game based on the novel with same name (Well, except the number. Weird as it may seem, XI is not an all-caps Chinese name). I was a bit unsure about finishing the Tutorial, since it skips a lot of chapters and is filled with spoilers (I've only read 26 chapters out of the whopping 120), so I started a normal game. After blindly assigning officers (by the way, you can create your own independent force!), I picked 8 forces. Of course, I was a bit unconscious, so I didn't realise it meant I could control all of them. Long story made short, I had a lot of addictive fun (enough to play till 5 AM). It's complex, it has very nice character portraits and it has quite some replay value.

I went on with Souten Kouro and watched up to episode 7. Now I'm out of subbed episodes, so I'll try to write some short impressions based on what I've seen (without having read any of the manga).

Episode 3: The Demon of the North Gate





Cao Cao is obviously sued for attacking Zhang Rang. Zhang Rang tries to convince Cao's judge to convict him, but this judge seems to be incorrigible. So incorrigible that Cao Cao manages to impress out of him by telling him that Heaven is witness to the truth of his words and that he intends to take over China to bring justice. Cao Cao is given the title of North Buwei, some kind of officer who rules over one of the four gates of the capital Luoyang. Considering he's trying to destroy Britann-- eeeer, I mean the eunuchs, he's taking some very interesting measures. Whoever goes out or comes in without permission is to be punished be being hit on the back with a giant iron rod. Usually, a hundred or so. Of course, in the process, he has a nobleman beaten. He reduces his punishment to 20 hits, but the nobleman dies after only one. It kinda helps that he was a relative of one of the eunuchs. After that, he starts researching a revolt, that of the Partisans, hoping to find some proof that the eunuchs had done many terrible things. Oh, and he stops a survivor of the revolt from committing suicide (by ramming his head into an axe) by telling him his name and asking him to join him. Yeah, cause muscular guys who can kill themselves with axes are a must-have.

Episode 4: Banquet of Fire






Cao Cao intends to have the emperor read what he's discovered, whatever the means. The eunuchs plot against him and have an Imperial uncle go through his gate, to make him look bad in the Emperor's eyes. Cue Dan Hong wanting to see this demon of the gate in action and Cao Cao beating the hell out of his guards, then punishing him. Looks like Dan Hong died after one hit. Time for the eunuchs to come and punish Cao Cao, no? After some more talking, Cao Cao stabs Dan Hong's corpse, hidden under a cape. Subtle? Yeah, especially when he reveals that's no corpse, it's a bag of grains. The real Dan Hong is on the wall and has heard the eunuchs actually wanted him to die just to punish Cao Cao. Thanks to this ruse that basically saved his life, the Imperial uncle is willing to give his support to Cao Cao. Cue the Five-Five ceremony, where demons are chased away. The Emperor wonders where his uncle is, and we are introduced to the sword-dancer who is going to perform for them. Stupid sexy Cao Cao. Even the women faint at his sight. Oh, and he dances in front of the eunuchs, always coming close to slashing them. Some archers try to kill our hero, but last time's axe-wielding suicider is revealed to be the huge guy in the costume. He doesn't seem to be very disturbed by the arrows in his shoulder. Anyway, the emperor (who is like a child. A very retarded child) wants to reward him for amusing him so much, and Cao Cao wants to read him his research. Zhang Rang tries to stop him, by saying this is not a good occasion and that he should take it into custody. Later, Zhang Rang convinces the Emperor to appoint Cao Cao governor of a very far region. How does he convince him? By telling him he's sent some beautiful women in his room. The emperor, for all his fat, is delighted. Cao Cao is quite happy that his one paper was enough to ensure his governorship and intends to go on.

(Later edit) Originally, I had reviewed up to episode 6, but Firefox decided to die on me, taking most of the review for episode 5 with it. No worries, I'll review episodes 5, 6 and 7 some other time.

I've finished Sengoku Basara (all 12 episodes of it). It was a series that didn't seem to take itself too seriously, but I would be underrating it if I'd say it was just nothing but brainless action. As soon as Nobunaga and his cronies show up, the series becomes much more dramatic. Oh, and people start dying, starting with Nagamasa Azai. The real shocker for me (historically speaking) was that Tokugawa Ieyasu, the one who was supposed to unify Japan, died off-screen. The final battle wasn't really all that good and Nobunaga was a terrible villain. I mean, they tried too hard to make him diabolical and Norio Wakamoto's voice acting was rather unimpressive, for once. Sometimes, even he was ridiculous, especially since he was drinking out of a skull. The problem? Skulls have eye sockets and once - I swear - his sake just poured out through the sockets. What an idiot! Nouhime was a pretty good villainess, since she manages to "kill" Honda Tadakatsu and Uesugi Kenshin. I know Oichi is supposed to be emo and all, but her unwillingness to do her brother any harm, even after Nagamasa's ghost talks to her brought her petty demise. She does manage to score a kill against Nouhime, but I'm afraid to ask just what the hell those hands were. Akechi Mitsuhide, voiced by Sho Hayami, was a real villain. He was sadistic, he was masochistic, he wanted to see Nobunaga humiliated and dead (in that order), without joining the good guys. He kills Ieyasu and almost kills Takeda. Which brings me to my next point: death is pretty cheap, even in this anime. I was actually touched, even outraged, when Kenshin and Takeda were killed, not to mention Tadakatsu. Their survival kind of cheapened the impact of the moment. It's true that all of them were too awesome to die. Well, except for Tadakatsu. He was basically a giant robot who was awesome enough to get killed off twice. I do have to admit that the duo of Yukimura and Masamune is what kept the show running. Yukimura's punch-outs with Takeda, Masamune's awesome Engrish, Kojuro (his "Right Eye") and Masamune's almost-named grunts made all this worthwhile. I couldn't help but cheer whenever they did something. To be very honest, Yukimura did have a tendency to mope around every now and then, but he was pretty decent. Masamune was just badass. The ninjas has some funny interaction. Sarutobi Sasuke is very well voiced and does his job justice by wearing camouflage colours. Kasuga, for most of the series, was there just for the gags. What gag, you might ask? She was supposed to assassinate Kenshin, but fell in love instead. How is her love? She goes orgasmic every single time Kenshin touches her. However, Kenshin's serious injuries did make her become a little more badass, as she escapes Nobunaga and takes Oichi with her, telling her (she, of all people) not to rush towards death. Good thing Oichi isn't depress-- nevermind. The final battle had some last-minute cameos, but the fight itself between Yukimura & Masamune and Nobunaga was pretty anticlimactic. Nobunaga is simply too overpowered up to a point, but thank God for everyone's random energy bursts randomly doing something and Masamune and Yukimura doing a team attack on Nobunaga. Oh, and the explosions are insane. The fact that season 2 has been announced makes me pity poor medieval Japan. If these people get serious, things are going to blow up like crazy. Anyway, the epilogue was pretty neat, though. Gotta love how everybody is back to wanting to kick everybody else's ass, now that the big bad guy is dead.

I'll be leaving for Greece this Friday. As such, I doubt I'll post anything else while there. Unless they have more Internets there.

Signing off for today, yours truly.