Man of Steel

For those who are worried about spending money on watching the newest Superman movie on 3D or IMAX, don't worry, it's totally worth it.

At least that's how I felt after my 3D experience. As you know, due to my poor eyesight, I had to wear a prescribed glasses under my 3D glasses, which didn't bother the fat that I enjoyed the movie.

Superman movies have been remodeled and twisted way more than we think. Big screen movies, TV shows, cartoons, you name it. The blue tight costume with red cape that is also shifting along the movement of the Superman phenomenon. For me, it is.

I used to watch some of the Superman cartoons in CartoonNetwork and slightly enjoyed the highly morale, wisdom, quirky, and randomly hunky Clark Kent/Kal-El followed the movies before this newest one, with that Brandon guy as the actor. As always, he was good looking, had beautiful eyes, more like a model than your regular Daily Planet reporter. Well, I guess working in Daily Planet will either make you a supermodel or a superhero. My latest response to the previous Superman movie was that I pretty much enjoyed it (and him) to the extent that I collected pins of the movie, and I still have 'em now!

Superman movies are always (so far, for me) complicated. If you follow along the cartoon storyline, it was pretty simple and pretty child-like plot. In movies, they have to make the plot progressively interesting and unpredictable yet made the audience longs for more, more, more. The people that are involved in making them always try to find ways to make their own version special and different, one of the reasons why I found them complicated.

The previous Superman movie--I couldn't recall the title--was basically about Superman coming back to his Earth life after leaving behind Lois Lane and basically his world. I forgot why he came back, but when he came, Lois Lane apparently had gotten herself married to someone and had a little boy. Storyline went on, I forgot most of them, but they did have some kryptonite scene where the Superman got stabbed by it. And I think Lex Luthor was the bad guy. And apparently, Lois Lane's little son was actually Superman's son. Wonder how and why.

Time goes on, Christopher Nolan--producer of Dark Knight series--and Zac Snyder--director of 300 (which explain why Russell Crowe played in this movie)--decided to come together and made another DC superheroes movies that hopefully will turn out as good as the Dark Knight Series. They casted Henry Cavill as Kal-El, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Russell Crowe as Jor-El. And the main antagonist is not Lex Luthor--yet. It's General Zod--or however you write it.

Henry Cavill--to me--turned out to be a quite suitable Superman, he sometimes looks like Christopher Reeve--probably the hair. He has this good looking and naive and quiet vibrant from his personality and you totally can see that during his Unscripted interviews. For a visual show, I'd rate ten out of ten for his good looking and charm, although he looks slightly weird when he smirks or smile, but he's still good looking, and not skinny at all. Hunky piece.

The story line slightly confused me, as again, this is a different twist of Superman plot. They showed the origin of sending Kal-El away, his natural parents, the planet's destruction, etc. Then it immediately hopped to a new timeline where Kal-El/Clark was an adult, living from place to place to hide his secret and also to help people out. Nearly three forth of the plot is about jumping back and forth through Clark's life and his struggle.

I cannot say that Henry Cavill is the best actor to play Superman, though. Although he did tremendously well, I know that for some reasons, there are scenes that he just didn't know how to portray it as a Superman. I mean, I myself cannot really imagine how Superman would react when he figured out or met his parents, or meeting Lois Lane for the first time, or losing someone that he loves. At this point, I feel like Superman is pretty emotionless about it.

One thing I love about the main villain is that he's not evil because of his pure lunatic and antagonist nature. He holds certain values and dignity to the extent that he committed such crime in order to hold what he thinks right--which I think some people should learn from. I'm gladly happy seeing him lose but won't feel bad about seeing him coming back, which I don't think so.

Amy Adams played quite a great Lois Lane, although I felt just enough curiosity out of her, which I think, if you're talking about Lois Lane here, she's depicted as someone who's full of eagerness and curiosity like a child, pretty hyper herself. Amy Adams portrayed Lois Lane as a composed, slightly stubborn, caring companion for Superman. Which is not bad. 

If you're asking for reasons why you really should watch another Superman movie--other than the great actors in it, I can mention some. Go for:

The great visual effect

This particular movie has a terrific and sometimes scarily tremendous visual effect of the super fighting amongst the Kryptons. They just had a wonderful job on processing the movie that I enjoyed every little bit of the scene in it, especially the rough parts. They exaggerated his flying, his punching, everything. Totally worth to watch, I couldn't even describe.

Epic sound

Or music, you name it. It just added a sense of epic-ness in the movie, whatever the plot is. You feel like you're watching something that is historically important.

Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Russell Crowe

Uh, did I already mention about the actors and actresses? Oh, by the way, Kal-El's natural mother, Lara, was so pretty as if she does come from Krypton.

Superman's epic hair

You'll be left wondering for the whole movie: why on earth is his hair not moving at all? One of his trademark, I guess.

Dumbfounded people in the end

This is always the major question in any Superman show: why people cannot even realize that Clark and Kal-El are basically a same person that's different because with or without glasses? In here, Lois Lane is the only one who realizes that he's the Superman, and nobody does. New guy in the Daily Planet, they said. And how come, with even his charming glasses face and hunky body shape, nobody has no crush on him, other than Lois Lane? This is the best question ever for Superman.

You'll want more

This movie is more like a historical documentary of Superman's life. The cinematography of the movie is so family-friendly and nostalgic and you felt as if you're looking into someone's memory, with human eyes instead of the camera shots. You jus beg for the second and third ones, just like what happened to Dark Knight.

Christopher Nolan with his epic visual effects just like in the Dark Knight and Zac Snyder with his marvelous massive way to give out such a hysterical effect just like in the 300, who would not want for a second one?

Star Trek: Into Darkness

I wrote this as soon as I arrived home after watching the movie. Okay, before I wrote how I think about it, I need to confess...

I read the summary of the movie in Wikipedia before watching it. Well, some. 

BUT! Nonetheless, it's not like I understand the synopsis that much, there were just a lot of things going on I couldn't even process it clearly. But surely, that kind of messing up my expectations. And I truly regret the fact that I took a peek.

Anyway, personal opinion: KYAYAYAYAAYAYAYAAKHAAAN

I might be one of the die-hard Benedict Cumberbatch fan... Well, not that much. But I'm eager to see him in any kind of movie. I've watched his depiction of Stephen Hawking and I thought that was brilliant. Of course I've watched Sherlock, like, duuuuh.

Okay, need to stop fangirling.

About Star Trek, I just started watching it when they made the new version of it, with Chris Pine in it. Not that I like Chris Pine (well that's true, though), but I am not that well associated with space movies, so when they started having the new version and I was happened to be around, I started to follow it. And to frank, I might like Star Trek way better that Star Wars (also due to the fact that I don't follow Star Wars at all).

The first Star Trek movie, I felt like it was okay-good-great space movie. Especially there's quite a lot of dilemmas in it, but basically about building relationship. Well, I don't remember the first one that well anymore.

The second one... Umm, how should I put this, since I kinda took a peek (curse you inner temptation!), I was slightly guessing while enjoying the movie, which totally ruined me. Although I'm still pretty happy about the movie, but if only I didn't take a peek...

I felt that the movie was sort of like an on and on problems and questions going on. It was slightly confusing in the middle, since I couldn't really figure out who's helping who and how they're going to end it, and whether Benedict Cumberbatch is the main evil guy... Nah, he has that evil vibe, so it must be him. Sometimes I felt like in the middle, it was slightly like Bond's Skyfall, where the evil guy also surrendered only to destroy from the inside. Sort of.

Going along the whole movie, you kinda have the idea about how each problem will be resolved, for example how Khan will be defeated, how Kirk will be saved, how Spock will see the world, how (everything else) because the answers were there. This is the type of movie to amuse and amaze you and to make you want to go to aeronautics so that you can join NASA and probably if they ever thing about doing stuff like Star Trek, join their starship, too.

...at least it made me think that way. For the whole entire movie, I couldn't stop cheering and "kyakyakya" the whole time. Pretty embarrassing.

For the enjoyment that I had during the movie, I would rate this movie 4 stars. Because again, it amazes you about how complicated space life can be, and that's it. Benedict Cumberbatch also played along pretty well, although it's quite hard to separate him from his Sherlock side, and you do sometimes see that side of him. And I surely miss his curly hair in Sherlock.

And! They also gave away a possibility for the next movie, that's what so good about this, Star Trek is sorta continuing from one to the other, but it's still an individual adventure.

Seeing Star Trek kinda reminds me of the UN.

OH! I got Khan's poster, too!

Gokusen

So, yeah..
In case nobody knows, I love Japanese manga pretty much, as much as conspiracies stories. And it's pretty hard to find a good story nowadays (since most of them are bubbly-silly romance story), so I decided to browse back old good mangas, which then I stumbled upon Gokusen.

Basically the story was about a fresh female high school teacher who's actually a heiress to a yakuza clan. The story revolved around her life trying to be a good teacher in an all-boys delinquents school.

The manga and the live-action movie have a slight difference, since in the manga, the main heroine actually ended up with one of her students that was the hero of the story, but in the movie, they didn't really say whether she ended up with him or not, although there's a lot of scenes of both of them building the relationships up together.

So, on this Sunday afternoon (until night), I decided to scan some of the episodes of the live-action movies. It turned out to be Yukie Nakama and Jun Matsumoto who are starring the story as the teacher and the main  male student, respectively.

I'm totally hyped up with the story line because it's pretty unusual, and to be honest, I've watched this before, it's just I never really pay that much attention to it.

Anyway, I enjoy pretty much watching it and seeing how pretty Yukie Nakama is and how handsome Jun Matsumoto (after all of this time).

Fangirling mode off.

Elf

No, no. It's not the Everlasting Friend of Super Junior's Fans club. Nope.

It's basically another Christmas movie.

I found it pretty hilarious, even though I was distracted with the iPad, checking all the emails and stuff, but I still managed to find it hilarious enough, YEAH!

The story was about an orphan named Body, or Buddy, which is not his original name. He accidentally snuck inside the Santa Claus' bag, went to the North Pole with him. Every elf in the North Pole was so shocked, and they didn't know his name, except for the fact that he's wearing a diaper with Little Body Diaper tag, so... Basically you realized where his name came from.

He grew like humans--which is not elf--and started to wondering whether he's really his Papa Elf's son. Later on, his Papa Elf and Santa Clause opened the secret, leaving him in a journey of finding his real dad, because his mom died soon after he was born, and his dad never knew he had a son with his high school girlfriend, whom he loves dearly.

The funny things about this movie is that the actor really captured the festive feelings of a man who was raised in a society who loves Christmas dearly, very loving, cheerful, and and the cute stuff, and applied that to the New York City environment.

Body was adventurous. He tried the circling door over and over again, puke, then do it again, grabbing ads papers from the volunteers many times, eating spaghetti with pop tarts and M&M EEEW, I know, right. EEEEEW! He ate gums on the handing steel to the subway, which is another EEEEW. He was going nuts when he knew that the Santa Claus in the department store was fake, like "YOU'RE AN IMPOSTER!"

I like when somebody said imposter. Haha.

Oh, oh, I also like how he really show his love to his real father--with no sense of what's going on--and being so festive about everything.

There are great people who played this hilarious movie, such as Will Ferrel and Zooey Deschannel. Both of them are pretty famous now, so I think it's pretty logical that this movie was so good. Really.

Well, better go watch it! YAHOOO!

Lincoln

I know,
It started to get pretty annoying.

Here's the thing, my host family is into watching good movies, and it seems that every time there's good movie, we got a chance to watch it.

So here again, I have watched the documentary movie titled Lincoln, about the life of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States of America, that plays a huge role on the Civil War.

For those who doesn't know what Civil War is, it's when the USA was divided into two parts upon the issue of slavery, where there's the Union and the Confederates of America. Basically, it was about equality, rights in front of God, so on and so forth.

Daniel Day--as Lincoln--totally captured my depiction upon Loncoln as a gentle, small voiced man who looks so gloomy, quirky, tall, and complicated. A little bit humorist, though. You can even feel those pressure upon him about the war... Weighing him as his back was bent forward.

Frankly speaking, the first several minutes of watching it... I was sleepy. Yes, all of the seats were occupied when we came, thus I had to split up with my host parent, found seats on the very side of the line, with my host sister,

My position at that time was perfect... For sleeping. Especially when the beginning of the story seems luring me to go to sleep.

The beginning was so fast and a bit tangled. Steven Spielberg showed us the Lincoln character, the condition of the war, and so on. It's nice that I've learnt about the Civil War, therefore I was sort of understanding the plot. But still...

BUT!

From the middle to the end, the movie started to show its kick points. It shows the difficulties, fractions within the Congress upon the Thirteenth Amendment--abolish slavery. How Lincoln made decision and interacts with his employees, what's the impact of the amendment to the African Americans at that time, the hysteria of Lincoln's son in the theater when they announced that Lincoln has been shot... It's all there. The frenzy.

This type of movie is the kind that doesn't really follow the usual plot. It follows history, which doesn't offer you the usual plot. It has a problem in every step, not stages. You can still see the climax, yet it's not as bluntly as the usual story where you can see the beginning, the middle, the climax, and the end. Basically, this movie suits anybody who likes rocky, challenging kind of movies.

You might want to try read some synopsis before watching it, though.

But still...
It's a great movie. I feel you, Lincoln.
I feel you.

Total Achievement

I finished watching
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Phoenix Wright: Trial and Tribulations
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney

Am... So... Proud. Yeah

Breaking Dawn Part 2

I can't believe it's finished!

No, no, I am not a big fan of Twilight Saga, sorry to say. I used to like the Twilight one, but when it started to develop into New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn... I just think it's too much. I am not a very romantic person, thus being in love with someone as bad as Bella to Edward, I just don't understand the logic.

BUT.
My host sister... She loves it. So much. I tell you, so much.
The very last installment of the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn Part 2, was released on November 16th. My hypothesis was that since the saga is so famous, the cinema might be full for the first two weeks.

BUT.
Yesterday, after going to the gym, we decided to watch the Breaking Dawn on its first show on Saturday (which it shows around ten times a day. TEN!). Yes, we were still sweating and it's a bit chilly.

The guy who sells the ticket suggested that the first show might be less crowded. Well, even though it seems very much crowded, but I guess he's right. I mean, I got some really nice seats!

Some movie previews, THEN!

I finally watched the very last installment of Twilight Saga. My host sister couldn't stop smiling and clapping out of happiness... Y'know...

OKAY, for anyone who doesn't want to see some spoiler about what's going on inside the movie, stop reading this now.

Here's some points that popped in my mind while I'm watching the last Twilight Saga movie...

1.The opening graphic was sort of like free falling.
You see, in the beginning, the showed all of those people's names that are involved in the movie, with a black and red background, like all pictures of red and ice frosts. It gives you the creep, but suddenly, when they first showed Bella and Edward... The awe-ness of Bella turning into a vampire was not as great as I think it will be. They're just hugging each other, showing the awesome-ness of a new born... It doesn't leave a very great impressions to me. Just... Okay.

2. Reenesme!
I totally have trouble with the little half human half vampire baby, Reneesme. I know she was so perfect and beautiful from the book. And guess what I got from the beginning of the movie until the middle: a graphic computer-made looking baby! It's not their fault, it's just me. It bothers me so much seeing a baby that looks not real, her face is just too symmetrical, and you can see some not real spots from her face! And it bothers me. So much. I keep saying, "Aaah the face is so not real!", although in the middle of the movie, they finally changed the computer-made face into the real Mackenzie Foy.

3. Bella seems... Different.
Okay, still remember Bella from the beginning? She was described as a very complicated, deep thoughts person who seems like struggling with her own inner thoughts and doubts. Everybody seems to protect her frail being, but sometimes I see the sparks of power. AND SUDDENLY in this movie-despite she's finally becoming a vampire--she's becoming so temperamental, a bit hey-I'm-awesome attitude, and still a bit sentimental. I don't know why, but her personality changes kind of bothering me. I like how she always has her own deep thoughts problem, the complicated personality, and suddenly here she is, being so... Demanding. Probably that is her vampire personality, I just thought it will be more fun if she still has those deep thoughts personality.

4. The War Part
Do you know the kind of movie that has no martial sides at al, yet they're pushing any action scene to the movie so that it kind of having everything? Yep, I felt that way with this movie as well. Either it's me who forgot the plot or the producer just wanted to have the action side as well, I don't recall Alice imagining a war--which made a full fifteen minutes of war horror between the Volturi and the Covens. What I remember is that they had a very kind of negotiation, nearly started the war--with a bit of fist fight--but then Nahuel, the guy who's also half vampire and half human, appeared.
BUT, in this very movie, Alice was imagining the war horror that might happened if Aro--Volturi leader--started the war. Carlisle would be dead, Edward would be mad, war would happen, Jasper died--being ripped off, Benjamin knocked the land, made lots of casualties, both in the Volturi or the Covens. And in the end... Aro died in the hands of Bella of Edward. Pretty intense action scenes, all about ripping heads and choking others. Everybody in the theater was like, "KYA! No way! How come...? GYA!" Like a horror movie. And I keep telling my host mum that it was so not real because there's no part in the book that they started the war. Now you get what I'm trying to say, huh? Yes, it feels like they made the action scene just to appeal the audiences for the action part. Well, it felt like a pushed scene rather than natural to me.

5. Not mainstream
You know how the movie revolves around the main couple--Edward and Bella? Well, sometimes it also revolves around Jake and Reneesme, but still, they're the main story, right? One problem that I always have while having any movies or books is that I like the supporting couple. In this movie, the character Garrett was introduced, along with Kate, the electricity lady. It's sad how I actually pay attention to their development on being a couple rather than Edward-Bella development. Like when my host mum asked, I said, "Oh I love the Garrett-Kate couple so much! Garrett was so handsome, and the chemistry is there!" Y'know... Kind of being hipster. That's one of my problem while watching a movie. Getting distracted from the main thing. But it's good, right? I have the ability to find other unnoticed parts that some people don't see.


Well, basically, that's all. I had quite a great day.
Still can't believe the Twilight Saga is over.

007: Skyfall

007: Skyfall


From Google
Yes,
For anybody’s who’s wondering,
I’ve watched Skyfall.

Yes, that James Bond movie.
Where? In IMAX.

On Veteran’s Day.
Haha.

Just kidding.

Anyway, some stuff I’d like to share about this newest Double Oh Seven movie (which basically my first I-watched-it-till-the-end Bond movies)

Today was a pretty day, so me, Aizada, and my host mum decided to visit her daughter in Wake Forest. We’re planning on watching Skyfall in IMAX at Raleigh,

I heard that the movie was pretty long, near three hours. Yeah!

Then we went to the seats, got some nice seats inside, settling down.

The beginning of the movie was started with some motorcycle-car crazy driving and some shooting that makes me feel like watching another Bourne Legacy movie.
I gotta tell you, watching people driving crazily—both car and motorcycle—is tiring. My eyes, my mind, I’m tired of following the shaky camera. Period.

I think the chase lasted for ten good minutes, and then they moved scene to the top of the train, and suddenly BAM!, James Bond was accidentally shot by his partner. And he fell to the river, got flush away by the stream. And suddenly there’s the theme song and some credit clips (the ones that show names of people involved, but not the slide-from-bottom-going-up-credit-that-is-so-plain)

And I was like…
“THAT’S IT?”
Yes. The movie only told us about how James Bond finally died, in fifteen minutes, I guess.

NAH, just kidding.
After those opening, they started to show the movie again.

I won’t spill the beans out, but here’s something you might want to know:

1. IMAX is so awesome.
You should try watching some great wonderful movies in IMAX. The ones that need total seriousness, like Bond.

2. James Bond is not bad
I always thought that James Bond movie is basically an espionage movie with girl sidekick as the decoration or as some light stuff to make the movie attracts not only people who like to watch spies, but also couple who like to watch the intimate scenes. Even though they still have some, but I’d say I love the espionage part of it. Might started to watch the previous one. I hate to say that it looks as if James Bond is such a player and all girls like him. Even though he's great.

3. The storyline is interesting
In my most humble opinion, for any of you who likes watching espionage movie just like me, guessing a storyline for such kind of movie sometimes as easy as seeing your watch. But then, while watching 007, I thought I found it pretty interesting since there are some part of movies but not the first fifteen minutes one that indicates the end of the story—based on regular hypothesis—but suddenly it jumped out to the next scene, continuing it. Better yet, it doesn’t stop and said, "To Be Continued…". The whole story kind of giving you from the beginning till the end—which I like the best.

4. Skyfall is a good theme song
I just like listening to it.


In the end of the movie, it said that it’s been 50 years of James Bond, and
JAMES BOND WILL RETURN.
After such complicated and I-thought-it’s-finally-the-end ending…

Better go watch it now!

What Makes Me Beautiful

I’m Insecure,

Don’t know what for,

I'm turning heads when I walk through the door,

Don’t need make-up,

To cover up,

Being the way that I am is enough,

Everyone else in the room can see it.

Everyone else but me,

Baby I light up your world like nobody else,

The way that I flip my hair gets you overwhelmed

But when I smile at the ground it ain’t hard to tell,

 I don’t know,

Oh oh,

I don’t know I'm beautiful,

If only I saw what you can see,

I’ll understand why you want me so desperately,

Right now you’re looking at me and you can't believe,

I don’t know,

Oh oh,

That’s what makes me beautiful

So c-come on,

I got it wrong,

To prove you’re right,

You it in a song,

You don’t know why,

I'm being shy,

And turn away when you look into my eye eye eyes,

Baby I light up your world like nobody else,

The way that I flip my hair gets you overwhelmed

But when I smile at the ground it ain’t hard to tell,

 I don’t know,

Oh oh,

I don’t know I'm beautiful,

If only I saw what you can see,

I’ll understand why you want me so desperately,

Right now you’re looking at me and you can't believe,

I don’t know,

Oh oh,

That’s what makes me beautiful

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na

Na Na Na Na Na Na x2

Baby I light up your world like nobody else,

The way that I flip my hair gets you overwhelmed

But when I smile at the ground it ain’t hard to tell,

 I don’t know,

Oh oh,

I don’t know I'm beautiful,

If only I saw what you can see,

I’ll understand why you want me so desperately,

Right now you’re looking at me and you can't believe,

I don’t know,

Oh oh,

That’s what makes me beautiful

That’s my Narcissistic version of One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful”. No offense, but somehow, I love singing this narcissistic version better… when I’m alone.

And somehow it still matches the rhythm. Go give a try.

Anyway this is the real version of this narcissistic song:

The Adventure of Dancing Men and Other Sherlock Holmes Stories

I bought this book over a year ago yet I never finished it, despite it’s so light and thin and it gives that “You can finish this book even less than an hour” impression, I still didn’t have that willingness to finish the book since the first I found out that (at that time), the English terms Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used in his book is quite heavy. I was a pretty normal English reader back then, and so am I nowadays. But, when I overlooked it again, I came to a conclusion which that hard English terms impression I got was simply a one-sided judgment, since the more I got into the short stories, the more I got excited with the plot.

Let me give a brief preview. Mr. Doyle had written these series quite long ago (before I was born) and surely, he lived in such a different era with mine. However, thanks to those hard terms he used in the stories, it actually gave those “I’m in this old era of England” feelings that you (particularly myself) shimmer when he tried to describe the story of the magnificent Sherlock Holmes and his friend, Dr. Watson.

This book revolves around Sir Sherlock Holmes cases, which are popular back in the era of this series. Surely some people know about The Adventure of the Dancing Men, The Musgrave Ritual, etc. I have known ‘The Adventure of the Dancing Men’ from a manga called “Detective Conan”, thus it wasn’t that unfamiliar.

But a story that quite attached my attention on it is The Adventure of the Dying Detective, on how this marvelous gentleman has nailed his job to seek the truth with a tactical, sophisticated way that even expertise can be fooled. Although all of the stories are fast-read and for some people (particularly myself) who might be more interested to a more detailed book, this book has successfully given the first good impression for those who want to (finally) follow the stories of Sherlock Holmes.

Like the synopsis has stated, “In this inexpensive collection, these stories represent a wonderful introduction to the larger body of Holmes stories, as well as a delightful pocket-size treat for any mystery lover,” I get to agree with that. It did give me another reason to buy a complete series of Sherlock Holmes, and even though it is not a “pocket-size treat”, it’s more like a light and brief treat for mystery lover who needs a getaway from all of the heavy books.

Additional, even if the book doesn’t have that quality of paper that I always prioritize while buying a book, but the papers were thick and textural enough to make me bought it anyway. And the font was tolerable and has the perfect size that matches my sight.

Thus, it is wise for me to recommend this book, for those who want to have a good preview of Sherlock Holmes’ serial, or those who simply want to read another light-reading but fascinating book.

d.

Supernova: Kesatria, Putri, dan Bintang Jatuh

I forgot how many books I've read until now.

The day after tomorrow is my sophomore final exam, yet I spent 3 hours straight reading this book. Okay, move on to my review (it's better to do some reviews when it's still fresh in your mind).

For the record, I actually have bought this book so long before I finally decided to grab myself together and tried to look again through her pages -Supernova. First time I bought her, I spent nearly one hour to read several chapters, let's just say five until nine. Guess what, I was bored.

No, no, the book was fine, She was fine. I had no problem with the book, but somehow with the author's way in telling events. She used many Physics terms -I guess so- that no common people would simply understand them. Bifurcation, serotonin, I don't even know how to spell. No, no, I know serotonin, but her terms for many universal events and atomic incidents are just... not helping me much.

Thus, I decided to pause the book. It's rare, yes. Even the most uninteresting fantasy story I've read so far took at least 2 hours of my life to finish it, without stoping.

I thought it was just my brain just couldn't process those words really good, I need to take a break. Hiatus.

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, I decided to continue it again. I always have a thing for any philosophical ideas, scientific explanation for human's emotions, life experiences. And I knew I found them in this book, though it was really hard to digest previously, I had quite great time spending three hours of my sleep to finish the book. Can't believe myself either.

Anyway, overall, the book spent her 400-ish pages to elucidate about a gay couple who decided to make a novel based on scientific-something. Along the story, the author included several points from the gay couple who wrote a story, and the actors in their story. It was like reading a book in a book. Inception.



It was so hard in the beginning, but gradually, I started to understand and enjoy it. How I always looking for books that explicitly blurt out philosophical ideas and paradoxes. It's fun playing with paradoxes, and I kind of seeing it from this book. Many scientific terms are being introduced through this book -I wonder how the author studied all of those herself just to make one fine hard novel?

This book actually as simple as the idea of questioning. The idea I found tangling all of the events is actually about human tried to question themselves, how every single particle we live in is actually a question mark, and how we are actually living by keep answering them. As simple as that. As mystical as that.

Well, still got exams. Go read by yourself!

Doodles.

Library War: Love and War

I stumbled upon something interesting, again. The genre-well, the story progression-hit me at the first sight. I always fall for some comedy-romance that don’t put focus on the romance itself, but the main story-how they develop really good and have something that used as the main story rather than romance as the base one. Yep, I’m into things that have romance put don’t put it at the top of the story-instead, they are focusing on other things that more serious (like a war condition) or funny (like a special matter at school or babysitting *ups, I feel like mentioning other title). In this case, this “Library War: Love and War” story is mainly focused about the Seika 31 era thingy in Japan (2019 in our dicitionary) when the government has declared the “Media Security” or stuff, mainly about government that think the generation should be secured from the improper media that might turn them into “good-for-nothing” generation, harsh, uneducated, and, you know what I’m trying to say.

Then they have this “Media Improvement Committee” that totally with the rules, they demand for a better quality of media for generations in that age. And sadly, they would not hesitate to do rough stuff to persuade and “take” what it takes to “save” the generations-by any means, strictly prohibit people’s right to read any kind of books and being selective, they would take books forcibly from the bookstores when they think that those books are ‘problematic’ and ‘the material is improper to be read’-and make a better future. They think. And maybe this sounds quite good, if those committees don’t start to touch other matters that actually don’t need to be banned or stuff, but just because there are one line that sounds provoking people to be ‘bad’ or teasing the government (well, it’s our rights too, right?) when it doesn’t even sound like one, they started to get into things that make people feel bothersome. They would take all books just because the author has something to do with government, or too fictional that can make people think insane. Well, that might happens, but still, this committee is way too far from their jurisdiction, sometimes.

And time is not that tough. There are people who care about the freedom to read anything they want and to gain informations from anywhere they like and these people are fighting to defend themselves from the forceful Media Improvement Committee and freely lend books, media, and passing informations for those who are seeking informations. These people defend under the name of “Library Force”, the Library is where the forceful committee doesn’t have any right to touch their materials, and the Library has their right to defend themselves from the committee when they get rough, and then they have “Library Defense Force”. This force doesn’t work to fight the committee, but they only defend themselves in order to keep the Library safe and sound, and thus, they have rights to hold weapons. And there’s this “Task Force”, an elite force in the Library Defense Force that work more specifically and more hard than the regular “Defense Force”. They also have to work as the Librarians, which make this force a bit ‘special’ than the usual defense force. They have to know how to fight and how to be librarians.

Okay, so the story begins with this girl, Iku Kasahara. She’s tall, mid-twenties, huge, perhaps. And she’s kinna strong. She has this dream to join the Defense Force because in High School, someone from the Defense Force has done something that made her see him as a prince-though she totally forgot about his face, his voice-and rescue her from the Media Improvement Committee from taking her favorite book that she’s been waiting for 10 years long. Then, with her passion, she joined the Defense Force secretly because her parents don’t like her doing things that is not ‘girlish’, since Iku herself is quite tomboy but girlie in other part, but from how she survives, she is indeed strong and quite like a man.

Her story revolves around how she do her job as a Task Force member. Yep, her supervisor, Atsushi Dojo (he play a very big role here), and Komaki-I don’t know his surname, with their supervisor, Genda, suggested to the Chief Commander (I forgot his name!) that she and Tezuka, the super perfect guy that will team up with her and Dojo and Komaki, he’s *quite* handsome but cold, praise Dojo so much, genius, but at the beginning, very rough to Iku because he couldn’t get the point why someone -a woman!- that is not as capable as him can be tasked as a Task Force member. But he gets it why along the story, and being cuter each chapter, will be put in the Task Force.

How things turn out in this story is very nice, to me. The development is great, not fast but not too slow. Iku has this bad relationship with Dojo and they fight a lot, but Dojo and herself show affection to each other, realize it or not, and indeed, Dojo is caring to her. And yes, like other typical romance story, things turn out to be good.

But my main point is, the story is not about Iku and Dojo’s relationship. It’s mainly about the story of the era where you have to fight to read something, and I always love books more than anything. I don’t mind buying books I have read and don’t open the cover for ages to make it safe. I close my bookshelves and I despise people who can’t see the preciousness of books. I do believe that life also comes from books, and books have souls. Yes, sound fictional, but I treat my books as my body, so I do love anything that discuss about protecting and praising books. Glad someone is kind enough to take this theme and turn it into a manga and anime.

Yes, the story about Iku and her Task Force, her supervisor, her friends, and her life to safe books for people who also care about it came from light-novels from Japan by Hiro Arikawa. 

He has written 4 series, and actually, only the first one that use the name “Toshokan Sensou”. The others are Toshokan Nairan, Toshokan Kiki, and Toshokan Kakumei (still finding the meaning and the English version of the novels). In Japan itself, they have published the story under two mangaka, so apparently, there are two mangas that came with the same story, but the different is, one is more ‘shoujo’ -for girls- and the other one is more ‘shounen’ -for boys-although the romance story is still in there. I like the shoujo one more, since they have came out in my country, and I have a better image of the story, and better excitement, from the shoujo version, Toshokan Senso: Love and War while the shounen one is Toshokan Senso: Spitfire!

They also have this anime came out in 2008, and I just knew it nowadays-since I just met the title very new-and guess what? The anime is a BOOM. I love the artwork but sadly, I can’t download all of them (my internet connection suddenly turned low). But I do aim to download them all. I love the anime just by seeing the first eps and OVA.

So please don’t mind to keep in touch with my blog, since I’m going to write things about my interests, and these kind of things are also my deepest interest.

Tell me if you’re a fan of this series!