Kore wa Zombie Desu ka 1 and 2: We have a contender!

our protagonist...
Every man wants to be a macho macho man

For potential best show this season. I almost gave it a miss due to the uninspiring character design, but I’m glad I gave it a go. It looks like it will be another Seto no Hanayome for me; I went in not expecting anything but it more than delivered.

So we have our protagonist Ayumu who is a bit of a pervert. He is also a zombie and a chainsaw-toting “magiclad girl” (Fucking magic, how does it work?).

To round up the cast we have a silent loli necromancer who communicates via handwritten notes and a tsundere loli “masou shoujo”, and in the second episode a busty vampire ninja makes her appearance (voiced Mio and resembles her superficially, but thankfully does not behave like her at all).  Going by promotional art there’s yet another girl. It does look like the old standard anime harem is getting assembled but the numerous brilliant subversions (see attached screen capture) saves the series and hilarity ensues.

Highly recommended and do watch out for that panty shot.

Duh Magnet says: Kore wa Zombie Desu ka is the kind of wacky nonsense this season was sorely lacking until now, and best of all, it’s nowhere as shameless as Sora no Otoshimono.)

Skyrim Watch, Part 1

Skyrim in-game screenshot
Here be dragons

The first in-game screenshots of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been revealed and the “Creation Engine” looks fantastic. I’m a longtime Elder Scrolls fan and Skyrim is probably my most anticipated game of the year.

Thoughts on some of the info tidbits:

  • No class selection – that’s a very good thing, in my opinion. This way your style of play shapes your character and not vice versa.
  • 18 total skills – streamlining the available skills is probably a good thing, though we’ll have to see what’s been cut out.
  • Dragons – officially in an Elder Scrolls for the first time (apart from the Dragonlings in Daggerfall), fantastic!
  • ‘Developers promise combat is more “dynamic and tactical” than before. Focus was on improving combat and the feel of weapons in your hands.’ – cue taken from the Deadly Reflex and Unnecessary Violence mods for Oblivion I guess? Both are recommended, by the way.
  • Dual wielding – YES.
  • Improvements to AI and quest system – depends. The Oblivion Radiant AI turned out to be a little underwhelming. I certainly hope the development team achieves everything they aim for.
  • Other graphical and cosmetic improvements – hardly the most important factor for me, but the screenshots are looking good so far.
  • Level scaling – unfortunately it’s not going away, but at least the Fallout 3 scheme will be used, which is more tolerable. In any case, I’m sure modders will come to the rescue yet again.

The little poem on the back cover of the February issue of Game Informer translated from the “Tongue of the Dragons”:

Dragonborn Dragonborn
By his honor is sworn
To keep evil forever at bay
And the fiercest foes rout
When they hear triumph’s shout
Dragonborn for hunger blessing we pray

And the scrolls have fortold
Of black wings in the cold
That when brothers wage war come unfurled
Alduin, bane of kings
Ancient shadow unbound
With a hunger to swallow the world

Video teaser:

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Teaser

I am properly pumped up!

Screen shot and information taken from Video Games Blogger.

Hey This Looks Familar…

J-Lo in all her cartoon glory

Just happened to catch a teaser for American Idol Season 10 (view the AI Launch 1 video) on the local TV channel and the Jennifer Lopez caricature made me think… hey, I’ve seen this before.

Oh Goddess…

And then it hit me, the depiction of Lakshmi in Sita Sings the Blues, of course.

Probably all a coincidence.

You can download or view the entire show on YouTube . Highly recommended. And then either donate or buy some merchandise to support the creator, Miss Nina Paley, who have so kindly given this work of art to us for free.

Likely the silliest thing I’ll read all week

The classic tune “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits has been deemed unacceptable for play on Canadian radio by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council because of the word faggot. Ridiculous. Of course it is an offensive word but consider the context it is used in. This is as moronic as replacing the so-called “N-word” in Huckleberry Finn with “slave” of all words. The Daily Show treats it with the scorn it deserves.

I’ll listen to that fantastic guitar riff any chance I have, so, presenting the groundbreaking video:

Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (Official Music Video)

Mr Big. – Shine

Mr. Big - Shine (Acoustic)

Of course I’m a fan of the original edition of the band, but you have to admit Richie Kotzen pens some fantastic tunes. Shine off their 2001 album Actual Size in particular compares favourably to anything else they have in their canon, and this acoustic version is even better than the studio album track.

Published
Categorized as Music

Sony Ericsson Jalou

Designed by D&G, allegedly. Is it just me or is it one fugly phone?

Update: oops, it just comes in regular and D&G editions.

Thunderbird 3.0

Looks great, performs better. Best feature: super-powered search. Next best feature: global inbox.

Lightning doesn’t yet work on it though, so I can’t move my main work machine to it. At least Enigmail’s OK. Can’t wait…

Update: broke down and installed TBird 3.0 with the Lightning nightlies. Working OK so far.