So, I got back from university a few weeks ago and had nothing to read. After a week or two I conceded and decided to read one of my mother’s books (one that I bought for her last year). It was the first book in a series which spawned one of my favourite television programmes – Dexter. The first novel in the series is called “Darkly Dreaming Dexter”, by Jeff Lindsay.

Dexter Morgan appears to be the perfect gentleman. He leads a normal, quiet life working as a forensic officer for the Miami Police. He has a nice, shy girlfriend and is liked by her young children. But Dexter has a secret hobby. He’s an accomplished serial killer.

So far he’s killed dozens of people and has never been caught, because he knows exactly how to dispose of the evidence. And there are those who would rather he wasn’t caught at all, because Dexter is a serial killer with a difference. He only kills the city’s bad guys.

Then Dexter’s well-organised life is thrown into chaos. Another serial killer is invading his territory – and he wants Dexter to come out and play …

There’s a synopsis taken from the blurb (since I wouldn’t know what to write myself without ending up spoiling something!). I want this to be a largely spoiler-free review so that people will actually want to read this book.

Now, my mother said she didn’t really enjoy this book – but I don’t know why! Well, tell a lie, I could probably tell. The narrative style is first-person, but it’s very … strangely written. It’s written from Dexter’s perspective, and since he’s pretty much a socio-path with other psychological problems this is reflected in the writing. You get a feel that he’s not quite all there from the way he goes off in to tangents, and since it’s not quite a straight forward detective or crime novel it might not appeal to all fans of the genre. But, there is detective work, there is inter-personal relationships and there is humour (critics have said it is a “black comedy” and that Dexter is a “Psychopath with a sense of irony”). There’s a distinct beginning, where we’re introduced to Dexter’s secret (which he refers to as his “Dark Passenger”) and I can see a five act structure in it. We’re introduced to everyone, then we find out about this intruding serial killer, which is followed by Dexter trying to deal with it all, and then there’s the climax of the novel with a following epilogue to bring everyone’s excitement levels back down. It moved slightly slowly in some parts, and the way Dexter thinks did become confusing at points (causing me to go back and read the passage again) but it’s good overall. And there’s a healthy dose of alliteration (of which Darkly Dreaming Dexter is only the beginning!).

When it comes to the characters, they’re mostly likeable. They’re obviously different to the TV series (Angel Batista, for example, is not a detective but is instead the pathologist, and LaGuerta isn’t quite the good detective she is in the show, while still maintaining her political aspirations in the force), but overall they’re enjoyable. It’s nice to see Doakes hasn’t really changed at all! There’s a lot of development in Dexter’s character, as well as his relationship with Debs and Rita, but none of this will be particularly new to viewers of the show.  All of the characters are refreshingly real, with plenty of swearing and anger thrown in to make them feel real to the reader. The cops don’t hold their tongue and LaGuerta is extremely bitchy when it comes to Debs. You grow to love some and hate others, while becoming suspicious of some of the rest.

The book however does give viewers of the show a new insight, and having watched the programme while I knew what some of the twists would be, I still love to see how things differ between the two. It definitely should not put you off reading, as the style and humour of this novel make it well worth buying. Don’t be put off because you’ve seen the series – there’s a shock still waiting for you at the end! I urge fans of the series and those who might not be to pick it up – it’s not for everyone, but it should hopefully give you a nice book to add to your summer reading!

Corona, Out.

We were given a “buzzword” (I suppose you could call it that) to base our productions around. Everyone received the same on, and that was “The Park Bench”. Everyone came out with various different ideas (all very good) but the group I was a part of went with a crime drama.

This piece was co-written and edited by myself, and I even make a brief cameo appearance in it, so please enjoy our third and final piece of the first year – “Undetected”.

There are a couple of problems here and there. Some of them I couldn’t figure out a solution (or rather, the cause) so they’ve been unresolved, but we tried as best as we could to produce something great. We received a first for the production file which went with this piece, but as I left University for the year before the results were ready, I wont receive the individual mark (for my editing) for a couple of weeks.

Corona, Out.

Story

To start with, I wasn’t quite sure where this was going. Country girl moving to the city? Lesbian romance? And then Hyper-Nana got the phone call on the train. First thoughts of Awesome-Nana’s (the girl featured at the top of this review post, just FYI) expression then was definitely good, as it added a bit of mystery. I didn’t expect them to both have the same name (as I watched this without having read a synopsis). It definitely lends itself to a star-crossed lovers vibe, because of the coincidences that fate has caused to bring them together. There’s a fair amount of development in the first episode, and I’m definitely interested in where this series will go overall.

Characters

Oh, how I love the characters in this. Apart from the glossy/shiny skin that people seem to suffer with, the designs are very nice. Love Hyper-Nana’s eyes and the overall look of Awesome-Nana. The boyfriend looks OK, and those two friends from the train station are good enough too  I can see there will probably be development in both of the Nana’s characters, perhaps Awesome-Nana might become more extroverted and Hyper-Nana will become less. But this series seems like it would bring me back for the characters alone, since they are enjoyable and nice to look at.

Music

I never really notice any of the background music, so I wont comment on that, but I dislike the opening and ending. They just didn’t feel good to me. Perhaps it’s the the engrish, but there are other songs which merge engrish in quite well. I suppose it could be down to the strange use of it instead. I just wasn’t feeling it, so it wont be finding a place on my iPod any time soon!

Overall

I’d say this is probably a good series overall, but at 47 episodes I don’t think I’ll be picking it up to watch all of it any time soon. I’ll give the opening episode 4/5 I think.

And thus, until next time – Corona, out.

So, my list from Winter was as follows;

1. Sora no Woto
2. Durararara
3. Baka to Test to Shokanju
4. Katanagatari

I think I pretty much dropped Sora no Woto straight away. It wasn’t because I didn’t like it, I just didn’t feel like watching it at all. Durarara has been left behind, but I’m still very much interested in it – I just hated the fact that the subbers dropped it and I didn’t want to change groups (or go for Crunchyroll Rips) so I haven’t downloaded anything since. Baka to Test however I finished, and I found it to be quite funny and an overall enjoyable series (perhaps I shall write a review later?). And then we have Katanagatari – another one left in the dust. I downloaded the first episode but just haven’t watched it. I might wait for all of them to be released (since it’s monthly) and then breeze through them all. It’s not dropped, just stalled.

And then there was the leftovers from back then;

1. Rozen Maiden (and Traumend)
2. 11eyes
3. Fate/Stay Night
4. The Sacred Blacksmith
5. Book of Bantorra
6. Canaan (4 episodes to go …)
7. To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

I never continued with Rozen Maiden, and didn’t watch past the first episode of Fate/Stay Night – but they’re still on my hard drive waiting to be watched, so I’ll probably get to them in the future. 11eyes, The Sacred Blacksmith and the Book of Bantorra I either only watched a little of, or never started. Not enough promise and some generally negative attitudes towards them. Canaan was stalled until recently, and I can now say I’ve taken those four remaining episodes down to two, and might even finish it soon! And finally, my love of that list, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. I absolutely love this anime and would love to see more. It’s a great show and comes highly praised from me! I notice Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood wasn’t on that list, but I’m in love with it so that’s continuing until it finishes (which is soon! *Sadface*)

Now, moving on to the great and wonderful list of Spring 2010!

1. Arakawa Under the Bridge
2. Angel Beats
3. Tales of Symphonia – Tethealla-hen
4. XxxHolic: Rou

Let’s see then, Arakawa Under the Bridge. I’ve only watched the first episode, and found it to be OK. So I might be coming back to it at the end, but I have no plans to watch it week by week. Angel Beats however I LOVE! But saying that I’m a few weeks behind (darn my lack of a comfortable chair while home from University!) but will definitely continue this quite soon! Tales of Symphonia is another “I’ve started it so will continue with it” anime. I started the original OVAs, but I haven’t finished them, and when I do I will continue with these sequels. And XxxHolic, another love of my life comes in fourth on the list. The only reason I haven’t watched it yet is because I hadn’t realised it had been released! So I’ll get that ASAP and watch it … well … ASAP.

And that seems to be it for now! I’ll hopefully be opening up the Television section of my blog soon enough, and with any luck (and no faulty uploading) the productions centre will open up too! So let’s see if I can keep up with this blog instead of dropping it like … like … a really heavy thing! As soon as I get plenty of information about Summer 2010 you can expect another post.

Corona out!

P.S. – I forgot how I sign off so I had to check an old post!

For the winter season I have picked up;

1. Sora no Woto
2. Durararara
3. Baka to Test to Shokanju
4. Katanagatari

I was going to pick up Ookamikakushi, but I realised that I’m NOT going to start another series which could turn out to be a train wreck like Umineko no Naku Koro ni (which, if they make a second season, I will have to watch to get a sense of conclusion from it). So, no Ookamikakushi unless about half way through I hear rave reviews about it. Qwaser was also dropped because breast milk as a plot device was ridiculous, although I will consider picking it up again later if it has rave reviews.

Katanagatari is also going to depend on what I think of the first episode. The episode has been released, so I’ll probably watch it tomorrow and post my thoughts.

My watching list for this season however, including older shows, includes the following;

1. Rozen Maiden (and Traumend)
2. 11eyes
3. Fate/Stay Night
4. The Sacred Blacksmith
5. Book of Bantorra
6. Canaan (4 episodes to go …)
7. To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

There’s also One Piece, but I don’t have access to downloads at the moment so I’m stopping at 30, to not get in to another arc and having to stop half way through because I don’t have enough episodes.

So, that’s the forecast for the next … 10 weeks? Should hopefully get most of this done.

Corona out.

I’m finally getting on with the reviews for the new season, so here it is! My review of the first episode of Durarara!

The opening of Durarara is well constructed. It is all edited together well, and has pleasant images with a good piece of music that fits with what is shown well. Moving from scene to scene and within a scene in the OP is done well, making it seamless.

The pre-title teaser was interesting, with the main character (I presume) narating a retrospective look at the events. Within the scene he is the only person in colour, with the random “extras” in grey.

At a couple of points in the episode, other people that walk past appear in colour. This seems to be a way of foreshadowing that we’ll meet them later.

Moving on through the episode, we get introduced to the mysterious biker. Up until the reveal of his “secret”, I thought it was a girl. Hmmm … Maybe it will still turn out to be a girl, who knows. But that was certainly a twist I wasn’t expecting.

The use of the message board was a nice way to move the story along. You didn’t have to have the characters together, and didn’t have to flip back and forward to them over the phone. The message board worked as a nice tool. And I think I’m right in saying the messages are being sent by the main guy, the person he met in the train station and some unseen third person?

The next time trailer seems to promise the introduction of a couple more characters, and some action. I’ll be looking forward to it. Even though it’s already downloaded, I have a couple of other new-season things I have to write a review for, so it’ll be waiting.

In terms of style, this series is reminiscent of Yozakura Quartet, mostly because of the character designs. Yozakura Quartet’s anime adaptation, while lacking a bit in storyline, was definitely a nice thing to watch, and one of the reasons for picking up Durarara was because of the character designs.

Overall I give this episode a pass. It’s not so totally awesome that I have to watch the rest of the series, but it has piqued my interest a bit.

Until next time, Corona out.

The idea behind Baka Test (as I shall call it out of laziness) seems fairly good. The pupils of a school take a test before the school year, and the results of this test are used to put them in classes A through F. A class has fantastic facilities, while you wouldn’t want to be in F class when it rains. Not only this, but each class can wage war against another, with the winning class gaining the ability to take over the other classes. They war with their summoned beasts (the Shokanju part of the full title). The summons have an attack ability proportionate to the owner’s last test score.

So, you can see where this is going. Class F challenges Class E, but because the last test they took was the one that got them put in the bottom class in the first place it doesn’t go so well. But they can take a make-up test to increase their summon’s abilities.

In terms of me watching the rest of the series, I was doubtful to begin with. The start of the episode didn’t bring me in, with the plot being so familiar (yet different at the same time). The formulaic nature of the series however is improved with some humour. The slightly over the top nature of the characters (whom are all fairly archetypal) leads to humour which makes this series more watchable.

In terms of animation I find it to be pleasing. The trees and other pieces of scenery seem strangely animated, but it adds a unique flavour to the series (although as my anime history may not be as long as others, some may disagree).

The series gives me vibes of Zero no Tsukaima, a series I’ve watched recently (but need to finish the second and third series off at some point in the future). Both series also share the “summoned beast” element, while focusing less on inter-class rivalry in Baka Test and a more large-scale problem in Zero no Tsukaima. Both series even have similar names, with “Zero Louise” being a nickname given to the female lead of Zero no Tsukaima because of her lack of magical talent.

The opening and ending themes are both hyper-active music which seems to fit within the series. The OP introduces the characters to us and is a fairly low-key thing that doesn’t impress as much as other series have in the past. The ED is more Rock than Pop I suppose, but is still a pulsy tune. I don’t think you’ll find either on my iPod any time soon.

So, perhaps if you’re a fan of Zero no Tsukaima you will enjoy Baka to Test Shokanju. At the moment I plan to continue the latter for this season, and I hope it can deliver some good episodes in the future.

Corona out.

1) Hearing “Gomu Gomu no” all the time got really annoying.

2) The voices of Luffy and Usopp got REALLY annoying.

But I’ve gone past this now. I was on episode 11 and now I’ve watched up to 15. Taking a short break for a bit but will try to catch up. If I had torrenting available to me it’d be much easier, but I only have direct downloads and I’m struggling to find somewhere to get them from, but I’m sure I’ll find something.

Until next time,

Corona.