Finally, it’s over; my two caffeine free weeks are now behind me. And how do I feel now? Actually, I don’t feel any different to when I initially began this experiment so you could definitely call it a failure. I guess it’s just that time of the year where I tend to feel more tired than usual, no thanks to the long hours I put in at work.

Speaking of which, I’m expecting to get paid either late this week or early next week which should cheer my wallet up since I’ve just spent £750 on a week long holiday to the original Sin City, Las Vegas. My friend Daniel and I found a smashing deal with Airtours where we’ll be staying at the world class Mirage hotel, home of the German magicians, Siegfried & Roy. Sadly, they no longer perform there and have gone into early retirement due to a freak accident two years ago involving one of the famous white tigers they keep. During a show, one of the tigers went berserk and bit Roy around his neck, dragging him off the stage. Last I heard, Roy is now severely paralysed and will probably never walk again.
Anywho, back to my holiday, or “vacation” as them Yanks call it. I’ll be flying from Manchester International on Sunday 28th of August at 09:30 if I recall, and returning on Monday the 5th at 09:00. I’ll be dabbling with the slot machines only since I’d be laughed off the card tables. Vegas is also home to some of the best video-games arcades outside of Japan; here’s hoping they have a plentiful supply of Initial D and OutRun 2 SP cabs! I’ll also be paying a visit to AJ Hackett’s Bungee Jump Center, home of twin 201 ft jump towers. I did a jump there back when I was 17 and it was one of the most exhilarating experiences in my life.

As Khang has already mentioned, we both went to see Madagascar over at Star City a couple of days ago. I enjoyed the movie and it certainly had its fill of funny moments, especially Ali G’s performance as the King Lemur; perfect voice casting. Overall, the movie still can’t compare to Shrek or Shrek 2, but it certainly tramples all over Shark Tale.
I was also able to see the trailer for Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which I’m really eager to see. Jonny Depp looks seriously creepy playing Willy Wonka and I’m secretly hoping that it’ll at least be fairly dark in comparison to the movie from the 70s (which Dahl has gone on record to state as hating).

Anime, anime, anime. Well, I’ve sadly watched all of the One Piece that I’d downloaded (over 30gb!) and am now playing the weekly waiting game as with everything else. With One Piece, it’s a little different though since I’m following two different groups’ releases. Kaizoku Fansubs are fansubbing from the very beginning and using DVD raws as the basis for their work. They are currently up to episode 153. Gerusama on the other hand decided to start at episode 220 which is the beginning of a mini filler arc. Their raws consist of HDTV encodes and are now up to episode 236. I’m eagerly anticipating movie 6’s fansub too since it features a most unusual art style; if I had to make a comparison of similarity then I’d liken it to the Digimon movies with their muted colour pallets and thin outlines. Nami’s boobs also appear to have grown again and dare I say it, seem too large now. Both Craig and I were joking that Chopper is also a plastic surgeon as well as the ship’s doctor.

A number of new shows have started in recent weeks and I think I’ve sampled maybe four of them: Suzuka, Full Metal Panic - The Second Raid, Gun X Sword, and Shuffle.

Suzuka is a harem-romantic-comedy type of show. It’s already earned itself the reputation of being yet another Love Hina clone, especially since it features a bath house. Initial setup’s about a guy who moves in with his aunt and cousin at the bathhouse they own and manage because he’s gotten into a school nearby (how many times have we seen this excuse before?). The various tenants at the bathhouse make up the atypical roster you’re likely to find in this type of show; there’s the bold and brash blonde, the big busted chick with glasses, the jail-bait minor, the cold on the outside-warm on the inside athletic one etc etc, the latter of which is the namesake of the show. The girl’s into her athletics and this will be the running theme throughout the series. Overall, it’s an OK watch but it was certainly animated with a fairly meager budget. The end theme kicks ass though just to balance things out.

Full Metal Panic - The Second Raid starts off where the original series left us. Sousuke and co are still working for Mithril and he’s still desperately trying to keep his two lives in check. The first episode played out very much like the first episode from Full Metal Panic; from this alone, one could be lead to believe the show is entirely a military-esque affair if they had never seen the original series. The second episode was definitely better in terms of entertainment; we’re brought back to the familiar high school hijinks with some arm-slave action. Two new characters are also introduced comprising of an assassin duo made up of two fairly liberal sisters. At this point, I’d also like to mention that the fanservice-o-meter had gone through the roof for me; the intended audience of TSR is definitely older than that for Full Metal Panic since there is a good level of nudity shown. I’m not grumbling, just merely surprised.  Another thing pissing me off is that there are currently no less than 7 different groups fansubbing TSR.  The same thing happened with Negima which now has only 2 groups fansubbing it (both of which aren't very active at all).  Get with it people!

Gun X Sword blew me away from the very get-go. Set in a similar world to that of Trigun, it’s about lone gunmen, bounty hunters, damsels in distress, yada-yada. Even the protagonist has a similar name, Van of the Dawn. I cannot stress enough how awesome this series looks visually; the animation is top notch with a very high frame-rate allowing for fluid and smooth action on screen. The voice acting is also wonderful, everybody plays their character superbly. And there’s Carmen 99; 99 secret bullets and 99cm bust. Watch this show, watch it now! Big-up to Stu for this recommendation, it was certainly welcomed.

Shuffle is another harem-romantic-comedy flavoured show. Archeologists have recently uncovered gates to the realm of Gods and the realm of Demons. Surprisingly, everybody was able to get along and Earth now plays host to humans, Gods, and Demons, all living together peacefully. The protagonist, as you can imagine, has too many women vying for his attention. Both his parents and his best friend’s mother died in an accident so he now lives with the girl and her father. At school, he’s told that there’ll be two new transfer students joining their class and surprise, surprise, it turns out that he’s already been acquainted with them from his past. I actually have a strong feeling that this show is based on an h-game of some sort; all of the character designs look like they’ve been used elsewhere, especially from games/shows such as Wind - A Breath of Heart, Hani Hani - Operation Sanctuary, and DC - Da Capo. I do like this show, there’s lots of energy and it is rather fun to watch.

An older show that I’ve been watching in-between weekly releases is Maria-sama ga Miteru (translating as “The Virgin Mary Is Watching Us”). I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this but had been recommended it as a drama piece. It is genuinely quite fascinating despite being a shoujo ai (teenage girl love) series. It’s about girls, made by girls, and for girls and looks like crap, but the story compels me to continue watching. It’s set in a Catholic girls school somewhere in Japan where they’ve adopted the sempai-kouhai system and cranked it up by a notch. Older girls at the school are expected to take a younger student under their wing and become “souers” (French for sisters). As you can expect, some of these bonds become very strong to the point where the pair become romantically linked. Sadly, you never see anything more than an innocent kiss on the cheek; there’s no fanservice since all the girls wear full catholic schoolgirl attire, and the show also aired on TV Tokyo at 07:30. As an added bonus on the Japanese DVDs, a number of short out-takes animated in chibi stylings were included; these are quite possibly the best extras I have ever seen for an anime and they were genuinely hilarious to watch despite only lasting maybe a minute at most.

Gaming’s been on the quiet front lately, but this all changed with Killer 7’s release. Touted as one of Capcom’s original “Big 5” for the GameCube, it was then decided to also make this a PS2 release. The game is very, very surreal. Presented in a funky looking cel-shaded colour scheme, the game is almost totally immersive once you sit down to play it. The controls are a combination of Resident Evil and P.N.03’s which work fairly well. The idea of having 7 different “personalities” allows for the gunplay to be varied, requiring a bit of thought as to who’s best for each situation. So far, my favourite characters are Con and Kaede Smith. Con Smith is small and quick and sports twin Ingrams with rapid fire and reload; ideal for clearing out entire rooms very quickly. He also shouts "FUCK YOU!!!" after each one-hit kill. Kaede Smith is the sniper of the group and her guns all come with attached scopes for long range err sniping. Sadly, Kaede’s reload speed is one of the worst in the game so she should only ever be used when there’s no more than two enemies on screen at a time, and even then it can prove quite risky. There’s also a maid in the game by the name of Samantha; depending on whether she’s in her maid outfit or not decides whether you can save or not. A decent game and one of the better summer releases; the PS2 version can be bought for £25 or less from GameStation if you’re looking for it on the cheap.

Well, I guess this brings us up to date on my affairs. I'll be returning to Aberystwyth on Friday to finish clearing out the kitchen and to start moving some stuff to the new place over on Prospect Street. I may catch a few of you Aberystwythians whilst I'm in town. Oh yeah, congratulations to all of you graduates out there; I'm incredibly proud of everyone's achievements and am actually a bit envious that I'll have to wait another two years before I can don the square hat.