So recently I've tried squeezing in some anime between my work sessions. I haven't watched much for quite a long time. In fact I haven't watched anything seasonal for a while. Which I suppose is okay, because not many good shows have come out this year (and no, I'm not into Type-Moon). So I don't feel I've missed out on much. On the topic of Type-Moon, let's talk about Canaan.

I finished watching Canaan a few days ago. It was an okay show. Canaan is just really, really average, and after having watched it I realized how much P. A. Works had improved as a studio during the past several years. For me, Canaan resembles a less well-executed, less exciting version of Black Lagoon. Most of the action scenes were pretty hilarious (Canaan is just that good at dodging bullets), and only a show like Jormungand is arguably worse when it comes to animating unrealistic gunfights, even by anime standards. The show was literally a trainwreck. The story is okay, but I felt that the pacing is a bit too slow and for someone with a short attention-span like me, it was hard for me to keep myself engaged. 

Well, there are pluses, I suppose. For one, I like the character designs. Canaan looks pretty sexy. She's a cold-blooded killer but she also has that tiny dose of humanity which makes her a bit more likeable. Every other character, however, are completely 2-dimensional, which is to be expected since Canaan is largely a story-driven show (except that the story isn't very good). Secondly, Canaan also did an unexpectedly good job portraying Shanghai. I've been to Shanghai a few times and let me tell you, the run-down districts look almost identical to how Canaan portrayed it. The interiors of the trains and taxis looks very much like their real-life counterparts. So I applaud their attention to detail.

An actual Chinese market looks almost exactly like this. Minus the tits.

Danna ga Nani wo Itteiru ka Wakaranai Ken (or Danna ga Nani for short, although to be serious I have no idea what its abbreviation is) is one of the more interesting shows I've watched in a while. Well, it's not really a show because it, for the most part, doesn't have a continuous storyline. Every episode is like a comedy sketch that lasts a few minutes long. It's about the life of a good-for-nothing otaku husband with an office-lady wife, and the stuff that happens in their daily lives. The husband doesn't like to work so he stays home all day, while the wife is in a dead-end office job and gets drunk on a regular basis. What's surprising, I guess, is that they somehow made a comedy out of this.

Shows that talk about otaku typically fall into two categories. You have the Lucky Star/Oreimo category that makes comedy out of it (and is typically filled with references to the culture itself) or you have shows that looks at its 'dark side' via satire (NHK and Genshiken instantly comes to mind). Danna ga Nani starts out sort of between the two categories. After a few episodes, however, the tone changes, and it turns into more of a sketch about what you'd actually expect in the daily lives of a young couple. It's mundane, it's somewhat repetitive, and it can be pretty cute at times.

I suppose that if otaku do get married, they'd most likely stop thinking about their waifu and worry about raising kids very, very quickly. The last anime I watched that was solely about post-marriage life is Otono Joshi no Anime Time, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Japan really needs make more shows like these. Which is unfortunate, because the minds of the anime fanbase, by and large, are stuck in high school. Not many people will enjoy an anime about divorce when most fans are either single, or spend their Christmas taking a picture of their favourite anime girl looking at a cake in front of the monitor.

I've been revisiting some of the old shows I've watched. A few days before I watched an episode of Aria the Natural, and it touched my heartstrings in the same way it did three years ago. I'm also trying to finish off Tamako Market, but really, I don't think any KyoAni shows post-Nichijou is worth watching. The only show I'm watching that I found interesting is Gunslinger Girl. I'm only three episodes in and I already think it might be one of the best shows I'm ever going to watch. Somehow they managed to combine little girls with blood and gore and ended up with something that's actually tasteful, unlike Elfen Lied (which honestly was terrible). It also has an amazing soundtrack. I can't wait to watch all of it when I have time.

It seems that 2015 has quietly arrived while I'm typing this up. So yea, happy New Years everyone.

So I've been pretty tired lately. Tried playing games, but video games just tires me out nowadays. Every time I play I either feel stressed or nauseous, and I don't really know why. Maybe it's a sort of mild motion sickness, I think. That feeling goes away when I start working, though. It feels nice to work, to read, and to do all that stuff. Anything but video games...

Been working on a new project. It's not really a book, I guess. It's just an exercise where I get to try out new techniques and improve my Photoshop skills. However a lot of the elements were borrowed from some of the artbooks I own. The images below are just drafts of the real thing, so there's definitely a lot to improve on.

So as you can see, nothing too special. I really wanted to do effects that are a bit more complicated, but composition and colour are probably more important than making them look flashy. As I've said before, looking at the work of professionals really makes me want to get better. I think what made my work process a lot harder than expected, is just how much it takes to tear down what obviously looks terrible and remake things from scratch. That, and the lack of ideas. At the beginning it was hard to think of what to actually put into the project. Maybe I'm just not that much of a LL fan.

2015 will be here soon. Honestly, I'm pretty scared. I'm scared that I'll be one year older soon and that I won't amount to anything, that I would waste my days idle. The feeling of working, and working, and finally working yourself to exhaustion is the best feeling I've ever experienced. If there's really a New Year's Resolution I'd want to follow, it'd be that I can work myself to exhaustion everyday. Work is the only thing that brings me satisfaction nowadays.

I also realized I uploaded two of the pictures as transparent PNGs. I'm so retarded. Also, tomorrow morning I'm most probably going into Auckland city. Oh how much I look forward to going outside...

Whelp, here it is! Merry Christmas everyone. The files are pretty huge, actually. It'd take forever to upload it here. Here are the thumbnails for the album.

And...here's the link! Enjoy. Off to playing Shogun 2.

Woah...I'm so tired...

I've been trying to learn Photoshop lately. To be precise, since yesterday. It was a really, really challenging task, to say the least, especially considering that I'm the kind of guy who's never used anything outside of Word and MSPaint. The reason why I'm trying to learn Photoshop is because I want to make a few projects and make myself slightly more employable since everyone's asking for 'advanced computer skills' nowadays. Okay, scratch the last part. I just feel like making some cool stuff, you know? And things turned out okay, I suppose.

Back when I was in high school, I applied for both what I'm doing now, and Architecture school. Needless to say I spent a lot of time on drawing and designing and all that stuff. I'd work when I get back from school at 3.30pm and keep working till 1 in the morning, watch a few episodes of Toradora then go to bed. That was how devoted I was. Then for some reason, I decided to go with what I'm doing now instead. From organizing space to organizing people, it seems. Anyway, toying with Photoshop felt very nostalgic. The exhausting feeling I'm getting now reminds me of my high school days, when I'd just draw houses and floor plans nonstop. It's a good feeling.

So yea, as you can see, that's one of the first things I ever did in Photoshop. I couldn't even figure out the layers out, let alone knowing how to put down colours and all that jazz. Why can't it just be like MSPaint, you know? So it was kind of an achievement (as silly it was) to have made my first reaction image. Wow, I am so cool. Please respond.

For Christmas this year, I wanted to make a friend of mine something special. I promised him to send him a Christmas card. As you can see, it's almost the 24th of December here in New Zealand, and I haven't sent out anything. I'm so incredibly lazy, it's hopeless. But I decided I was going to make him something a bit more special, without paying a cent of postage. I made him an artbook.

Well of course, I won't show you the whole thing. It's not Christmas yet, you know (or, uh, Kurisu-masu, if you catch my drift?! Ha!). But yea, that's what I did for the past two days or so. The fanbook is a total of 18 pages. Unfortunately I absolutely suck drawing anything anime related, so I didn't draw any of the pictures. It's kind of hard to do it on Kurisu. My friend really likes Kurisu and probably knows her really well. I think my unfamiliarity with her character probably has something to do with the fact that I haven't actually read or watched Steins; Gate. So I had to rely on a lot of second-hand information. Sorry!

Making this project was a pretty confusing process. Imagine a guy walking into a workshop. He doesn't know how to use any of the tools, he doesn't know what he's making, and he's not really that smart. And he has two days to make something. That's me using Photoshop in a nutshell. I had make up designs on the spot then Google the technique of making it happen. Then I would get distracted by a picture of Ruka for 5 minutes before going back to work. Then I would accidentally delete something and then Ctrl-save then have to make everything again. All of this, while listening to K-pop at full-volume for several hours straight. Tracking down the artist names to give them credit took a lot of time and patience. It was very tedious and reminded me of putting citations on my research papers.

I actually seriously considered printing it out in hardcover just for myself. Then I realized that it's just 18 pages and it wouldn't make a very good coffee table book, which I guess is the sort of aesthetic I'm aiming for. Honestly, after flipping through the finished product, I'm not very satisfied at all. Here I see a lettering that should've been corrected. There I see that the spacing is too big or I applied a bit too much Gaussian filter. I have a few artbooks at home and when I compare them with what I've done, I think there's still so much room for improvement. It's like a huge mountain in front of you to see the work of pros and to compare it with your own. It makes for good motivation, you know! Photoshop is really amazing. There's only one thing limiting you, and that's your idea. And the thing about this sort of creative design is that most people don't have good ideas.

Well, that's about all the things I've been doing recently. I guess I'll put the imgur album link to the full version of the book when it's Christmas Day. I think looks okay, but yea. If only I could draw. If I'm doing another fanbook for my next project, it's probably going to be really cutesy. I want to experiment with a really elaborate, over-the-top style (this one is pretty simple in terms of design). So expect a lot of cute girls and flowers and candies the next time I post something Photoshop related.

Also, this song is amazing.

So as we all know, GvG came out a few days ago. I wasn't actually too keen on the new expansion when some of its cards were first revealed, because some of them seemed a bit too random for my liking. Overall, however, GvG is a very good set. People have already started making new mech decks, although I haven't seen any murloc shamans just yet. Besides Unstable Portal, the RNG around most of the other cards is the sort of RNG that spices up the game, but are largely controllable. For example, Handlock players have already figured out that Recombobulator is basically a 2 mana 3/2 Ancestral Healing for Mountain Giants. Unstable Portal is the only RNG card that, I think, is really unbalanced. At its worst, it replaces itself with a 1-drop, and there is a pretty decent chance that the random legendary you pull will win you the game outright. The problem is that all minion-based Mage decks will have to run this card because it's just that good, even though what makes it good is pure RNG.

The changes to Soulfire, Flare and Auctioneer are okay. The Auctioneer nerf is completely on point because of the new spare parts. But putting Flare at 2 mana is not a good nerf. Flare is only overpowered in the Hunter versus Freeze Mage matchup. Tempo Mage is not particularly reliant on secrets (and they also have Counterspell), Pallys never run Secrets and Hunter vs Hunter is more about board control than anything else. I've had my Freezing + Snake Trap blown up by a Flare and still win because my Undertaker got out of control. In my view, Flare should stay at 1 mana, but not draw any cards if it destroys a Secret. Flare has pretty much become unplayable in Hunter, much like Starving Buzzard. And making cards totally redundant is not a good thing - cards like Buzzard and Flare should stay as 'niche' cards, instead of being unplayable.

The 1 mana change on Soulfire might seem small, but it's going to affect Warlock deck building a lot. I think it's more of a Zoo nerf than a Handlock nerf because Zoo needs Soulfire more than the Handlock. Darkbomb has become an excellent replacement for Soulfire in Handlock, which I think is a pretty bad card (in my opinion) in Zoo because of its cost. Clearly, some changes will have to be made, and as a keen Zoo player I've decided to update my list for the new meta. I haven't laddered too much with this deck, so things will change a lot in the near future.

The GvG cards include 2x Clockwork Gnome, 1 Annoy-o-Tron, and 1 Enhance-o-Mechano. What's perhaps most surprising is the complete absence of Soulfire and Dark Iron Dwarf. Let's start with Soulfire.

Soulfire serves two purposes in Zoo. It provides extra reach when you are going for lethal, and it gives you valuable tempo in the early game. In the Zoo mirror, for example, Soulfire is almost always a must keep in the mulligan because you can coin out your 1 drops then Soulfire their 1 drop for free. Part of what makes the 'old' Zoo so powerful is that it plays exactly to your mana curve, while having constant access to 4 damage whenever you need it. 1 mana is very costly for Zoo in the early game. 1 Soulfire is justifiable to provide extra reach, but I don't like 2.

Now, the mechs. Clockwork Gnome has largely replaced Leper Gnome in Zoo lists because it provides actual value while buffing your Undertaker. The spare parts it generates are almost always useful, and at worst they provide discard fodder for Doomguard. Enhance-o-Mechano is an one-off that, I think, will replace Dark Iron Dwarf in Zoo lists. Its Battlecry is pretty insane. The buffs it gives to your small minions gives them a lot of value. Yes, sometimes you do get Divine Shield on your Nerubian Egg, but you also might get Windfury on your Doomguard. It's definitely a win-more card, and in general fits well into the Zoo game plan.

Annoy-o-Tron is purely a tech choice. It serves the same function as Voidwalker, and it's amazing with Abusive Sergeant. The problem is that its stats are very mediocre otherwise, and is a very weak drop on an empty board. It's the sort of card you'd play when you are already ahead, and you want to protect your Flame Imps from getting traded. So I think a 1-off is just right.

Everything else about the list is pretty standard, a tried-and-true Zoo list not too different from what everyone else plays. Some cards that might be considered for an updated Zoo list include Spider Tank (a solid 3 drop), Piloted Shredder (good 4 drop with Deathrattle effect), Jeeves (refills your hand, Zoo runs out steam surprisingly quickly), Anima Golem and Fel Reaver. The last two deserves special mention, because there are times when I play Zoo and I feel I have trouble closing the game out, especially when I don't topdeck into Doomguard. A 8/8 left unanswered will win the game very, very quickly, and its effect is hardly detrimental to Zoo because you will rarely feel bad over burning Flame Imps.

Honestly, I don't think the meta will change too much from what it was like before. People are still adjusting, after all. Despite getting Vol'jin and Shrinkmeister, I think Priest is sort of overrated post-GvG. Control Warrior and Handlock are still very good at what they do, while Hunter arguably benefited the least from the new GvG cards (the only legendary I got from 15 packs was the Hunter one, which I think is almost useless). Zoo is still okay, I suppose. What I'm really looking forward to are the new mech decks, especially midrange Mage decks that run Secrets, mechs and especially Snowchugger. They look pretty legit.