Best Gundam Series (menurut guweh!)

1. MS Gundam: 08th MS Team

No gundam series out there can depict the sheer realism and brutality of war except this one. No newtypes...just ordinary people fighting with what they have. Lucky they didn’t make much overpowered mecha here, mostly relying on the story line. Sayang....endingnya cukup mengharukan. Eniwei...must watch lahh !!

2. Gundam 00

No more Earth vs. Colony. Here....it’s just bout ending waarrrrr. Eee...they did have the Innovator thingy introduced mid series. But  hey, at least they made things a fresh after the SEED series trainwreck. And the best part, this series eventually introduced one thing no other series has into....facing aliens in the final bout B-).

3. Victory Gundam

Pretty much the same with the first, just blood and brutality. In fact, its more gruesome in this series. Just this time they had newtypes wandering around, which lowers its rank to me. Honestly, to make a good series, such overpowered things shouldn’t be introduced lah. Ruins everything.

SEED vs. 00

Tetiba aja pengen nulis ini. Padahal harusnya dah gw lakuin bertahun2 lalu dikala gw masih hot2nya ama gundam :D. Tapi mo gimana lagi, belakangan dengerin ulang lagu2 OST dari SEED dan 00 membuat gw nostalgia akan masa2 muda gw (ketahuan gw dah tuwir =)) ). Masa2 dimana everything was pretty much care freeeee.

Tapi mengapa membandingkan kedua seri ini? Kenapa ga ama yang lain aja? Well...first of all, masa2 “melek anime” gw diisi dengan 2 seri gundam ini. Bisa dikatakan, gw membuka “anime age” gw dengan SEED, dan gw mengakhirinya dengan 00. So, some how got those two having some impression on me.

Both are great series. Well...not so if compared to other older series. However, they’re one of th contemporary series that deserve a recognizing. Here, I’ll compare how each fares between each other on some aspects.

1. Plot

Gw akuin, dan bagi mereka2 yang sudah nonton UC timeline, SEED bisa dikatakan “Cukup” banyak menjiplak cerita dari timeline itu. Saking banyaknya, berasa agak ilfil mo nonton lanjutannya. Soalnya dah ketebak duluan, nasib para tokoh dan jalan ceritanya. Untuk SEED, luckily setengah musim akhir, dia sudah mulai ada jalan cerita sendiri. Sayang, padahal kalo dibuat fully original, bisa lumayan ok kali ya seri-nya.

SEED Destiny...hmm...quite original at the start. But seriously, dosa TERBESAR seri ini adalah mengembalikan tokoh2 dari SEED menjadi jagoan kembali di SEED Destiny. Padahal tokoh utama SEED Destiny sendiri banyak potensi pengembangan karakter. Sayang....malah dijadiin antagonis pada akhirnya.

00...lumayan original. Kalo biasanya mulu tentang pertentangan bumi dan koloni luar angkasa. Kali ini tentang “mengakhiri peperangan”. Woowwww.....utopis cuy...Tapi ya itu dia....jadi asik dan menonton sesuatu yang segar.

Endnote, SEED bisa cukup fare dengan 00. Hanya saja jalan cerita SEED Destiny membuat segala sesuatu menjadi kacoh baloh.

Winner: 00

2. Mecha Design

Whoohhh....ini lumayan syusye. Honestly, mecha2 di SEED termasuk cukup oke. Apalagi  tuk 5 gundam-nya OMNI. Cukup ori laaahhh. Sayang, habis itu mecha designer-nya jadi malas dan ngembangin mecha2 dengan daur ulang design dari seri2 gundam lainnya, mostly dari UC timeline.

Eits...tapi kalo boleh gw masukin side story Astray disini, bisalah seri SEED agak ketolong. Kalo di Astray, design-nya malah banyak yg ori. Jadinya lebih oke liat mecha2 yang keren tapi designnya masih kinyis2 anyar :D.

00... kesan pas liat design-nya...sleek and minimalis. Yang oke cuma di jagoan2nya. Tapi klo penjahatnya...err....ga deh (kecuali mecha2-nya si Graham mungkin). Beda ama seri SEED yang antara jagoan n penjahat, design mecha-nya cukup imbang. Tapi at least seri 00 ga mengulang dosa-nya SEED, daur ulang design seri2 lama. Karena ini....pemenangnya jelas :).

Winner: 00

3. Chara Design

SEED (kecuali side story-nya), honestly has a good chara design. Unik kalo menurut gw. Sayang, harus terdegradasi gara2 animation quality yang naik turun di setiap episodenya. Jatohnya ga bisa memaksimalkan potensi yang ada.

Kalo 00, terus terang kliatan feminim. Ya iyalah...yang bikin konon katanya juga sering gambar seri cewek. But at least...mutu animation-nya stabil. But design wise, kayanya tetep menang si biji deh :p

Winner: SEED.

4. Chara Development

Bagian ini terus terang ga akan bisa lepas dari poin pertama. Gw akan lebih suka development-nya 00. Lebih jelas aja. Kalo SEED, sayang nya terlalu bertele2 dan agak geje.

Winner: 00

5. OST

Huhuhu....kayanya yang ini dah obvious. The thing bout SEED, sejelek2nya cerita serinya, bisa aja OST-nya mbois ampe titik darah penghabisan. Terutama berkat suaranya om TM Revolution ama dik Tamaki Nami. Sumpeh....enak terus didengerin ampe sekarang. Ear catching lah.

Kalo 00...bukannya ga enak. Hanya saja ga dapet vibe-nya si SEED. Paling2 yang bisa cuku nendang Cuma 1st opening OST-nya, berkat om2 ganteng laruku (HIDUP LARUKU !!). Lainnya....so so aja.

Winner: SEED

So...the aggregate  winner is fairly apparent. 00 wins by 3 against SEED that only has 2. But again, that’s just me with my opinion. Dan tetap aja, gw appreciate every gundam series. Because each one of them has their own uniqueness, on what ever aspect that is. 

Waroeng Repiu: Rempah Asia

My first time reviewing a waroeng, or food stall in english. I chose this one because of its unique meals, which offers Malay cuisine in the heart of Kaliurang, one of Yogyakarta’s college districts.

The place doesn't shy of with selling malay meal, this is why I think many Malay students flock over here. But hey...the food is really good. For starters, I’ld go for the Roti Canai Curry, one of signatures dishes in South East Asia, served here Malay style. There’s other varieties of Roti Canai, but the one with curry toppings is my favorite. The crispy bread styled pancake (as I would put it) is perfect dipped in the curry sauce.

For main menu, hmmmm.....Either I go with Nasi Lemak with chicken, or Martabak. For the first, its rice cooked with coconut leaves, served in chicken curry (yeah...I suppose so). For this meal, it kinda takes a while to wait. Its just because they have to cook it fresh before serving it to you. Good for them. I once ordered this meal. But because the chef wasn't sure if they had the cooking done yet, they asked me to test it. Turned out it really needed more cooking. So they completely changed it and cooked a new one better than the previous. Nice service there ;-).

For the drink, nothing beats the Jumbo Teh Tarik. Again...another signature drink from the Malay region. Having spicy foods for the meal, this drink surely helps you quench out the spiciness that has filled our tounge due to the milk contents in it. Then again, the drink is basically tea mixed with milk. However, the mixing is done by pouring it from jar to jar, but by moving the jar farther, so making it feel as we’re looking at some sort of tea waterfall.

I’ld recommend this place. Nice foods that’ll make you full, with decent price. While it may sound bit on the top for the college students near by, its still way cheaper for Jakartans (like me) who happens to be in Jogja for a getaway. At least, you can grab a meal, at least 40-50K for two. How’s that for a bargain :D.

PS: Photos will come later. I’ve been here so many times, yet never bothered to take a photo of the meals I’ve wrote above ^_^;

DVD review : Heart~Light My Fire

Finally...another laruku concert that I've watched. It makes me nearer to watching all laruku's concerts. Anyway, I'll just go straight.

The concert itself was a nation wide tour in Japan ten years ago after the release of the Heart album. The tour then eventualy included their ongoing single that were released throughout the tour. But in the DVD, it was only a mix of tours from two venues which were Osaka and Tokyo.
Nevertheless, the concert itself was damn marvelous. Being ten years ago, it meant that laruku were at their peak times with great singles like DIVE TO BLUE, HONEY and Kasou. And it did reflect through the whole concert. Although not as great of a stage, their performances were really in to it. Compared to recent concerts, this concert really did have its flare. As its name implied, it really did light up the fire till the vry end.

Another thing that I liked from this DVD was the extra feature giving us a quick backstage look on how laruku dork things up when not on stage. The funniest part was when Ken played shinsoku~lose control with a ukulele and acting as if he was being raped ^^;. On the performances, I really enjoyed milky way. How they bought the song was really happy and easygoing. Not to mention the confetti being thrown all way to the crowds.

If ur looking for a great laruku concert but with a reasonable price, this DVD is a great way to start. With all the excitement, it only costed me some $30 (including freight) which is quite cheap compared to other laruku DVD concerts. For all the fun in it, I'll give 4 out of 5

Anime Review : Mobile Suit Gundam 00

OWw man, its been quite a while since i've written a review on something. Due to my prep to ozzy and my studies here, i haven't got the chance to watch anything yet. This review now even is the latest after a long while. Nevertheless, here's the review.

The latest series of the Gundam metaverse starts of with a new story and plot after 2 series from the cosmic era metaverse represened by the Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny. When first introduced to the public, I first thought "...hmmm...this series gonna be somewhat kinda like Gundam Wing". This was because the series had superior gundams compared to the mobile suits in the series. But then, that was the beginning of everything.

The story itself is about a group called Celestial Being with its intention of eradicating war using mobiles suits called Gundams. Their pilots are desinated "Gundam Meisters" and pilot a spesific Gundam with its own ability and function. The main character here is a 15 year old kurdish boy with the code name Setsuna F.Seiei who pilots the Gundam Exia. This Gundam has a spesific ability to engage in close quarter combats with its various kinds of swords and blades mounted on the suit.

What made me thought that this series was promising was the production staff. The director, Seiji Mizushima also directed Fullmetal ALchemist, were we all know was a great anime. Therefore, I was expecting he give a fresh look on the story itself. And it did turn out as expected. Not only bout the story, even the mecha designs were quite new, compared to the suits from the cosmic ere metaverse which were a direct rip off from the UC timelne. The most striking pasrt was about the character designs were they looked kinda feminine. But this didn't hinder the hole story. In fact, it was kinda refreshing for the whole.

Overall, the series itself was great. New story, new mecha and chara designs make everything seem perfect. If there was something imperfect was the fact that they intentionally split the series to 2 seasons. I don't know why but somehow makes the series more compact and strightforward with not having too many filler episodes. That makes every episode feel meaningful. At least, this series is a couple times better than the series from the cosmic era timeline. For a rating..hmmm..I don't know whether i'll give it 4,5 or 5...anyway..maybe its 5 out of 5. Just can't wait to see the next season.....

Drama Review : The Legend (Taewang Sa Shin Gi)

Satu lagi drama korea berbasis sejarah yang gw liat. Secara cerita dan latar sejarah, drama ini bisa dikatakan merupakan lanjutan dari drama Jumong dimana drama ini menceritakan mengenai kehidupan raja ke-19 Goguryeo yang notabene merupakan turunan Jumong. Walopun ada kaitan sejarah, tapi ceritanya sendiri merupakan cerita terpisah dari drama Jumong. Selain yang telah disebutkan diatas, drama ini juga menceritakan mengenai 4 dewa pelindung raja legendaris Jyuushin yang dijanjikan akan hadir dan melayani raja ini untuk mempersatukan seluruh bangsa Korea.

Drama ini diperankan oleh aktor terkenal Bae Yong Jun yang melejit berkat drama Winter Sonata dan Hotelier sebagai raja Damdeok. Juga ada pendatang baru Lee Ji Ah yang memerankan salah satu titisan dewa pelindung dan juga sebagai salah satu love interest tokoh utama. Walo bisa dikatakan berlatar belakang sejarah, tapi cukup banyak unsur mistik yang disertakan seperti adanya 4 dewa pelindung. Selain itu, drama ini juga menyertakan intrik yang cukup dalam dari awal cerita mengenai perebutan simbol 4 dewa tersebut dan pertumpahan darah antar kelompok kerajaan mengenai siapakah titisan raja Jyuushin yang sesunguhnya.

Dari segi akting, bisa saya katakan cukup memuaskan, terutama tuk Lee Ji Ah yang seorang pendatang baru sukses untuk menghayati perannya secara sungguh-sungguh. Juga dari penggunaan efek visual CG yang cukup memukau. Begitu juga pertarungannya yang sangat kolosal. Dari cerita sih secara umum lumayan bagus. Hanya saja menurut gw endingnya cukup ngga jelas karena tidak dijelaskan secara gamblang bagaimana semuanya berakhir dan penuh dengan simbolisme. Hal ini juga diperparah dengan buruknya kualitas terjemahannya dan hasil convert di dvd-nya. Jadinya ngga bisa menikmati secara keseluruhan deh :(.

Anyway, drama ini jika dibandingkan dengan Jumong bisa dikatakan sama serunya kalo ngga lebih baik. Keunggulan drama ini adalah kentalnya suasana intrik dan persaingan serta permainan strategi antar kubu. Tuk cerita cintanya, gw bilang sih biasa2 aja soalnya kurang begitu terasa bagi gw jika dibandingkan Jumong. Tapi secara keseluruhan, lumayan mantap tuk ditonton drama ini. Ngga bakal rugi deh pokoknya. Nilai 4 dari 5 tuk drama ini.

Movie Review : I Am Legend

Film baru yang dibintangi Will Smith kali ini menurut gw agak beda nuansanya. Biasanya film2 yang dia bintangi cukup ramai. Tapi kali ini nuansa yang diangkat bisa dikatakan cukup sepi dan dalam bagi gw. Peran yang dimainkan adalah Robert Neville, seorang peneliti militer yang merupakan satu2nya orang yang selamat diseluruh kota New York dimana seluruh penduduknya musnah karena suatu virus misterius yang telah memusnahkan sekitar 90% lebih populasi umat manusia di seluruh muka bumi.

Dengan latar belakang demikian, maka akan kita dapati sebagian besar dari isi film merupakan bagaimana upaya dia untuk bertahan hidup ditengah kota yang sunyi senyap akibat sebaran virus. Dialah satu2nya yang selmat karena dia pulalah yang memiliki antibodi yang menyebabkan dia kebal dari virus tersebut. Sehingga dia juga berupaya untuk meneliti dan menciptakan suatu vaksin bagi virus itu selain kegiatan sehari-harinya berburu dan menyebarkan berita mengenai kehadiran dirinya kepada seluruh dunia melalui gelombang radio AM.Segala berubah ketika hadir 2 manusia, 1 wanita dan 1 anak2 ketika Robert tengah melepaskan diri dari serbuan zombie2 hidup yang terkena virus. Dari mereka, Robert dibujuk untuk mengikuti mereka dalam upaya mencari koloni, suatu hal yang dibantah eksistensinya oleh Robert karena keyakinannya bahwa hal itu tidak pernah ada.

Kebanyakan dialognya merupakan pembicaraan Robert dengan anjingnya, dirinya sendiri atau dengan manekin2 yang sepertinya telah diatur sedemikian rupa oleh dirinya. Suatu ha yang menarik bagi gw karena merupakan usaha menjga kewarasannya akibat tiadanya orang lain yang selamat. Tapi tingkat kewarasan ini juga akhirnya sepertinya kalah ketika hadir 2 orang yang mengajak dia mencari koloni. Mengenai 2 orang yang muncul ini, bagi gw tersa misterius banget karena dari segi setting cerita, ngga ada jalan mereka bisa masuk ke pulau Manhattan yang terisolasi dari sisa kota Ney York akibat putusnya berbagai jalan2 penghubung.

Terlepas dari beberapa keanehan, film ini menawarkan suatu kisah yang cukup kelam tapi mendalam maknanya. Bagaimana seseorang sendirian mempertahankan hidupnya dan sekaligus berusaha menciptakan vaksin dari virus yang tengah menyebar. Juga menggambarkan kesendirian yang dia alami akibat terjadinya seluruh peristiwa tersebut. Dan Will Smith kembali membuktikan bahwa dia sukses (at least 2 me) memerankan peran ini dengan penghayatan yang sungguh2. Paling ngga hal inilah yang bisa menutupi jalan cerita yang lumayan misterius dan sepi. I'll give 4 out of 5 4 this one.

Drama Review : Hanazakari no Kimitachi e

Satu lagi drama yang diangkat berdasarkan komik yang sukses dipasaran. Mengisahkan tentang seorang cewek yang pindah sekolah agar dekat dengan idolanya. Masalahnya dia masuk ke sekolah khusus cowok yang berarti dia juga harus menyamar jadi cowok pula. Judul ini bernasib sama dengan Hana Yori Dango dimana dibuat versi Taiwan-nya terlebih dahulu sebelum versi jepangnya dibuat. Walo ada perbedaan sana sini dengan versi komiknya, dramanya sendiri secara garis besar cerita masih sama dengan komiknya.

Jika dicari perbedaan yang paling kentara, maka akan terlihat bahwa kadar joke dan nuansa lucunya akan lebih terasa di dramanya dibandingkan komiknya. Hal ini juga ditambah adanya berbagai unsur parodi dari beberapa anime dan drama lainnya di drama ini. Juga ada semacam penurunan tingkat kesaruan dan explisitas dari beberapa masalah yang ada terutama perihal masalah gay yang di komiknya sangatlah kentara.

Adanya perubahan-perubahan itu sih bagi gw ngga menggangu banget. Lagian gila aja kalo hal2 kaya masalah2 gay diangkat secara explist kaya komiknya, wah...bakalan kaco tuh. Hanya saja gw sendiri agak menyayangkan unsur komedinya yang sedikit over dosis. Emang sih beberapa dari hal tersebut juga didasarkan pada komiknya. Tetapi andaikata tidak disertai dengan unsur2 parodi dari drama ato anime lain maka akan menjadi lebih baik.

Secara keseluruhan, drama ini cukup menarik.....dan lucu tentunya. Tambahan.....hanya kurang panjang episodenya. Coba ditambahin 1 episode aja. Aktingnya lumayan sip, apalagi pemilihan Horikita Maki sebagai Ashiya Mizuki, cocok banget!Sayangnya cast tuk seluruh siswa Ohsaka Gakuen-nya kurang banyak. Jadi kentara banget kalo sekolahnya cuma sekolah kecil :(.As a score.....4 out ot 5 would be fair

Drama Review : My Boss My Hero

Satu lagi J-drama yang gw tamatin. Sama kaya sebelumnya, ini bagi gw barang lama yang baru keturutan ngeliatnya. Back to basic, ni drama tentang seorang Yakuza yang diharuskan tuk sekolah SMA kembali ma bapaknya agar diperbolehkan mewarisi kelompok Yakuza babeh-nya. Yang pasti banyak hal kocak dan lucu yang terjadi apabila seorang Yakiza berumur 27 tahun harus skul lagi dengan anak2 yang berumur 17 tahun.

Yang bikin segela sesuatu tambah lucu adalah ternyata nih Yakuza emang geblek banget dari sononya. Lha, dia aja ngga bisa berpikir lebih dari 90 menit. Dah gitu, mana dia ngga nguasai huruf kanji lagi. Lengkap deh penderitaannya pokoknya. Untung ja di sekolah, dia berhasil mendapatkan temen2 yang bisa membantu dan memahami dia. Juga berkat adanya wali kelas yang cukup perhatian dan diam2 menyukai dia. Segala sesuatunya dilengkapi dengan aneka kelucuan, hura-hura dan konflik khas yang terjadi selama SMA kaya ujian, pemalakan, tugas dan tentu saja cinta.

Yang membuat drama ini lumayan segar selain hal2 diatas adalah bahwa ada juga drama yang mengangkat cerita dimana Yakuza yang jadi murid. Sebelumnya dah ada GTO dan Gokusen dimana mantan berandalan dan cucu Yakuza yang jadi guru. Lumayan bikin menarik tuk mengetahui bagaimana ceritanya jika urutannya dibalik. Dan yang menguntungkan adalah endingnya ngga begitu dipaksakan terutama kaya seri Gokusen. Endingnya cukup realistis bagi gw. So, 4 that...hmmm....3,5 out of 5 will do.

Drama Review : Taiyou no Uta

Next stop...Taiyou n Uta. I should have finished this drama months ago. But since I only got 7 episodes, I had to wait for the rest to make the whole review. Here, Erika Sawajiri again plays the role of a mortally sick girl like in her previously succesful drama 1 Litre's of tears. Despite the same plot, I think this drama has some more happy atmosphere to it. May be because this drama wasn't based on a true story.

The disease the role Erika suffers here is called XP. I forgot what it stood for but it's all about the inability of the sufferer to be exposed to UV rays and it's definitely incurable and a genetical disease. The story here is about how she get's along with the disease and her interaction and love life. Since she is doomed, she tries to live her life nas normal as possible. But due to her disease, she can only be active in the night were she sings her songs in the street and sell her songs. She than meets with Kouji, a lad who is struggling to make money after he got sacked in this previous job. They soon get together and decide to go out. Also they form a band to make Kaoru (Erika's role) dream to sing come true.

What makes this drama interesting is besides of the cuteness of Erika (gotta admit it), it's also because of the ear catching songs played by here throughout the drama. This also marks her debut as a singer through playing this drama's OST. Anyway, without the OST, the drama has a great story with it which tells the suffering of a mortally ill person. And luckily it isn't that depressing as Erika's previous drama. The only setback here is how they did the ending. It just seems quite abrupt not all of a sudden. nOt like in 1 Litre of tears were she slowly dies in the end. I don't know which is better but it realy made things sadder coz she was at the door step of her dreams while she died.

Despite the sad things here, I really do like this drama. I really recommend it especially for those who like drama's that drowns tears all over the way. 4.5 out of 5 would be perfect for this one.

Drama Review : Gokusen 2

Aaahhhh...finally back on the revrews. To be honest, I should have finished of this review around 2 weeks ago. But I somehow got lazy to do so. Anyway, It's a double review meaning there's another review with this one. As you can tell, this is a direct sequel to the well known Gokusen series back then around 2004. Yukie Nakama still plays Yamaguchi senesei here as the main role. But the setting now is in another school with new casts. Only a handful of the old cast reprise their role.

As usual, Yamaguchi senseni or well known as Yankumi to here students gets herself to another delinquent class in her new school. Most of the main story might seem a bit cliche to those who have watched the 1st season, but there still are some new conflicts to follow in the series. The most notable one is her conflict with the school director trying to get her of his school with any means. While in the first season she had a conflict with the mass media and the school got related to her in the last moments, now she's got the head of the school as her adversary.

Putting aside her conflict with the school, the main story is still about her and the students. Still, 5 boys rule the class and it seems that story always revolves around them. I wonder why they didn't explore the story of other students coz this plot have already been used in the 1st season. This really does make some part of the story quite predictable. The only difference is that in the main group there's two person in chief, not one as in the 1st season.

Anyway, despite the cliches and the re-use of some of the plots, the drama does relay important message about how school, teachers and students should act in their role. School and teachers nowadays nearly always judge a student by their looks and not by their personality. It takes good guts to for a teacher to defend their pupils because they usually get scaped for their doings.And students should at least try to think of teachers as not only as teachers but also as their friend. If this is done, I'm very sure delinquents would be a matter of the past. For the ovearll score, 3 out of 5 would do.

Game Review : .hack//G.U. Series

Finally got to finish this series. Ever since it's release starting from the first volume, I've been wondering how the makers were gonna bring the whole story to. This was important since the first .hack game series before has already been quite wraped up. It turned out they made a whole new story and environment, but still having much corelations to the previous games.

The game itself is set up in the revised MMORPG "the world" called "The World R:2". With this, almost everything changed including the job roles in the game. But how it's connected to the previous game was kinda blurred in the beginning. To understand the whole game itself, it is better to watch the anime .hack//roots which serves as a prequel the the whole story arc in the .hack//G.U games. But even not wacthing it wouldn't be much of a problem since it just adds more knowledge to playing the game.

The protagonist here is Haseo. A adept rogue beginner player in the World who at his first encounter gets PK'd by PK'ers. Luckily he gets saved by Ovan. Then he is ask to join Ovan on the quest to find the key of Twilight together with his guild the Twilight Brigade. By the course of events, his friend Shino gets PK'ed by a mysterious PK'er named Tri-Edge. Due to this tragic event, Haseo than embarks on a journey as a PKK'er to seek revenge on Tri-Edge who has taken his beloved friend away. It is also after this that many mysterious things happen in the world and Haseo ends up joing the mysterious guild called G.U. and together with the members, investigate the many weird events that happen throughout the world.

I guess that's enough as a teaser. Anyway, for the whole game series itself, the development really did make a good job on making me intrigued on who the real villain was. This was caused by the deep intrigue and scheme surrounding the whole stroy. It was not until the end of the second volume that I got to know the real mastermind of the whole plot. This indeed make me as a player really eager to finish of the whole game to get the big picture of the whole storyline.

About the gamplay, well....I guess much of it is standard RPG for you. Compared to the previous .hack game series, the developers did make some improvements in the graphics and the gamplay. But one things that made me a bit dissapointed is the absecence of the double voice dub which enables us to swicth the voice played from English and Japanese and vice versa. This feature was available in the previous games and it was a pity that they omiited this feature in the G.U. series.

Overall, the whole series does offer us a great story. even after finishing the main storyline, there are still loads of side quests that you can finish, with many of them being very very hard compared to the quests of the main stroyline. So I guess it'ld be a while till we can finish of the game completely. For this game, I believe a score of 4 out of 5 stars would be good.

Movie Review : Nagabonar jadi 2

Finally, I'm back making reviews of movies again after a while. This time, I started out with an Indonesian movie called Nagabonar jadi 2. This movie is a direct sequel of the movie Nagabonar released in the 80s with Dedy Miswar as the main actor. The sequel takes us a years ahead form the first movie, telling us about Nagabonar and hisson, Bonaga.

Well, it's not usual for me to watch Indonesian movies. Its not that I hate them, but honestly, most of them suck. With themes just around horror and love, the stories really don't offer anything special and deep. But this movie is different. It does indeed conveys many moral messages. Not to mention the many comedic scenes around it.

This movie is all about the old Nagabonar visiting his son Bonaga in jakarta. There, he experiences many differences in various aspects concerning his views and perspectives with his son. But the main matter his about Bonaga trying to convince his father about letting him to build a palm coconut harvesting field near their family cemetry, something which Nagabonar misintprented as Bonaga trying to destroy the cemetry.

It did took Bonaga various efforts to convince his dad that wasn't the case, including asking his friend Monita, who also was his love interest to help him out. During the course of things, Nagabonar also did help his son on confessing his son on his love towards Monita, something Bonaga cannot do because of his awkwardness on doing so.

Besides the love story of Bonaga and abaout their familiy cemetry threatened to be wiped away, the whole movie is more about how Nagabonar is trying to understand the different views and developments that have happened during his time in the independence wars and now in the peacefull times. Luckily he managed to meet Umar, a bajay driver who throughout almost the entire movie acts as his chauffeur somewhat, driving him all around Jakarta, especially to places that have a historical value and meaning.

In the end, Nagabonar gives up and lets his son to do whatever he pleases with the family cemetry. But Bonaga already realizes how things shouldn't be this way and finally decides to forfeit the business deal leading to the wiping out of his family cemetry. For Nagabonar, he realizes that he should give way to the young people and that many things have changes in the hearts of people that he still cannot comprehend till the very end.

Eventhough the movie doesn't have a somewhat clear ending, but I guess it's fine. Afterall, the entire movie is filled with satires that reminds us on how far our hearts have differed to the people in the past. How we don't have the courage to clearly express our feelings and so on. It would be much more wonderfull if other Indonesian films were filled with such good messages. Too bad...they only think about trivial and profital movies. Overall, I think this film deserves a 4.5 star out of 5 ^^.

DVD review : 15th L'anniversary

Akhirnyaaaa......bisa ngeliat konser 15th anniversary-nya laruku. Ngga lagi ngeliat secara sepotong-potong dari youtube sebagaimana selama ini dilakukan. Aslinya sih pengennya beli. Eh...sapa sangka bisa keturutan nge-donlot dari bttorent. He..he..lumayaaaannnn, bisa hemat uang banyak. Langsung aja ke reviewnya.

Sebagaimana judulnya, konser ini diadakan dlam rangka mempertingati ultah laruku ke 15. Tuwir juga ya?Aslinya sih untuk konser ini diadakan polling online di websitenya dimana kita bisa memilih lagu2 yang nantinya dibawakan mereka di konser. Walo ngga semua ditampung dalam konser, tapi beberapa lagu yang lumayan jarang dibawakan akhirnya dibawakan juga dalam konser ini.

So...what makes this concert special besides it being the 15th anniversary concert??Banyak la yau!Pertama-tama adalah konsepnya. Konsepnya sendiri adalah time travel dimana lagu2 dibawakan menurut masa dimana lagu2 itu dirilis. Ada 4 masa menurut urutan kronologisnya dalam konser yaitu 1994, 2000, 1991 dan 2006. Dan jangan lupa, tiap masa berarti mereka juga membawakan lagu2 tersebut dengan balutan kostum yan sesuai dengan masa tersebut. So berasa banget deh nuansa nostalgianya tiap kali suatu lagu dibawakan.

Hal lainnya yang kepikiran adalah betapa primanya suara hyde kali ini. Dibandingkan konser2 terdahulu, rasanya emang hyde sengaja mempersiapkan suaranya agar prima di konser ini. Terbukti di konser, suaranya mantap banget, ngga pecah dan sanggup menjangkau nada-nada tinggi, suatu hal yang belakangan dia ngga sanggup. Selain suaranya hyde, rasanya aransemen dari beberapa lagu, terutama yang lama sepertinya dibawakan semirip dengan aslinya. Contohnya adalah ketika Carees of Venus dibawakan.

Aaahhhhh....rasanya banyak banget yang mau kutulis, tapi bingung nih mau yng mana aja??Oh ya....setting panggung. Panggungnya berisikian campuran2 pernak-pernik dari berbagai konser dan album mereka selama ini seperti ikon album SMILE, patung yang ada di cover REAL dan BB Cats yang tampil di konser Light MY Fire. Juga terdapat pangung kecil dibagian belakang Tokyo Dome untuk membawakan beberapa lagu, terutama yang dari jaman 1991. Lainnya sih ngga banyak banget selain adanya layar raksasa di atas panggung utama.

Tuk hal lainnya, gw ringkas aja, terutama bagian2 yang menurut gw lumayan jadi perhatian sebagai berikut

1. Mereka membawakan lagu TRICK dengan melompat dari bawah panggung (sama dengan GCC). Hanya saja kali ini semua personil membawa gitar dan bass dan masing2 kebagian menyanyi.
2. Adanya penari dalam PV STAY AWAY ketika lagu ini dibawakan.
3. Sadako muncul dibelakang hyde ketika finale selesai dibawakan, sayangnya hanya ada di layar raksasanya aja he..he..he.
4. Hyde kembali turun ke bawah panggung dan menyapa para fans sambil menyanyi KILLINg ME.
5. Masih ketika KILLING ME, kali ini hyde juga masuk lewat kedua kaki ken dan tidur terlentang sambil menyanyi dibawah kaki ken.
6. Adanya Salary man bermuka SMILE berjalan melewati panggung selama lagu READY STEADY GO dibawakan.
7. Ketika jeda lagu LINK, masing2 member diminta melakukan sesuatu seperti yang diminta MC, yang paling sik si hyde soalnya diminta menari break dance. Si tetsu...biasaaaa....bagi2 pisang, kali ini senampan. Ken diminta ngulangi beberapa kata dengan cepat dalam bahasa jepang. Si Yuki malah speechless.

Rasanya itu aja deh yang bisa kuingat.Pastinya sih banyak banget. Tapi I'll save for your pleasure. Yang jelas...rugi banget deh kalo ngga nonton konser ini. Sejauh ini bisa gw katakan konser ini adalah salah satu yang terbaik dari seluruh konser yang pernah mereka bawakan. Selain itu, kapan lagi bisa denger lagu2 laruku yang lama2 setelah sekian lama ngga dibawakan. Pokoke recommended banget deh tuk diliat. Gw kasih nilai 4,5 bintang dari 5 tuk konser ini.

PV Review : DAYBREAK'S BELL

The latest single from L'Arc~en~Ciel. This time, it's also an OST for the latest Gundam series which is Gundam 00 scheduled to air in October.The song itself is about war, which is explisitly implied throughout the song. By this only, it does certainly match Gundam because the anime itself is all about war.

The clip starts off in a Hogwarts style, I mean....all personels row on a boat as in the Harry Potter movies. The roblem here is that...the rowing scene is quite cheesy. I can really tell that the scene is fake. Not only that, all personels aside Tetsu can't act to make the scene more realistic. They just all watch forward without trying to make an improvement to make the scene look real.

Next...we move on to the center stage, depicted as if in the middle of a ruined city. The band performances were decent as usual, nothing special. The scenes here were taken as if they were singing in the middle of an air bombardment with interchanging scenes were a women in red is running through the bombardment. Nice thing. But they could have made things real for the city ruins. The planes used for the bombardment were enough.

Eventhough still enjoyable, I believed they could have made the PV more impressive. For me, even the SEVENTH HEAVEN PV looks more great. Much of the scenes in the PV looked as if they were made in a rush. I have no qualms about he band performances. Standard as usual. You wouldn't expect hyde to dance like in the two previous PV coz this song doesn't allow to do such things.

Oh yeah.one other thing is the poor usage of english...again?!When I first heard the song, I was wondering...what the hell is hyde trying to say in the refrain part twice?It was not only when I got the translation I finally got an understanding of what he said. He said "My Wish is over their Airspace" and "My Life I trade In for your Pain". Honestly...hyde should really improve his English in the near future. Poor english speaking in the songs really affect the enjoyment of the song, even not in a whole.

I guess that's all for now. If I'm not mistaken the next release will be a P'Unk~en~Ciel special single followed by their nex album named KISS. So I believe this makes this single the last one before the next album is released. For the PV...I guess 3,5 stars out of 5 would do.

Movie Review : The Simpsons Movie

Okay deh, saatnya review tuk salah satu film yang kunantikan tahun ini. Akhirnya.....keluar juga movie dari seri yang cukup lama beredar di AS ini. Gw sendiri dah ngeliat seri ini sejak gw masih kecil n tinggal di London. Ampe sekarang pun kadar "kehancurannya" masih belum berubah, malah cenderung tambah brutal aja rasanya.

Cerita di filmnya berputar pada kecelakaan yang ditimbulkan Homer pada seluruh kota Springfield akibat dia membuang limbah kotoran Babi ke danau kota sehingga menyebabkan seisi kota diisolasi dengan kubah kaca oleh pemerintah Amrik. Dan adalah tugas Homer sekluarga untuk kemudian membenahi kesalahan yang ia perbuat.

Singkat kata, sebetulnya sih serial Simpsons emang dah ancur banget dari dulu dan di filmnya sendiri jadi semakin "ancur". Walau mungkin bagi beberapa orang humor difilm ini cenderung slapstick dan basi, tapi bagi gw pribadi cukup menghibur. Pokoknya dijamin bisa ketawa deh walopun ngga begitu ngerti humor orang Amrik sono. Di filmnya sendiri rupanya juga banyak menyajikan satire dari kelakuan jelek orang Amrik. Mulai masyarakatnya ampe presidennya sendiri ngga lupt di"blejeti" oleh film ini. Tapi disitulah letak keasikannya.

Kalo mo dicari tema utama dari film ini keliatan banget yakni tema penjagaan lingkungan. Terlihat sekali bagaimana hipokrisi Amrik dengan upaya melestarikan lingkungan tapi disisi lain juga tidak kalah garanga dalam menghancurkannya juga. Bisa dikatakan, The Simpsons Movie berhasil dalam upaya menelanjangi perilaku Amrik tuk hal ini.

Anyway, peduli ato ngga dengan segala tema diatas, gw merekomendasikan banget film ini, terutama kalo pengen cepet ketawa tanpa perlu lagi repot2 mikir alasannya. Kalopun ada yang kurang dari film ini adalah kurang lam dikiit. Paling nggak sekitar 10 menit. Tuk lainnya, gw bilang sih cukup, apalagi tuk ukuran film yang sebaiknya sih dirilis sekitar 10 tahun lalu ketika masih jaya-jayanya.

Review Drama : Nodame Cantabile

Selesai ngikuti komiknya jadi ketagihan pengen ngeliat drama. Ternyata....ngga rugi rek!!

Drama ini diangkat berdasarkan komiknya yang mengisahkan tentang 2 orang. Yang satu yakni cewek slengengan nan ngga jelas tapi jago piano secara ngga sadar. Satunya lagi yaitu cowok yang jenius dalam main piano dan biola tapi ingin jadi seorang konduktor. Kisahnya berputar 2 orang ini dalam upaya mereka memahami satu sama lain serta dalam lebih jago memainkan musik.

Ternyata, walopun berlatar belakang musik klasik, letak keunggulan drama ini adalah dalam mengemas musik klasik tersebut dalam nuansa yang menyenangkan dan lucu sehingga sangat enak dinikmati. Harus diakui, letak kekuatannya adalah pada adegan lucu dan kocak yang banyak terjadi sepanjang drama ini.

2 pemeran tokoh utama juga sangat cocok memerankan tokoh masing2. Terutama si Hiroshi Tamaki yang jadi Shinichi Chiaki. SUmpah....cocok poll. Apalagi kalo ngeliat mukanya yang jadi sangat lucu kalo kaget. Tuk aktor2 lain juga lumayan mendukung tuh. Pemeran Franz von Streeseman juga lumayan kocak mengingat gaya bicara yang keliatan banget dibuat dalam bahasa jepang aksen londo.

Untung aja nih drama masih bakal lanjut dalam 2 episode spesial tahun depan. Walopun cuma 2 episode spesial, tapi lumayan lah. Coz aku sendiri masih pengen liat lebih banyak adegan2 kocak yang bisa ditawarkan drama ini. Nilai plus lainnya, aku jadi tahu bahwa ternyata lagu klasik ngga sebosan yang dibayangkan. Cukup menghibur juga kok.

PV Review : MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM

Finaly got time after my hectic schedule to write down a review.

By just hearing the song, I was expecting that it would be a better PV than SEVENTH HEAVEN. And it certainly did. While SEVENTH HEAVEN was very colorfull, MHDAD was all monochrom. But what I like bout it is the meaning conveyed through the entire PV and the natural feelings in it.

The band members also really look natural, I mean without any makeup that they usually wear. This does make them really old looking, but its a welcome change. I think laruku are already realising how old they are now. But the main attention is on the use of many animal scenes throughout the PV. Too bad it wasn't in a real landscape, but the use of animal scene makes the whole song more and more natural and fresh. Not to mention the kids that appeared on the last thirds of the PV. Another new inovation from laruku. It just adds more innocence in to it.

Overall, the PV itself really does stands out to laruku's other PV's. Due to the many new things used, I guess they managed to pull out the potential of the song itself to make it more universal to others. Can't wait for DAYBREAK"S BELL to come out.

Movie Review : Die Hard 4.0

Akhirnya kesampaian buat reviewnya. Aslinya sih dah sekitar 3 minggu yang lalu aku ngeliat film ini ma temen2 di MATOS. Sayangnya ada sedikit gangguan yang menyebabkan aku telat ngeliat filmnya sekitar 10 menit. Anyway, Aku masih bisa menikmati filmnya secara utuh.

Film yang sepertinya bakal menjadi sekuel terakhir dari seri Die Hard kali ini bermusuhkan seorang Hacker yang ingin melumpuhkan infrastruktur jaringan Amrik dan memanfaatkan kesempatan ini tuk ambisinya. Sayangnya seperti biasa, John McClane masih aja berada di tempat dan waktu yang salah. Jadinya penjahatnya ngga bisa ngejalanin plan secara lancar. Apes pula bagi McClane, musuhnya bukan lagi model konvensional yang mengandalkan otot dan pistol belaka tapi merupakan penjahat yang menggunakan teknologi informatika tuk menghancurkan musuhnya. Untung aja dia punya seorang "kacung" bernama Ferrell yang ahli ngatasi halo ini. Aslinya si Ferrell ini merupakan incaran si penjahat utama yang ingin membunuhnya karena telah mengetahui rahasia plannya, tapi keburu dilindungi ma si McClane. Sepanjang cerita, mereka berdua jadi semacam dynamic duo, yang satu ngurusi otot dan pistol, satunya ngurusi otak dan komputer. Good Match.

Gw buat singkat aja. Ceritanya sendiri sih ngga orisinil banget. Kalo ngga salah alur cerita dan temanya bahkan mirip banget ma film Undersiege II. Bedanya adegan aksi dan visual efeknya lebih tergarap di sini. Paling juga 2 hal ini yang jadi keunggulan utama filmnya. Tuk urusan logika di film...jangan tanya deh.....ketahuan banget banyak hal dari film semacam ini adalah khayal. Contoh utama adalah perusakan terhadap seluruh infrastruktur jaringan AS. Kalo emang di film semudah itu, jamin deehhh......Amrik dah lama banget keserang ma teroris. Walo emang aku bilang secara teori memungkinkan banget, tapi prakteknya pasti ngga segampang itu.JUga adegan F-35 yang bisa melakukan manuver hovering kaya begitu. Walo emang F-35 bisa melakukan VTOL flight, tapi kok rasanya manuver pesawatnya masih khayal banget tuh.

Aktingnya sendiri sih cukupan, ngga kurang ngga lebih. Bruce Wilis kayanya emang dah jadi tokoh yang paling pas tuk memerankan McClane. Cocok dan menghayati. Apalagi dengan kata2 trade marknya yakni Yippe Yee Kay Yi Mother F*****. Yang menarik perhatianku adalah hadirnya si Maggie Q. Sayangnya dia kebagian peran penjahat, ngga sebagai pihak yang baik seperti di film MI:3. Aktor2 lain bagiku dah cukup mendukung jalannya film.

Overall, kalo mo nyari film penuh aksi, kayanya film ini pas. Storyline sendiri sih walo ngga bisa dibilang bagus amat n orisinil tapi paling ngga dah cukup kuat tuk menyangga jalannya film ini. Bagiku, ini merupakan sekuel Die Hard terbaik yang ada sejak film pertamanya pada akhir dekade 80an.

Movie Review : Evan Almighty

Melanjutan rangkaian movie spree-ku, kali ini bisa ngeliat sebuah sekuel komedi yang lumayan lucu. Yup....Evan Almighty.

Temanya sih hampir hampir sama dengan prekuelnya. Tapi kali ini nih ceritanya Tuhan tidak lagi memberi tugasnya pada seorang manusia tetapi menunjuk seorang manusia tuk jadi seorang nabi. Dan manusia yang apes tersebut tidak lain adalah Evan Baxter. Kalo lupa orang ini adalah rival si Bruce Nolan pada film terdahulu.

Ceritanya sih si Bruce kepilih jadi anggota Kongres amrik. Jadinya harus pindah ke ibukota ma keluarganya. Berhubung dia pengen banget ngelakuin sesuatu yang "besar", maka dia berdoa agar dikabulkan. Dan ternyata.....dikabulkan euy...Ngga tanggung-tanggung....dia diminta ma Tuhan tuk membuat sebuah kapal besar layaknya cerita nabi NUh.

Awalnya sih ngga ditanggapi. Tapi tiap hari semakin banyak perubahan yang akhirnya memaksa dia tuk menjalaninya, mulai dari banyaknya hewan2 berpasangan yang mengikutinya kemanapun, banyaknya kayu2 yang ditaruh di sekitar rumahnya sampai adanya perubahan fisik pada dirinya yaitu tumbuhnya jenggot yang lebat sampai tak bisa dipotong bagaimanapun. Walhasil, karena menuruti hal ini, dia diskors sebagai anggota Kongres.

Layaknya seorang Nabi, tentunya dia dicemooh sama masyarakat dan keluarganya. Hanya keluargaya lah yang akhirnya mau rujuk dan kembali membantunya. Tiba saatnya, hewan2 dah pada masuk, hanya orang2 yag menontonya yang ngga mau masuk serta kedalamnya. Ternyata, alasan pembangunannya adalah karena ada gejala keretakan dis ebuah bendungan di dekat lokasi rumah si Evan. Dan lokasi perumahan si Evan sendiri juga bermasalah karena ditengarai sebagai hasil transaksi terlarang oleh seorang anggota KOngres.

Bendungan pun retak dan orang2 pun terpaksa masuk kedalam kapal itu. Air bah yangtiba pun menghancutkna seluruh perumahan itu dan menghanyutkan semua yang ada. Akhirnya kapalnya behenti di depan Capitol Hill dan semua pun terungkap. Yaaa.....Happy ending lah pokoke.

Sebetulnya sih film ini jelas2 banget "ngenyek" agama samawi karena tema yang dipake. Tetapi terlepas kontroversi tersebut, film ini mampu tuk menghadirkna sebuah komedi dengan gaya yang berbeda dengan prekuelnya tetapi sama2 lucu. Memang hal ini banyak dipengaruhi gaya si Steve Carell (pemeran Evan) yang berbeda ma Jim Carey (pemeran Bruce Nolan). Tapi gpp-lah.

Hal lain yang menjadi perhatian di film ini adalah diangkatnya isu lingkungan. Asli...aku ngga bakal nyangka hal ini sebagai tema utama film ini sampai akhir ceritanya. Selain itu, film ini juga mengajarkan betapa pentingnya keluarga dalam menghadapi godaan dan cemohan tetangga dalam menjalankan tugas "suci" dari langit. Intinya jangan lupakan peran keluarga sesukses apapun anda.

Aku ngga tau apa bakal dibuat lanjutannya. Kalopun iya....tebakan gw kalo ngga dari kisah nabi Musa ya Nabi Ibrahim. Aku sih menikmatinya sebagai film aja, ngga perlu terlalu serius memikirkan kontroversi yang ada.