Tegami Bachi 23 - Honey Waters

Sarah use the spirit amber and chanted Black Needle on one of the gathered people. Surprised, Lag made a bit of noise and was noticed by the people at the gathering, whom despise anyone linked with the government (Bees included). Connor eventually drag Lag and ran away, but they're caught quickly and Niche was unable to save them because of the poisonous honey water she drank in last episode. Lucky for Lag, Master Hunt came to him and throw him away to safety, before Lag was dragged into hiding by a girl who later introduced herself as Ann Grado, 14 years old. She brought lag through an abandoned underground passageway to a sack containing a bunch of letters. There' she told the whole story behind the appearance of those called "One who Unable to Become Spirit" into the ties, growing influences and cut ties with the government and letter deliveries. There are however people who didn't side with the group and still writing letters, but they were unable to deliver it because on their first attempt, the sender (who was Ann's father) was attacked by a Gaichuu and lost heart as a result. Ann then want lag to deliver all those letters for her because he is the only one capable of doing the job.

To the captured Niche and Connor, the people exposed her arm and found that her arm resembled almost like Master Hunt's arm - a Maka. Sarah then realized that Niche's arm is different in that it doesn't have any operation scar like master Hunt's, meaning that Niche is what they call a "true" One Unable to become Spirit. Sarah want to use this chance to offer Niche to someone and joined something called "Reverse", so that they can lead a good life in the capital. Master Hunt who did not agree with all the deceit they've done to the people all along, tried to persuade Sarah from continuing their lies, but she persist. Connor who was faking his unconsciousness all along, heard all the conversations and then had a talk with Master Hunt. He noticed how the Spirit Amber was fake due to the light emitted when Sarah chant the Black Needle. Soon afterward, Gus (Connor's dingo) appeared from underground to save him, but they was interrupted by a gaichuu, who apparently was attracted to the letters carried by lag in the underground passage. Lag and Connor later combined force to fight the Gaichuu, with Lag being the decoy and Connor showing his Shindan for the first time, Yellow Explosion land mines. Unfortunately the deceived people of the town thought the Gaichuu was brought by the Bees, and wanted to offer Lag and Ann to the monsters, but was stopped by Master Hunt. Before long, a Blue Needle shindan appeared, along with Zazie...

comments: The conspiracy in the town is nearly exposed, too bad for the people who wholeheartedly believes in the crap spread by Sarah. Finally we see the real Connor in action. I've always wondered how he did his job as a letter bee especially while dealing with Gaichuu, and it's finally shown to us, fighting with the use of land mines (lol "the land mines I bury are fragments of my hunger"), with the help of Gus. His ability to dig even the sturdiest floow amazed me. But then I wonder how did Connor aimed Gaichuu's weak point if land mines are all he got. Seeing that even Zazie came to help right in the end, it appears that there's even bigger issue lies ahead. Anyway, since the spirit amber that Sarah use is fake, does that mean these events had little to do with Gauche?
Seems like Sarah also has her own sad story with Master Hunt in the past which leads to what they've done at present (and why they hate the government), hopefully it's not going to be a tear jerking episode lol (*cough ep15cough*). Would love to see what's actually happened to Master Hunt and the Artificial Project he's involved with (the origin of his arm), and where the term "One Unable to become Spiri" came from, and how it was related to Maka. Well at least he (and Sarah, partially) isn't a bad person.
p/s: what's with Ann's tsun attitude lol

Ookamikakushi 10 - Hassaku Festival

It's just a day before Hassaku Festival. Hiro safely went home and that evening, his father came to his room, talking about the legends of Kamibito in the town and the relation with Hassaku Festival to protect the villagers from the demons, which all these reflected in Jouga Counting Rhyme. He also would like to know more about the people of the old town and their destiny. On a separate scene, Sakaki is having a phone conversation with Kasai, talking about his next plan which apparently is the death of the new folks who come to the New Town (which he partially lied).

The next day is Hassaku Festival. Hiro went with Kaname to the festival and they witnessed parades of the jouga wolf with portable shrine carrying white wolf Kannon. Hiro somehow noticed that the person inside is Kaori, followed by the main event of Hassaku unfolds - hassaku wrapped in papers with written wishes, rolled down the shrine stairs and the people who pick the wrapped hassaku will be granted the written wish. In the heat of the events, Issei's girlfriend came with fiendish look on her face and start rampaging. Before long, she spotted Hiro and started charging him, but was stopped and killed by Nemuru right on the spot. That was when Sakaki appeared and tried to expose the truth about those which he called monsters. His words caused uproar among the people from the old and new town as the kamibito (old towners) claimed that they had enough of enduring and thought its better if they just convert all new folks into kamibito. They also blamed the likes of Hiro (a mitsu) as the cause of their misfortune. Sakaki then was approached by Kasai. Apparently that was not the agreement between the two, but he then end up being killed by Sakaki who told his real plan of releasing the dam to submerge the whole town. Luckily one of the men found Sakai just before he died and he manage to tell the man about Sakaki's plan, although Sakai only told the man to tell only Kamibito. The man didn't listen to him and spread the words to everyone in the festival. As the episode curtain closed, everyone rushed to stop Sakaki and put the kamibito-ochibito matters behind...

comments: Finally the series is reaching the end. Nice to see Isuzu still fine despite what's happening before and able to attend the Festival. Kaori's matter is still vague too. Anyway, it wa kinda smart plan by Sakaki to use Isuzu's fallen girlfriend to cause chaos in the Hassaku Festival right when the old (kamibito) and new folks (ochibito) were together, then when the "cleansing of the fallen" is carried out right in front of their eyes, he tryied to expose the truth and stirr riot amongst the people there. In the end he really was determined to avenge his girlfriend, although planning to submerge the whole friggin village by releasing the dam (sounds familar?) sounds too grand since his target are mostly the Kamibito, not the people in the New Town.
On another matter, Kasai sucks. Even at the verge of death he still wished for the disappearance of all Mitsu in the village, good thing the man who found him didn't heed to his word. There's also the "extended" version of jouga counting rhyme sang by a granny in this episode, but for some reason I can't catch the whole meaning of the song compared with the simple lines Kaname mentioned in previous episodes.

Durarara 10 - The First and probably the Last

This episode tells part of what happened in previous episode, from Mikado's point of view. He was on his way from grocery when he heard the roaring sound of Celty's bike. That was when he met Mika who then ask him to take her away from Celty. At home, Mikado tried to get advice from Kida but in the end there is nothing they could do to solve this difficult situation. The next day at school, Kida showed a sheet called "Dollars Degree Prediction" which sorta tells how much the students of the school believed that a certain person is a member of Dollar, and one name, Takiguchi Ryo came out of their conversation. Surprisingly he duly admitted that he is the member of Dollars.

As Kida had some business to attend, Mikado went home with Anri. Just as they reach the gate, they were spotted by street punks who used to know Mikado from the time when Izaya crush the girl's phone a few episodes ago. Too bad for them that Celty and Izaya came and chase them away (and a kick to the cheek). Mikado made an excuse to part ways with Anri, knowing that both Celty and Izaya were after him. Things went smoothly nonetheless as Mikado had a chat with Celty. He told everything he knows about Celty, an urban legend riding a soundless bike, headless, while Celty too told everything Mikado need to know, about Dullahan and the reason she chase Mika the other day. She also agreed to show her headless helmet. Celty insisted she had to meet Mika, Mikado agreed to help her out. All three of them (including Izaya) went to Mikado's home only to be spot someone from the Yagiri Pharmacy, while Mika had already flee from the scene. As the episode ends, Mikado took his computer out and started typing something as he realize a lot of things happened around him which took him out of his normal life.

comments: Great episode I have to say. Some light was shed on the members of Dollars as well as Togusa's apparently scary side of him. I wonder how is it when Anri said that she's known Mikado for quite some time. Mikado and Celty finally had a chance to properly communicate face to face for the first time (since they've already done before, unknowingly). Sometimes I am annoyed with Mikado's wimpy attitude, but this episode he showed one of his rather unexpected side near the end after noticing how things started to intertwine and gel together (Mika, Celty, Yagiri, Izaya, Dollars, Human trafficking..). "all the cards are in my hands". That's quite interesting line coming from someone like Mikado. Plus he has this kind attitude of trying to mediate things between Mika and Celty as well.
I'm kinda intrigued with Mika and Celty's memories too. The fact that Mika lost her memories means Celty's doesn't use her head to store her memories (or her current self doesn't need her brain to memorize things, rather that strange black essence coming out of her neck). And since Celty herself doesn't remember part of her past, I was thinking that portions of her memories was stored in other than her head or body, or it will just return once the two is brought together.

p/s: Biribiri and Himegami

[dota] RD's pick of the month

Despite being busy with my honours, I still can't bring myself to quit dota and just recently we're back to play together, although only on weekend. Nevertheless, there are a bunch of replays released on GG.net and replays.net, and although I didn't watch most of them, there are still a few which I find quite amazing and worth watching even for casual players. My pick for replays of the month (although we're only 1/3 into March):

Game 1: ToFu vs IcE.s


Events: Asian Elite Dota League (AEDL)
Maps/version: Dota-allstars 6.66b, version 1.24c/d
GameMode: -cm
Length: 76:46 Minutes

replay download: [gosugamers]/[replays.net]

recommendation: ********** (Epic)

comments: The game span over 76 minutes, but trust me, it is worth spending the time watching this. Absolutely incredible and epic games from both sides, awesome comeback, tons of actions and kills, and you really can't tell who's going to end until the very end. Both teams were equally farmed, every heroes have at least a Dagger and/or Lothars. Hats off to -n|cXh-| for his awesome Sven throughout the game, and Viper whom Urn and Orchid totally shut down Storm Spirit late in the game. I don't understand why GG or RN crews didn't RR or starred this replay.
p/s: The nick PemakanDunia is supposed to belong to one of the famous D-A troll, Flizzardo. I had my doubt that it really is him that play this viper, but anyway that was one amazing viper despite the slow start.

game 2: CH vs FTD



Events: Nvidia Games Festival (NGF)
Maps/version: Dota-allstars 6.66b, version 1.24b
GameMode: -cm
Length: 38:54 minutes

Replay download: [garena]/[MF]

recommendation: ******** (nice)

Comments: Not sure why but it seems like neither GG or RN has uploaded this replay, so I had to use replay parser for team lineup, which to me doesn't look that appealing. Anyway, this game is slightly less exciting than the first one posted above but is still worth watching. Good for some Kunkka and Enigma lesson on how to land their ultimate perfectly. Kunkka did miss about 2 Boats but the rest of his ultimates were rightly timed, so did Enigma's Blackhole. Morphling also showed some nice blocking with his replicate, especially his kill on Kunkka early in the game. The game itself wasn't boring to watch.

Tegami Bachi 22 - The Note that Connects Dreams

Given the very limited time for Mana to prove the worth of her project, Dr Thunderland Jr came up with a way which could save Mana, that is by asking for an recognition from a renowned Professor in plant and vegetation called Dr Whitman. However this task was almost impossible to be completed because the doctor currently lives so far to the south that it would at least take more than a week to reach him and return. But despite this, Gauche still decide to deliver Mana's notebook and get his approval. He went through a lot of hardship along the way, climbing through ravines as a shortcut, fierce sandstorm, tornado, and of course, Gaichuu along the way. That totally took a lot of her energy, but he finally made it through, and collapsed as he reach Dr Whitman's house. Things went good as Dr Whitman eventually gave his recognition toward Mana's work on the basis of the immense curiosity the notebook hold, and the potential it gave to rejuvenate Bees. With 3 days left, Gauche managed to return safely to the capital, bringing back the letter from Dr Whitman. The letter was presented to the Advisory Panel and as a result, Mana's termination is successfully cancelled. And thanks to that, mana finally able to complete the room as it is in present days.

Lag was still talking to Mana when they were interrupted by Dr Thunderland who told about about a possible hint of finding Gauche. He mentioned that long ago Gauche told him about a delivery he sent in the town called Honey Waters where met a man called "One unable to become Spirit". Dr Thunderland suggested that Lag might find a clue about Gauche's disappearance if he was to use his shindan on the man. Lag went to the town with Connor, carrying a letter wrote by Dr Thunderland. As they arrive, they found a gathering of people led by a woman called mistress Sarah along with a huge guy who then mentioned something about Artificial Spirit Project, and that they were "Ones unable to become Spirit". Just as the speech ended, she took out a pendant from her chest containing a Spirit Amber - a Black Spirit Amber similar to the one used by Gauche...

comments: Finally the first clue of finding Gauche has been presented, it is interesting to see how this all connected with the present state of Gauche, as well as what those people mentioned as Artificial Spirit Project. There's also that mysterious girl who seems to follow Lag and Connor to concern about. It seems to me that "Ones unable to become Spirit" is more of a general term rather than a nickname for specific person. Anyway, good to see Mana successfully overcome her problem. I always had this thought that she's only partially blind, or at least she manage to partially recover from her blindness. While Gauche again showed how kind hearted he is as a Bee, willing to endure tough hindrances (even to the extent of forsaking his sleep just to cut the time) in order to help someone in need.
On a side note, I believe result is not overly important as a scientist, but rather the ability to interpret what the result means no matter how inaccurate it is, and identify where it went wrong.
p/s: Dr Whitman doesn't seem to be that ill-tempered as Dr Thunderland Jr describe.

Durarara 9 - Madly in Love

Namie Yagiri has always been a "caring" sister toward her brother Seiji. That day she lost contact with Seiji for half a day when Mika purposely dropped Seiji's phone into a fountain. Namie immediately went to Izaya's place to seek his assistance to find Seiji. Along the way, we were introduced with her past, how they were often left alone in their uncle's place, that Celty's head was there since the beginning and how she would later regret showing Seiji the head because there is no doubt that Seiji had taken an extreme liking to the head.

Anyway back to present days. Maki was informed that they were being chased and took Seiji's hand to run, but in doing so, they attract Shizuo and Celty's attention who happened to sit nearby. Celty immediately recognize her head and went to chase Maki. Shizuo then tried to calm the nervous Maki but he was stabbed at his hip with a pen by Seiji, though he showed no sign of pain. Shizuo remained there to deal with Seiji, while Celty went to chase the escaping Maki. On her way, Maki stumbled with Mikado who then took her hand and ran. Celty tried to chase both of them but was blocked by another group of students. Disappointed, Celty went back to Shinra's, telling loads of things on her mind to him, like why there's a body attached to her head in the first place. Mika meanwhile was taking shelter at Mikado's place.

comments: Mikado found himself in a pretty interesting situation there. Confronted by Celty and Namie's men, and on top of that is Orihara Izaya, I wonder how would he respond to that. So "that" was the thing that Mika saw when barge into Seiji's room earlier in the novel, at first I couldn't really figure that out until it was told that Seiji is in love with Celty's head. Mika's current behaviour sure was vastly different than her stalker self seen early in the novel. Changing from one absolutely persistent stalker to a timid girl, I wonder how much did Celty's head affected that change. Celty finally found her head, anyway for some reason I find her stuttered speech when she tried to talk to Shinra rather charming :3

on a side note, overprotective sister is scary. Come on, lost contact for less than half a day and she's worried sick? Well not to mention the degree of both Namie and Seiji's love was frightening that nothing could divert their love. One thing for sure, both Namie and Mika truly love Seiji.. And that Shizuo, just how tough is he. Stabbed at both hips and palm yet not even finch. Wtf with treating the wound with superglue LOL

"I've heard that stalkers don't realize that they're stalking"