Tag Archives: japan

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The Lone Wolf: Tribute to Berserk

berserkI’ve read the manga, watched the TV series and right now as I’m writing this post, I’m listening to “Guts” the instrumental track from the original TV series. This post has been on my mind long time ago. Since I’ve watched “Berserk”, my life and mind have not been the same. I was depressed, affected and moved by the creator’s choice of displaying his feelings through his works and the choice of path he placed for his created characters.

Guts, arguably the most fearsome swordsman to grace the manga pages and TV screens, is one heck of a warrior. The manga shows us in reverse order the current situation and the lonely travels of Guts. Then goes back in time with he joined the Order of the Hawk under the leadership of Griffon, his greatest leader and later, his arch nemesis. The TV series has captured only up to the event of the dark eclipse, the most wickedly visualized and bloodiest event I have seen in Anime/manga till now. The TV series was toned due to to the gruesome nature of the manga, yet it broke anime standards for being an adult anime show played at late night during the late 90s to make up for TV sluggish ratings.

As I’m still listening to the instrumental “Guts”, I keep thinking about Guts after losing his friends, beloved girl Caska and chasing after his greatest comrade Griffon who in turn became the most evil figure on Earth, after he offered his own army as sacrifice to the devil to gain power. Traveling along down a dark road full of danger just to stay alive, while being haunted by memories of lost comrades and companions. People that you tried your best to save, but couldn’t and had to watch their limps being torn apart right in front of your eyes.

I’m still awed by the first arcs in Berserk which are the “Black swordsman” and “Golden Age”. I just didn’t digest what followed afterwards. The “Fantasia Arc” is truly silly and not up to bar with the earlier arcs of the story. I hope that the creator, Kentaro Miura, would get some sense back in his head and fix the current state of the manga.

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Keibuho Yabe Kenzo

I’ve finished watching this J-drama TV series a couple of months ago, and I’m still laughing after remember a couple of funny scenes from it. This is not the sequel to the famous “TRICK” TV series, but more of a spin-off, involving the famous lousy Police Detective Yabe Kenzo. It’s to be noted that the main two characters from Trick has some cameo appearance in this show and it adds some great insight on how this detective is managing his daily police life and dealing with major cases, that require more skills and experience than what he actually is. Namase Katsuhisa became one of my top comedic actors after watching TRICK, and he truly enforced his place after watching this show. I truly recommend watching this crazy J-drama and getting some real good genuine fun! Here’s a DramaWiki link to it for further details.

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The Dragon will Rise: A tribute to Sendai, Japan

I’ve been saddened to see the news of the earthquake/tsunami that occurred on March 11th, 2011 to Sendai, Japan. I really felt awful to see such a catastrophe occurring to peaceful people. Unlike most fanatic Muslims, I don’t believe that what happened is a curse of God or whatever interpretation religious idiots would like to call it. This is a natural disaster and it happens to everyone, regardless of gender, race or religion. I just hate it when people try to stick God’s name in everything, good or bad.

Dropping such idiotic arguments, I still pray for the safety of the Japanese people from the radiation of the Fukushima reactors and hope everything gets better for our Japanese friends. I was really hoping to see Japan this year, but I guess it could wait till things get better and safer. To all my Japanese friends, colleagues and general population, you are in my prayers. Like you always say: Ganbatte!! God Bless you!