Clannad Anime (first season) + Movie: Afterthoughts

First thing I want to say is:

THIS SERIES ROX!!!!!!!!!!111111

(I purposely added the 1's to poke at the "common" (?) internet forum/chat problematic behaviour)

Again not a review - there's no need to review something this good. And unlike the previously-mentioned Aria series that has its main audience as primary-school girls, Clannad has its main viewer group as... hardcore Anime hentai freaks and/or geeks. (Or just somebody that just loves good romance/life stories) And hence it gets much higher exposure - schoolgirls don't go onto the internet and broadcast themselves shamelessly, and they don't surf porn. At least I think they don't. That's what she told me. What? Who's she? No, just a no one. I swear. Ironically, Clannad has no porn content like its predecessors and most games in this category, and yet it still sold very high and gets two seasons and a summary movie. No this isn't like the case with Kanon where there were two seperate producers (and the 2002 version didn't get the exposure it deserved); Clannad's second season has its settings after the first, or rather, the first half of the storyline. Yes, the second part (specific character arc) is always better better in both games and the adapted Anime. I might as well mention that in all these games it's usual for the guy to propose his love to the girl first then they have some wierd kind of problem thereafter, and never "happily ever after" then stop. So one could guess that Clannad's first season is only the first half.

So much for the introductory paragraph. It gets longer and makes people boring towards the end. That's newspaper writing. Inverted-pyramid format, less related stuff at the end. I still remember my English, yea?

Now my thoughts... at first I thought that the 3rd major series from key (all small letters yea?) would not be as good as the first two, fueled by the trend that the first will always be the best in many cases except for when the second is even better - this trend can be obvious everywhere. And unfortunately, it usually stops at the second before the creative juice run out. Not my series. That one is at major part 5 and I think it's at its best ever. What's "my series" that I've always been mentioning you say? You won't be knowing it until it is released. Hopefully the first part within the next ten years. And it will be an award-winning seller. I hope.

Digressed for quite a bit. Back to topic, the reason I didn't think anything of Clannad at first was because I saw no serious development for at least the first half of the Anime - first season. Nothing like the sadness in Kanon or AIR. And somebody actually wrote "Clannad - saddest love story" in his signature. That made me puzzled at that point of time. And the ending of the first season left me really unimpressed. So he confessed. That's all. What's so great about that?

Ok, maybe I wasn't all unimpressed. It got heartwarming towards the end (I won't mention spoilers)

After finishing the Anime, I watched the movie immediately, and realize that the story didn't stop there. Some shocking big thing happened. I just had to wiki that out, only to find that the story hasn't ended yet. First I was thinking that it would be better to have watched the Anime first before the movie, since it would have had more detail and impact than watching the half-bucket movie first, as in the case of AIR. Then, I thought that the movie was better because it had more storyline and explained a lot of things. Now I think I'm thoroughly fuked for even watching the movie in the first place, because ALL THE IMPACT IS NOW GONEEEEE!!!!!111 I really should've played the game first, like all the hardcore fans do.

And yes, after all this, I agree that Clannad has its own rights. In fact it is even better than Kanon or AIR in certain aspects. Although it does have that bit of similarity to air. But it took another route and improve on that route. Well, AIR is still the best in its kind. Unfortunately I cannot find another series that can fit under the exact same classification but lets leave it at that.

Can't wait for the second season to come out. Or should I just play the game on PSP?

OMFG Speeds on MOL 2Mbps!!!

Starhub giving free bandwidth???

And this is not a sudden peak, but the speed has sustained over 900KB/s to >1MB/s over a few minutes until my downloads finished one by one. And previously it has been sustaining at over 500KB/s for many minutes.

I've never had such a huge download speed before, not even on 8mbps (when I "only" got 1MB/s. This was over that by a bit) For the first time I see my HDD seeking so much when downloading.

Also, I've first noticed speeds over 500KB/s since last month, so this is not an isolated event. It just needed some good sources to hit this speed.

Remember 11 (Chinese version) available on sale in Popular bookstores!

Yes, it's the third and last part of the Infinity series by KID you've been waiting for. Unless you consider Cure as part of it, but no it didn't really deal with the same philosophy.

For those that have been waiting (and most probably cursing) for the Chinese/English translated version for PC to come out, the reason that it hasn't, or hasn't been able to, is that there wasn't a PC version to start hacking with in the first place. Now that's wierd and you might ask the question: Most visual novels are simple programs programmed on and for PC, so why did they have only the PS2 version (or so I was made known) for this, even though the rest of the series are on PC first? Well, don't ask me. Ask the geniuses that made Ever17 (a.k.a. the only game in which getting ALL the endings makes sense)(to explain, in other games you can only get one ending. In Ever17, the storyline involves going through ALL the endings. Wicked, huh?). Geniuses are usually mad in their own ways.

The PC version was only released Dec 07, and it takes time for it to get translated. Now it's finally out. But, it costs $45, inclusive of a 416pg novel which would comfirm be nice to have but still does not justify the price.

So lets wait for the "Net Communist" version to come out.

Comic Party Portable Gets Chinese Translation!!!

YES, it's finally here, after months of waiting. Finally now Comic Party Portable has been translated to Chinese!

Now we just need to wait for Snow and Clannad and the entire Memories Off series on PSP to get translated. All these games have already made the PSP the best platform for visual novels in Japan. Now lets make it so it Chinese-speaking countries too.

Get it here:
http://g.tgbus.com/Item_422.aspx

Amp read - All amps sound the same: Richard Clark Amplifier Challenge

Read here:
http://tom-morrow-land.com/tests/ampchall/index.htm

Points of interest:

"as long as a modern audio amplifier is operated within its linear range (below clipping), the differences between amps are inaudible to the human ear."

"Richard Clark says over a couple thousand people have taken the test, and nobody has passed."

Of course, this is assuming everything else is the same (capacitor/resistor values since they affect EQ and power, and perhaps the parts must be of decent quality), so the only thing that's changed is the amp ic.

But of course, it's usually the other parts (and more often than not, the sound signature) that results in the audible difference. That's how a $100 DAC/AMP and a $600 one can use the same ICs.

Plus furthermore:

"In the real world people use amps in the clipping zone, and the test does not cover that situation."

I concur with that. Although I dunno if "clipping" is the technically correct term to use, using underpowered parts do lead to audible loss of bass. Because bass note signals eat a few times as much current compared to higher frequency notes. Also, it's possible to use low power amps to drive high-power speakers with minimal sound quality issues so it's not a big problem.

"Do the results indicate I should buy the cheapest amp?
No. You should buy the best amplifier for your purpose. Some of the factors to consider are: reliability, build quality, cooling performance, flexibility, quality of mechanical connections, reputation of manufacturer, special features, size, weight, aesthetics, and cost. Buying the cheapest amplifier will likely get you an unreliable amplifier that is difficult to use and might not have the needed features. The only factor that this test indicates you can ignore is sound quality below clipping."

While this read isn't telling you to get the cheapest amp because (see previous statement), the fact that all amps sound the same ceteris paribus is interesting.