Anyone that cares about what I have to say about Durarara!! has probably already seen the first episode. If you haven’t, I highly suggest watching it on Crunchyroll. It would be twenty-four well spent minutes.
Instead of wasting your time talking about the plot, I’ll just direct you to wikipedia’s article on the show(click). What I do want to talk about is the style.
Being in delayed entry, I have to go to these meetings every month with the recruiters, their boss, and everyone else in DEP like myself. I just finished my last one a few hours ago. I have to see the recruiters two more times before I leave in twelve days. One this coming Monday to turn in some paperwork, and then again on the following Monday which is when I leave to go back to MEPS for the last time. I’m pretty psyched about going. It’s kind of hard to believe that in about three months, BMT will be behind me.
In related news, I’ve begun packing my shit at home. I can’t take it with me to BMT or AIT, but afterwards when I come home to pack and move to my base, I’ll have it packed and ready to go. I don’t know anyone else that is packing as early as I am, but I feel it’s a pretty intelligent move on my part. In addition to saving me time later on down the road, it also keeps my nephew’s filthy paws off my stuff while I’m gone.
In completely unrelated news, I’ve been reading 20th Century Boys. I started it on a whim after seeing the review for the movie on Anime News Network. After I got about 40 chapters in, I bought the movie from Amazon. That came in the mail today along with the last volume of Genshiken 2. I haven’t watched it yet, but I’m hoping it will be good. It should cover the first five volumes of the manga. I’m around volume six, so there shouldn’t be any spoilers for later chapters of the manga.
Ohayocon is next week. I’m still really looking forward to that. It’s in Columbus, Ohio on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I check into my hotel Thursday afternoon, so I don’t have to rush when the doors open. It’ll be my last taste of freedom before I go to BMT.
Posting the newest update to Kirkq and Nitrodon’s 7th Saga speed run. I posted parts 1-5 here and here(links).
I think it’s pretty fucking neat that these guys are doing this. I’m very curious to know if they can finish the game in under two hours. I didn’t think so at first, but they’re getting close. They might just make it.
A few days ago, Crunchyroll released an app for the iPhone. What it does is pretty much the exact same thing their site does: it allows you to stream anime for free.
I don’t think I need to tell anyone how sweet this is. There are two catches, however. Currently, if you have a premium account on Crunchyroll, even if you sign into it through the app, you won’t get early access to shows like Naruto. You’ll have to wait a week until everyone can view them. This could possibly change in the future, but as of my writing this, you gotta wait. Also, it will only stream over wifi. If you don’t have access to a wifi network, then you’re shit out of luck.
I took some screenshots of episode 117 of Naruto Shippuden in the Crunchyroll app. This first one shows the quality of the subtitles. In the event that the subtitles require more than one line, they will show in the video’s field in a little translucent box. It’s pretty tasteful and they’re super easy to read.
This next one shows the options for the video. See that little box to the left of the backwards skip button? That is where you toggle subs on and off. By default, they are off, so at the start of a video, you have to turn them on. There may be an option to have them on by default, but I haven’t looked yet. The time slider at the top shows that I have almost twenty two hours of video left. I’m assuming that it will just play through all of the Naruto episodes until I tell it to stop or it’s played the last one. I have not tested this yet, either.
This last screenshot is from the ED of the episode. These streams also include the little omakes after the credits roll, which are usually pretty funny. The ED isn’t subtitled, and only the first few lines of the omake were.
Overall, this is a pretty sweet fucking iPhone app. It’s free to download, so there is really no reason any anime fan with an iPhone shouldn’t have it.
I registered for Ohayocon the other day. It’s in Columbus, Ohio during the last weekend of January(the 29th, 30th, and 31st). I got my hotel room for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. The day after the last day of the convention, I leave for basic training in Texas.
I’m pretty pumped about Ohayocon. I know 4-5 other people going. They all have one hotel room and I have my own. It will be the first time I’ve gone to a con and had a hotel room to myself. I always end up sharing with a friend or two. I’m still thinking about changing my reservation to getting a room with a jacuzzi even if it costs about $40 more per night. Ohayocon staff as mentioned a mystery guest on their site that they say will be unveiled at the con. This pretty much means that I have to spend an hour or more at opening ceremonies. I know that I will NOT be going to the cosplay chess panel. I tried watching this at Sugoicon, and it was an utter disaster. It’s probably done by the same people. I like cosplay, and I like chess, but the two just don’t mix too well. The game basically boiled down to which cosplays the players didn’t like, which were the pieces that were killed off first. This list of events is here. Be warned. The list is current as of December 15 and it’s in no type of order.
It’s kind of odd. I’m going to spend a lot of time in Columbus prior to shipment. I go to Columbus for three days for this convention. On Sunday(Jan 31), I come home and spend the night here. The next morning(Monday) I go to my recruiter, and from there back to Columbus for another physical, signing of paperwork, swearing in(again), then off to the hotel. The following morning, probably at some unearthly hour, my military service will officially(legally) start. I will probably eat breakfast at the hotel the military provides, lunch at MEPS, then take a plane to San Antonio.
I will attempt to get a con report up on Monday(Feb 1) before I leave. I will have my iphone with me until sometime Tuesday(Feb 2) evening so I will be tweeting LIVE UPDATES up until the military takes my phone from me.
