Anime Review: Byousoku 5cm

Byousoku 5cm, or 5 Centimetres per Second, is a set of 3 parts linked together to form a story and shown as a movie/film. Produced by Makoto Shinkai (Alternate link, Unofficial Site but in English), the same person who did Hoshi no Koe and Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho (Beyond the Clouds), comes a film which is mainly based on human relationships.

Famous for films which the theme of time and distance comes into full effect in the stories, together with mesmerising background and animation, Byousoku 5cm is no exception. A story mainly surrounding three characters, Tohno Takaki, Shinohara Akari and Kanae Sumida, weaves a picture of feelings, regret, and the cause and effect of actions taken.

The term "5 Centimetres per Second" is a reference to the speed that a Sakura (Cherry Blossom) petal will undergo when falling to the ground, an occurrence that always happens during the Spring period when the flowers bloom and eventually fall. Mainly as a metaphor, it is to illustrate humans' passing, the slowness of time in life, how everything that starts together will eventually be separated over time, be it feelings or separation by death (There's no death involved in the film, but eventually we all will still die). Sad, depressing, but all so very true, there's no escaping it.

The 3 parts are named Oukashou, Cosmonaut and 5cm per Second. Oukashou mainly touches on Takaki and Akari, their beginnings and separation. Cosmonaut is on Takaki and Sumida, things that were not meant to be will never be. 5cm per Second is something like a summary, 10 years later from the start. Of the 3, my favourite is the second part, Cosmonaut. Feelings, emotions that ran high in this part can easily be related to what I have undergone in my life.

Byousoku 5cm is actually being screened at the National Museum's Theatre Galley on the 28th Nov and 1st Dec, however sad to say the tickets for the 1st is already sold out, but I'm fortunate enough to have booked 2 tickets to watch with my cousin this Sat. Even though i had watched it about 3-5 times, I always wanted to watch it (and many other shows) on the big screen, and many Thanks goes out to Animation Nation 2007 for bringing it in. Hopefully when I'm in Japan end of this year I'll be able to find a DVD copy of it (and maybe a few others like Beyond the Clouds etc.), and share it with those who might be interested. This film is highly recommended, both for plot and animation. The music is also top-notch as it's being done by Tenmon (for those in the animation world I'm sure you'll know who this is. For those who don't here's a wiki, but it's not that detailed sadly.)

Here's a video of the theme song, "One more time, one more chance", where you'll be able to see some of the beautiful background and shots from the film. The song is very meaningful, and it really relates to the story well. Hope you'll enjoy it. Click here for lyrics/translation.



Trying not to spoil the story, yet able to convey the message out, my first attempt at a review. Hopefully over time I'll be able to develop a certain writing style and improve. There's alot of first attempts at the re-creation of this blog, so bear with me for the time being ^^.

Odex Parody Video

This video just made my day. ^^



Proper post to come soon. Maybe this weekend. Just wanted to share this video. ^^

Changi Airport Terminal 3 Open House

Long Post + Picture intensive Warning!!!

Being bored in sunny Singapore, I decided to take a ride down to Changi Airport on 18th Nov 2007 to take a look at our latest addition to our "First Class" Airport, Terminal 3. Currently T3 is having an open house for the public from 12th Nov to 9th Dec 2007, so those who might be interested may join the hordes of people in viewing T3.

Can't really say that I enjoyed the visit, nor can I say I was disappointed, somewhere in between. As expected it just looks like... T1/T2, an airport, and the design felt pretty much overused. But truthfully how much difference can one make to an overall proven design of efficiency without affecting it? Just like how our "higher ups" work, overusing a proven design plan, with hardly any room for creativity and tweaking or testing of new systems. But well that's efficiency for you.

Okay ignoring the rant i just did let's get right back to the photos that i took on my visit to T3. All photos were taken using a D70 + Nikkor AF-S DX 18-70mm F3.5 - F4.5G.

A view of T1 during the transit by Skytram from T2 to T3. I did not noticed that there was a connection to T3 on the other side of the MRT station. Silly me. -.-

One of the few eateries that were opened and ready for business.
(Starbucks is next to this shop, but not pictured in photo)Only shop in operation at the moment.

Another Eatery, the coffee connoisseur.Noticed how much difference of crowds from one half to another?
But there's nothing on the other side anyway.It was claimed by Changi Airport that at 4 storeys high, the viewing gallery has a view that would make the control tower staff envious. Apparently they forgot to add that there are nicely placed panels designed to spoil the entire experience of viewing the aircraft's take off and landings.

Some of the people trying to get a proper view of the runway by trying to see at a different angleView of the entrance (from the 4th storey) once entering the Departure hall.Another eatery, Dian Xiao Er. It was fully packed apparently. -.-" People who bought the guided tour tickets waiting for a guide to take them. I bought the self-guided tickets instead. Screw tours. ^^

Map of T3.Entrance into Departure hall.
Built-up model of T3.One half (Left wing based on map orientation) of T3 is
still undergoing major renovation, thus no entry.
This is a much better view of the runway. Too bad it's only for those who are actually taking a flight off this hopeless rock. People were just camping here the whole day watching the aircrafts take-off/land. Couldn't be bothered fighting with them for a good spot to take photos of the take-off/landing, so I took them instead lol.
A pond with a bridge through the mid-point along the viewing area. One of the "Butterfly Gardens" that they are going to incorporate into the airport. Butterflies in the stomach before take-off anyone?
Another no entry area. Departure Gates entry area.
One of the trivia boards located all around the airport.
Apparently the weirdly positioned panels on the ceilings had a purpose.
More plant decorations in the Immigration hall.Uniquely designed "Waterfall" just above the conveyor belt system.
A portion of the 300-metres long sandstone art wall in the arrival hall.
Left the restricted zone af this point of time.It's been a while since I last saw long queues at McDonalds, since the times of Hello Kitty. It seems that there was a 1 for 1 offer for the frappe if you have the coupon which you'll get when you buy a ticket for entry into the restricted area. No way am I going to queue up.
I was done with T3 and ready to go home, but somehow decided to just go to T2's viewing gallery for fun, since I couldn't really enjoy the view at T3 and wanted to make a comparison too. To my surprise the world first A380 was just sitting out there! It didn't really felt big...just looks fat. It's true though, only from T3 that one can view the runway and actually see the aircrafts take-off and land, just that they need to make an improvement of the view and get rid of the panels. Someone actually wrote to The Straits Times to complain about the view in the 20th/21st Nov paper if not wrong.
Sucks to be one of them patrolling the airport. It sucks even more to be doing National Service and doing this, since this isn't their career, and they'll be seeing so many happy faces who are getting off this worthless rock and going on a nice holiday. And yea it's a Sunday also.

And that's the end of the T3 photos. I actually took a total of 178 shots (481MB worth) in a time span of about 4 hours, but majority are rubbish. Still had a hard time choosing which photos to post. I can't imagine when I'll have to sort the photos from my upcoming Japan trip, all 24 day's worth, which i assume might hit about 30GB worth.

I'm still learning how to take good photos, and I'm actually not used to indoor shoots. I'm more of the outdoor photography person. Any tips on how to improve my photography please don't be shy and post in the comments. And would love to learn how to use photoshop to improve the photos. None of the photos have undergone any photo editing besides being resized down.

Undergoing Tweaking

Slowly as it may be, the site is still undergoing minor tweaks here and there. I hope to get everything done by this weekend, or the next. An actual post should be coming soon, it'll either be a review or a photo post should I manage to get my Photoshop working.

For the time being here's a video which I enjoyed. The character in reference is from Vocaloid 2, Hatsune Miku. For those who doesn't know what is Vocaloid, it's actually a singing synthesizer program produced by Yamaha. As you can see there's MikuClock to the right of my blog, and it's really cute i think ^^. Program used to draw the image is called SAI. Currently it's Japanese Language based, but i believe an English version is coming out soon, or it's already out I'm ain't sure.

The songs "sang" in the video is by the voice of Hatsune Miku. The songs in questions are in order, Cardcaptor Sakura - Platinum and Lucky☆Star (Tsukasa Hiiragi / Kaori Fukuhara [Voice actress]) - Ne-Ni-Ge de Reset! Hope you'll enjoy!! To listen to the original version of the songs please click the link which is embedded into the song name.



Disclaimer: All videos are not done by me. Though I don't know who is the original creator (besides the CCS one), but they are all great works. Job well done!

Officially Back

Initially i wanted to have another web hosting for my new blog, but unable to find one. As you can see i have done away the fanciful web design and chose a pre-made template. This will be my new official site, but i have archived the old site on another address, which you can access at http://www.k-hirito.blogspot.com/, in the event that visitors might want to view my old posts.

This new blog will no longer be on day to day ranting, but i plan to incorporate various posts on some hobbies of mine, such as on anime, manga, photography, diving etc. Let's hope this will be way more interesting than my last blog, and i'm sure it will be.

An actual post will be made soon, as i'm still planning on what my first article would be on, but i guess most likely it'll be on photos on our new Changi Airport Terminal 3, which i intend to visit tomorrow to get some pictures once i'm done at Singtel, changing my SIM card for 3G accessibility, in preparation for my upcoming Japan trip.

Another note is, i have done away with the Tagboard, i don't see much function in that besides random ranting. Instead, if anyone have a comment or a rant please make use of the comments function at the bottom of each post. It'll be so much easier to keep a record of what has been discussed about.

I intend to have at least 2 posts up per week, depending on my schedule and free time available to me. And i would love to have my readers (if any) to actively participate in this blog through the comments function.

Hope that everyone would enjoy your stay (or reading) of this blog. Thank you. ^^