Mass Effect: Paragon Lost

Mass Effect: Paragon Lost is an anime produced by BioWare, FUNimation, T.O Entertainment and Production I.G based on the popular video game trilogy, Mass Effect.

Mass Effect was a very interesting science fiction video game. It's strengths were its immersive storytelling, excellent dialogue system and memorable characters. Of course, it went to shit at the third installment which, as I have already accepted, is the ultimate fate of any beloved video game series. Nothing good lasts forever but that's another topic.

It's a trend nowadays for popular video games to get its own anime spin-offs. Anime still has the "cool" factor so why not make one to appeal to the fanbase? Halo, for example had its own anime after it proved popular. Same with Devil May Cry. In fact, if you go back further, I guess Street Fighter would count. Some games come with their own anime tie-in beforehand even if it turns out they're not even that good and kind of suck!

The anime stars James Vega, everyone's favorite meathead from the third game. I'm just gonna admit right now that I didn't like James Vega in the game and in fact, found him obnoxious. But again, that's another topic. I must admit, my view of the character has improved greatly after watching this but no spoilers.

The story begins in a human colony called Fehl Prime which is under attack by the Blood Pack mercenaries. James Vega and his squad of Alliance Marines are deployed to give aid to the colonists.

The Good

The music in the anime is very good. It's sounds just like the music in-game which is no surprise since it was composed by the same people. It really captures the feel of the Mass Effect series and fits in with the action as well.

The voice acting is pretty good too. Freddy Prinze Jr. reprises role as James Vega. Some important characters from the game who make cameos are even voiced by their respective actors. The side characters are well done, I guess, but the voice acting is not the problem...

The story sticks to a theme which is the importance of the decisions we make. I appreciate this as choices and decisions were very important in the game as well. At least some people who made this knew what they were doing.

If you're a fan of the game then there's plenty of things here to keep you happy aside from the cameos. The events about halfway through in should bring out familiar feelings so fanservice is a check.

The ending is pretty good. Let's just say there aren't any cop-out bullshit ending in this show. If this is some kind of stealth commentary on the ME3 endings, I'm not sure.

The Bad

The voice acting is OK, the dialogue however, is atrocious. Seriously, it's very bad. At one point, an Alliance pilot yells, "Get off our lawn you dirty space turtles!" while doing a strafing run on a bunch of Krogan. I mean, really? It gets worse. 

The characters are all cheap, exaggerated stock anime personality types and are not likable. I know that an hour and a half isn't enough to make deep and compelling characters but could they have at least not made them stupid? The bad dialogue doesn't help endear them to us. Many times they drop crude jokes and say awkward things. 

The animation gets pretty bad at certain points. Characters look off-model  with James' height and size alternating compared to other characters at times. Things seem to flow weirdly and seems "wonky". While I can't put my finger on it, I can tell when something's wrong

Too many stupid things happen. If you've played the games, especially the second one, a lot of things here don't make a lick of sense and may actually contradict the lore. While I won't spoil it, let's just say it cheapens the big twist in the second game. Even if you haven't played the game a lot of the characters act stupid especially the biotic "soldier". People are reckless, people seem to act without thinking things through, etc.

There's a depressing lack of Turians in this anime.

Final Thoughts

ME:PL isn't really that good. Despite being set in a universe that's rich and expansive, it seem like some generic action storyline. I honestly do not understand why they chose to show us this crap with James Vega. Of all the possible stories, why do one with this guy of all people? Why not a story about Garrus while he was  known as "Archangel" in Omega? Even if you don't know who Garrus is, that would have been an interesting story in its own right. Why not a story about Liara, a character who's been there since the start? Why not Wrex or Mordin or Tali or any of the other more popular and interesting characters in the series. Why this galoot?  I would rather watch a two hour show of Zaeed doing nothing but reminiscing old war stories and talking to his gun like a senile old man than this.

There's stuff to keep fans interested but it's not presented very well aside from the cameos and voice work. For those "nitpicky" about the source material and lore, there is a lot to nitpick. The art quality is bad at times.

I wouldn't recommend it unless you're that big of a fan that you feel compelled to "might as well" watch it.

Merry Christmas!

Capitol Punishment

Something funny happened today.

The dear Governor of the island was suspended. Instead of following the rules and processes of our system, she did what any good Filipino politician would; throw a tantrum, do something stupid, cause drama and waste everybody's time.

She's locked herself in the Capitol building, her office I assume, and won't leave. Policemen and checkpoints were established in the area to prevent her "supporters" or dependents as I like to call them, from rallying to her and doing something equally stupid. It's just drama. No person from the province would waste time and resources to come to the city to cry about something unless they were paid and bussed in.

I don't like the Governor. I never did. I always suspected she had some kind of psychological problem. Her childish spat with the former mayor, the endless attention hogging in Sinulog, the nonstop exposure from her campaign tours "tourism programs", that episode where she put on a cape and talked to a ceramic chicken (this actually happened, don't you fucking forget that it did) and now this. This just proves to me she has the mind of a child. I wonder how our lovely little island has managed with people like this in charge.

This is tragicomic. Funny for obvious reasons but tragic in that the Governor will probably be elected as a representative in the upcoming elections anyway because...political dynasties. Still, is she gonna hole up in her office till then? They should charge admission to this freak show.

How the mighty have fallen.

Mini Madness

Normally, in MMORPG games, I don't really care about pets. Pets are tiny creatures that follow the player around. In GW2, they're called minis. They usually don't serve any purpose and even if they did, it wouldn't affect core gameplay like player versus player or dungeon crawling.

Since it's almost [Non-Denominational Winter Holiday], Guild Wars 2 released a bunch of stuff we can buy from their gem store. For those unfamiliar, the gem store is where we can purchase accessories using gems that we can buy with real money or in game gold at a certain exchange rate. It's basically just the game store's currency.

Now, I have never purchased game accessories like this ever. Not in World of Warcraft, not in Team Fortress 2, not in Dota 2, not anywhere. But there was something in GW2 that caught my eye. It was a mini of a quaggan, GW2's sort-of-mascot cutesy race wearing a Santa cap.

I can't describe it. Just looking at the damn thing made me feel like...buying it. It was so...cute? This doesn't make sense, I'm a guy who isn't supposed to find cute shit interesting yet I want one of my own. This must be some kind of trick of the eyes the 3D modellers do to make us buy stuff. I know it. This is witchcraft. I know they worship the devil. Black helicopters.

I'm off to watch a Steven Seagal movie.

Don't Make Me Call For The Priest

Breaking the Law - My Thoughts on the RH Bill

As the RH bill passed the second reading, it seems that after fourteen or so tortured years, this bill has finally come that much closer to becoming the law of the land. While the media focuses on the delicious outrage of the Catholic church and other religious groups, it does a disservice to the public who ought to know more about the garbage that Congress habitually dishes out. There's more to this issue than religion yet, the issue of whether or not "this" or "that" is a "sin" is what people get all caught up in.

I will now explain my views on why the RH bill is a load of cow dung, a waste of everyone's time and I won't even use religion to criticize it.

1. The RH Bill Has No Teeth

Quick! Tell me what's the purpose of the RH bill. Never mind because I know what you're probably going to say. The RH bill's purpose is to control population right? Well, that's wrong because there's absolutely nothing in the bill that calls for the control of the population. Go read it, I'll wait.

What the bill does basically, is give people access to reproductive health information and a wider access to contraceptives (now classified as essential medicines in hospitals). It does not make any guidelines about how many children a family should have nor does it penalize families who have "too many" children.

Check out section sixteen as a wonderful example of the dubious effectiveness and weak sissy language of the bill. The bill only "assists" families to "achieve" their desired family size in the context of "responsible parenthood" (i.e. not having more than you can handle) and recommends two children, yet, it's neither mandatory nor compulsory. In other words, it's just advice. If regular people barely follow the rules of the road and traffic signs, I'm not sure what effect mere suggestions would.

Even if they made implementing rules about what the ideal family size is and for what type of family, the RH bill specifically prohibits mandating the number of children a couple can have. They can have as many children as they want still, the only difference being that some bureaucrat  would be there to tell them beforehand that going for eleven when you make about five thousand pesos a year just might be a bad idea. Families totally listen to strangers about how to run their lives right?

That's what this all amounts to; a glorified information drive. The idea behind the bill is that if you make access to information and contraceptives easier for the common idiot then maybe, just maybe, he would stop thinking with his dick and be more smart about whose field he plows and how many seeds he sows now that he's been taught to plan ahead for once in his life. This is all wishful thinking and I find it hard to believe that people who think that this is going to control our population can be that optimistic. This is all theory. There is no guaranty that mere access to information and contraceptives will significantly change population growth absent any direct coercion from the state. Could I be wrong? Of course. But my point is that we're passing a bill on mere hope and prayer that it might have some kind of effect because the bill itself has no teeth.

If the intent of the bill was to curb population growth then this is probably the lamest, weakest way to go about it.

2. The RH Bill is a Burdensome Entitlement

Now that I've said that population control doesn't seem to be the point of the bill, what is the point then? The bill mentions in its guiding principles that we have the "freedom of informed choice". Sure. It further mentions that, "the freedom of informed choice is fundamental to the exercise of any right". Well, I guess that's true. But then the bill mentions that the "freedom to informed choice must be guaranteed by the state like the right itself". Uh oh.

You know, the word "right" is thrown about too much these days. Just because you call something a right doesn't mean you can make all sorts of demands on the state. For example, I have a right to free speech. Does that mean that the government should give me free access to a laptop with wi-fi so I can express myself online? How about free space on a newspaper? How about this: the right to assemble. If I have the right to assemble, can I demand the government give me free placards and megaphones? Can I ask a whole road be shut down or any road in the City I want,  to be shut down for that matter? There are limits and what we are entitled by way of right must be within the bounds of law or more importantly, within the bounds of reason.

Apparently reproductive health is a "right" now. I have no problem with that. People are free to buy condoms, pills or exercise any manner of natural or artificial birth control they want. The problem I have however, is that it seems that's just not enough for some people. It's now the state's job to give everyone free access to information whenever they want, to promote contraceptives as essential medicines in hospitals, "promote" (i.e license for politicians to set up free programs and handouts) reproductive health to the poor/marginalized/unfortunate/indigent/underprivileged sectors of society. Furthermore, it makes health services mandatory for  private employers to provide for FREE (more on this later). Did you know that? This all costs money. Taxpayers' money. Other people's money.

Since when is a person's sexual life the concern of another? 

I don't think "reproductive health" is a right that belongs up there with free speech, religion, press, assembly and the other classics. It's just a new-age made up piece of shit that just adds more costs to the government, taxpayer and employer all because it's a feel-good thing. Just because we call something a right doesn't mean we have to start giving things away. What do our lawmakers think this is? A first world social democracy and not a third world developing hellhole?

I'm thinking of running for the Senate. Here's my pitch:

"My fellow countrymen! I believe that every Filipino, regardless of age, gender or creed, has the freedom to informed choice and the God-given right to good oral hygiene! Therefore, if elected as your humble representative, I would propose sweeping legislation to ensure that every Filipino has free access to information on proper oral hygiene and toothbrushing techniques!

Our children, who are the future of  our great nation, shall be taught to floss in all grade levels! I will ensure that every local government unit, from the biggest city to the smallest mountain barangay, shall have adequate supplies of free toothpaste and free brushes! It shall be mandatory for all employers to provide free dental care without question! I shall encourage both private and public dentists to render teeth cleaning and tooth filling services for free or at an uncompetitive and paltry cost! But please remember, I will not actually force anyone to brush their teeth but merely encourage them to. Ultimately, it is you, my boss, my master, the people, who have all the power! Vote for me, and every smile is this great land shall be as white as the pearls from the bountiful ocean! God bless! Free!"

There, I just described how to get elected and the RH bill.

3. The RH Bill Burdens Employers

I don't expect society at large to be sympathetic to Capitalism but I think there's something wrong when the state forces private employers to subsidize the sex lives of their employees. Unlike the baby-glove treatment families get, where they're merely encouraged to exercise common sense, our lawmakers save the penalties on those oh-so-evil employers. 

It's truly disturbing that our lawmakers don't see the kind of effect this will have on society. All this will do is ramp up the costs of hiring employees which will lead to less incentive to hire. People hire people to work for money, not to get free condoms. Please leave the employment contracts to the employers and employees. Let them sort it out without the state butting in. Sure, keep minimum labor standards if you must, but for God's sake, don't put "reproductive health services" there as a baseline all because the government can't handle doing it itself.  Do they think businesses are some kind of charity? 

They always do this. They always view employers as a vehicle to handout welfare programs. When our lawmakers aren't abusing Labor Laws, they're putting the onus on our long-struggling LGUs who depend on the national government for money to fund programs that the same national government thrust upon them! 

I'm Done for Now

So that's it. I am against the RH bill because it's a weak law that lacks any forceful measure that guarantees a significant change in population levels (if that was the whole point, who knows?). It's doubtful it will achieve anything significant or anything at all, really. It's yet another wasteful entitlement program to unnecessarily burden LGUs and employers and will probably be a juicy target for corruption and abuse. It's just another opportunity for politicians to play Santa Claus with other people's money.

I really don't understand why people bitch about the corruption and inefficiency of the government and yet, continue to give it more power and responsibilities. Thankfully, it is still just a bill. Maybe those jackasses can still fix it so it won't be so bad because they did soooo well with the Cybercrime Law right? Ugh...

Maybe the world should end.

Night Crawler

Last night I had a nightmare that I died.

It was so weird dreaming about getting killed by gunfire (don't ask). The nightmare went black at the point of death and I actually feared that it actually happened. Of course, then I realized that if I really had died, I wouldn't be wondering if I died... I woke up startled.

Still, at least the world didn't end or something stupid like that.

Nostradamus

The world is going to end? Where have I heard that before?

According to the usual gang of nutters, the world will end come December 21. Why? Because the Mayan calendar ends on that day. Why the Mayan calendar in particular is held up as some kind of super magical forecaster of doom, I will never know. What's the connection? I think the Mayans are overrated, pretentious hipsters. It's just a load of crap like Y2K or all the other end of the world predictions gone past.

And just how will the world end anyway? I doubt it will be instant like the lights will suddenly go out on December 21 or something because that's just cheerful optimism. The universe is dark and cruel and the end will be agonizingly slow, drawn-out and incredibly painful just as we deserve. There is no other way. Even if, say, the sun were to go out on that day it would affect one half of the world first and then slowly, the other will perish too. Boy, that would be quiet a show.

Relax.

Heroes End

It finally happened. It finally freakin' happened. The Hitman series was finally ruined by Square Enix. Also, Manny Pacquiao lost.

So... how about that fight yesterday?

It was bound to happen yet there's shock and disbelief. What were people expecting? You can't win them all.

I don't really care for boxing. I think it's immoral and depraved. I feel like it's wrong to see people beat each other for money. At least pro-wrestling is fake but I digress. Manny Pacquiao seemed to walk right into a knockout punch like he wasn't paying attention. Either his opponent was extremely lucky or Manny was careless, either way, it was decisive. Bet you can't claim it was rigged now, eh?

How many Mexicans does it take to knock Manny out? Just Juan. (canned laughter)

But seriously though, knockouts do terrible damage to the brain. So why did he lose? Some commentators suggest Manny wasn't "hungry" anymore and his success made him complacent. Mommy Dionisia (Manny's mother) blames the pastors and attributes Manny's previous success to his Christian faith. Manny is "born again" you see. Somehow I find the former more convincing. I don't think an omnipotent and all-powerful God gives half a rat's ass about a boxing match.

The Philippine Star has an article suggesting the loss is a "national day of mourning". Excuse me? Hundreds are dead in Compostela from a huge typhoon and a boxer's loss is cause for national mourning? Come on people, get a grip. Fans online and in social media are all upset and crying. Well, if you project all your "pinoy pride" on one person, it's bound to disappoint you.

I never got the whole "I'm proud to be a Filipino because of Manny Pacquiao" thing. I mean, I just don't get it. My mind struggles to make logical connections between being proud of your collective race because of the success of an individual. Does his success imply all of us make good boxers? That cannot be true. Does it imply the drive to excel and succeed, as exemplified by him, are traits exclusive to Filipinos? That's not true either. Does that mean we "produced" a champion like Manny and therefore we should be proud of ourselves? Nah, if you recall, it took a foreigner named Roach and another foreign promoter to recognize Manny's talent. If anything, we should be proud that our poverty and wretched living conditions forced Manny to punch people for a living in the first place. Is that the point? I hope not.

My bold prediction that Manny Pacquiao will be the next President is a bit less likely now.

Pestilence and Plague

I just received a new board game today called, Pandemic. It's a four player cooperative game wherein players work together to cure four diseases ravaging the world. It seems pretty neat.

I will test it later.

Rurouni Kenshin Live Action Movie Review

 

You've read the manga and you've seen the anime series about a thousand fucking times on Studio 23, now it's time for the live action movie adaptation of Rurouni Kenshin or Samurai X! Lucky for us Filipinos, this movie is now available here for viewing if only for a week. I saw it yesterday at the earliest possible opportunity not because I'm some sort of super fan, but because I want to avoid, as much as possible, the super nerds who will no doubt be cosplaying in the theater and making "Squee!" sounds whenever something romantic happens.

The movie is historical fiction taking place in Japan right after the Japanese civil war. Himura Kenshin is a wandering swordsman, or "ronin", who used to be notorious killer "Battousai the Slasher", but has given up killing to walk the path of peace. Yeah, I know that's technically a spoiler but did you also know Snape killed Dumbledore and "Rosebud" was a sleigh? Christ, you should know this by now. 

Instead of telling you what happened, I suggest you go see it if you're a fan. Here's the quick: 

The Good

If you're a fan of the anime or the manga, you won't be disappointed. The movie here is faithful to the source material. Sure, there's very minor deviations but it's not the terrible and distracting kind.

The actors play the characters very well and convincingly I might add. The characters are exactly what you expect them to be. While all things were great, the performances of the actors playing Sanosuke and Kanryu Takeda were awesome and really stood out. I can't believe how movie!Sanosuke could be so much better than anime!Sanosuke. In the anime Sanosuke was just a boisterous brawler/jobber who, in fairness, had his moments but was always kinda... lame. In the movie, you'll whoop and cheer as you watch him swing his gigantic blade (yes they put that in) and punch people in the face. He's loads of fun. The villain Kanryu is just amazing. In the anime he was always kind of just a generic, corrupt "businessman". In the movie, he is the biggest scumbag I have ever seen. He was a slimy, no-good, loathsome weasel who had morals lower than a snake's asshole. He was so over the top, I laughed my ass off and thoroughly enjoyed watching him be evil.

The sword fights were pretty cool in retrospect. I didn't enjoy them at first but I guess my expectations were unrealistic. I was expecting Keshin to leap up in the air with wind effects while shouting, "Hiten Mitsurugi Style! Ryutsuisen!" while kanji flashed on the screen but they went the "realistic" route instead. I'm glad they did because I was stupid.

The fan service was kept at tolerable levels which is a good thing. I was worried that it was going to be over the top, like a fan service scene happens and the fans all cheer but the regular viewers would just shrug and wonder what it was all about. But really, the story is kept tight with no needless stuff taking up the time. Everything had a purpose.

The music was nice. No out-of-place crap like J-pop or stereotypical Japanese flute and shamisen. 

The Bad

If you're not a fan or don't know anything about Samurai X, you won't get a lot of enjoyment from this film. You'd probably find it good at best, average at worst.

I don't mind subtitles but did they have to make it bone white? I could hardly read it sometimes and the font size was  a bit too small. At least color it yellow or be artistic about it like Day Watch.

This is a story thing but I wish the characters Megumi and Sanosuke had at least one scene where Megumi would tease Sanosuke and stuff. I always found those little things interesting in the anime series. There should have been character interactions other than Kenshin and Kaoru.

I'm just gonna say this but although Saito was awesome in this movie, his big sword scene in the end was kinda lame. I won't say any more.

The sword fights could have been better. I know what I wanted was silly but I think that it could have been improved.

In conclusion, I enjoyed this movie and if you liked the series, you will too. It's a faithful adaptation and a lot of fun.

Watch it early and don't let inconsiderate jerks in the theater ruin it because there will be jerks.

I'm Alright

The Calm

So far, it hasn't been so bad.

I was expecting heavy rain but the rain has been light though unceasing. Maybe there was no need to worry after all. I guess it must be worse elsewhere. In about a quarter of an hour from now the storm should be below Cebu on the map and will pass at about nine tomorrow in local time. It's windy and cold. It's nice weather to sip some nice hot soup and curl up in bed. At least I have an excuse to do that now with no guilt.

I hope it stays this way through the night.

A Storm is Brewing

A typhoon is heading straight through the Philippines in a day or so. Typhoon Pablo is said to be as strong as Typhoon Ruping and has about as much water as Typhoon Sendong according to the local papers. I think its just typical media scaremongering but still, the thought of a typhoon having the combined strength of those two typhoons is frightening.

 

I have hazy memories of Typhoon Ruping. I think I was just a year old when the most devastating typhoon ever in Visayan history pierced through the heart of the Philippines. All I can remember is the terrible howling of the wind outside and the rattling and creaking of the house as if it would soon be torn from it's foundations to be blown away like many of the trees outside. I think I remember the clanking of pots and pans in the kitchen as they were tossed about from the strenth of the winds. Its telling that although I remember very little of my experiences as a child, I can still recall huddling in complete darkness as a storm raged outside.

 

Is Pablo going to be as strong as Ruping? I hope not. Will it have as much rain as Sendong? I really hope not. This house is prone to flooding. What I want to do is buy a whole bunch of sandbags to keep the water from pouring through the door. I think there's some people near the Velez bridge who dig some out from the river to sell. I'm not fully confident it will work but even if it doesn't, its worth a try. But my mother says sandbags are probably expensive. She conceded that there was nothing we could do and that we should just pray. Now, I'm no "angry atheist", but if people's reactions towards impending, foreseeable calamities is to just pray to God instead of doing actual things, its no wonder tragedies keep repeating themselves. This kind of stuff can be seen in social media and forums on websites about the typhoon but I digress.

 

Either way, this aren't looking good.