Damn internet got funky again. Looks like there's work to be done.
This is the preview of the hot matchups in this Week 8 on the NFL:
Giants vs Steelers: Both teams have played well so far, barring a few distractions and key injuries. Now that they colide, only one will have a good start on the toughest part of their schedules.
Bucs at Cowboys: The Cowboys are hurting rather badly with Tony Romo out with a broken pinky and they had a horrible defeat vs the Rams last week. I'm not kidding around, it was horseshit and the Bucs are looking to get them into a even deeper hole. How will Dallas respond in its darkest hour yet?
Chargers vs Saints: This is the NFL's second venture at London and it's faring well so far, even more with a do-or-die game for both teams. The Saints got smacked by Carolina and the Chargers don't look good following their defeat at the hands of the Bills (Insert classic Mr. Burns face with the word 'Excelent' here >:3). Who's gonna bounce back and who's gonna take the fall in England?
Bills at Dolphins: This is a good time as any for the Bills to assert their hold in the AFC East. They now enter the divisional stretch and Miami is not going down without a fight. A must-see.
Falcons at Eagles: This is a true test to see if the Falcons are contenders or pretenders. The Eagles have done quite well after a bye week under Andy Reid and McNabb is looking to clip the Falcons' wings. Will Matt Ryan and the crew smack them with an upset special?
Jaguars vs Browns: An important game for Jacksonville if they want to keep their playoff aspirations. Following the saga of Kellen Winslow II, the Browns are having a tough time and unless they have an answer for what ails them, things will get worse before they get better.
Rams at Patriots: The Pats look well enough after they blown away the Broncos, but they're minus Rodney Harrison and Lawrence Maroney. The Rams want to score themselves an upset trifecta and possibly fight for a playoff spot if all goes well. A surprising game with a lot at stake for both teams.
Colts at Titans: As usual between both teams, it's gonna be a dogfight. But this is one that the Titans can actually win, go on undefeated and with a solid hold over the AFC South. Now's the time for Peyton Manning to show his mettle or Indy is gonna have an even tougher time getting back to the race.
Review tomorrow, I promise! >_<
sábado, 25 de octubre de 2008
miércoles, 22 de octubre de 2008
Busy weekend
Sorry for not putting in the NFL week preview, but on Friday the internet got funky and on Saturday I've gone out in the afternoon. But I'll deliver it this Saturday. :P
Well, it was a busy weekend. On Friday my big bro and I got down the road to San Diego for the Weezer concert at Cox Arena. A few months ago we had gone to see The Cure and it was a kickass concert, although best of luck asking me for pics on that one, since my bro took 'em on his cell phone. We went there almost at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and we were in line for almost 1 1/2 hours crossing the border because apparently US Customs decided that having 3 booths would be a lot better than having 5 to speed up the process. That's stupid.
At any rate, we went on route towards San Diego, listening to Green Day and later on the 91X radio station when we were close to the San Diego area. In this concert we got to the floor area, which meant we were close to the action in this concert, so we had a much better view than on the bleachers in The Cure concert. There were 3 bands that opened up the concert, one of which was Angels and Airwaves; it had some good music going for it and I believe it has some potential to be good.
Past 9:18 pm, the concert got underway and it rocked. I think Weezer is one of the better bands out there; they're not plastic nor are they plagued by the pop syndrome that other so-called 'bands' like Sum 41, Maroon 5, Good Charlotte and others have. Rivers Cuomo is a very fun-loving headsman as any you have seen on other bands and I could tell he enjoyed performing as the band took SD by storm. It went on for a bit more than 2 hours and it was pretty cool. It felt good being close to the action every once in a while and so my bro and I got to the long drive home listenning to Metalica and grabbing some soda to keep us going. Was I tired.... ___-___
On Saturday, we were getting ready to do some work on a rave event that happened on a event club. My bro and me had agreed with a cousin of ours that we'd help out by giving the tickets and the stamp for the juvenile attendance that got down and dance and drink beer and other stuff. We were right next to a Quinceañera (The Mexican equivalent of Sweet 16, except we do it 1 year earlier), that was full of people that you'd mistake for a chalino one (Google it if you wanna know what it is) and at first it was peaceful and all that. It was slow when we began working at 8:00 pm and slowly but surely people came. The one suck-ass problem is that a crossroad got closed for repairs and it was hell trying to get to the place without going to the other side of the state or getting lost, which made me wonder why did the State Government chose that day to work on roads. Between 10:30 - 11: 30 in the night we got a spike of more young people comning in and it looked swell, giving tickets and stamps so that they can come and go as they desire.
This was probably my first real experience of being at work with something, although I've yet to find that which corresponds my studies. XP It was a bit tedious, but good; however, the lack of booze (ie: drinking it) kinda was bad and we didn't eat much of anything either which made me a little bit frizzled. Finally, we ended it at 2 o'clock at dawn and counted the money. It was a flop, but not a total flop as we feared when we made counted the assets, so as my brother notes they need to organize better, have a few more sponsors and try not to aim too high. It's good if you want to try to get a 1000 people (and hence a lot of tickets), but aim too high and you're in for a big fall. I'm still waiting for the pay, since my big bro has gone on another business trip. We were even more tired than when we went to see Weezer, so on Sunday I took it easy, watching NFL games. My bro had to do his work on that day, but what are you gonna do? x_x
Well, that's all I can say about my weekend. Hopefully, I'll turn in a review tomorrow. :3 Come December, we're gonna go to Los Angeles for the Oasis concert. Man, what a trip it's gonna be. @_@
Well, it was a busy weekend. On Friday my big bro and I got down the road to San Diego for the Weezer concert at Cox Arena. A few months ago we had gone to see The Cure and it was a kickass concert, although best of luck asking me for pics on that one, since my bro took 'em on his cell phone. We went there almost at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and we were in line for almost 1 1/2 hours crossing the border because apparently US Customs decided that having 3 booths would be a lot better than having 5 to speed up the process. That's stupid.
At any rate, we went on route towards San Diego, listening to Green Day and later on the 91X radio station when we were close to the San Diego area. In this concert we got to the floor area, which meant we were close to the action in this concert, so we had a much better view than on the bleachers in The Cure concert. There were 3 bands that opened up the concert, one of which was Angels and Airwaves; it had some good music going for it and I believe it has some potential to be good.
Past 9:18 pm, the concert got underway and it rocked. I think Weezer is one of the better bands out there; they're not plastic nor are they plagued by the pop syndrome that other so-called 'bands' like Sum 41, Maroon 5, Good Charlotte and others have. Rivers Cuomo is a very fun-loving headsman as any you have seen on other bands and I could tell he enjoyed performing as the band took SD by storm. It went on for a bit more than 2 hours and it was pretty cool. It felt good being close to the action every once in a while and so my bro and I got to the long drive home listenning to Metalica and grabbing some soda to keep us going. Was I tired.... ___-___
On Saturday, we were getting ready to do some work on a rave event that happened on a event club. My bro and me had agreed with a cousin of ours that we'd help out by giving the tickets and the stamp for the juvenile attendance that got down and dance and drink beer and other stuff. We were right next to a Quinceañera (The Mexican equivalent of Sweet 16, except we do it 1 year earlier), that was full of people that you'd mistake for a chalino one (Google it if you wanna know what it is) and at first it was peaceful and all that. It was slow when we began working at 8:00 pm and slowly but surely people came. The one suck-ass problem is that a crossroad got closed for repairs and it was hell trying to get to the place without going to the other side of the state or getting lost, which made me wonder why did the State Government chose that day to work on roads. Between 10:30 - 11: 30 in the night we got a spike of more young people comning in and it looked swell, giving tickets and stamps so that they can come and go as they desire.
This was probably my first real experience of being at work with something, although I've yet to find that which corresponds my studies. XP It was a bit tedious, but good; however, the lack of booze (ie: drinking it) kinda was bad and we didn't eat much of anything either which made me a little bit frizzled. Finally, we ended it at 2 o'clock at dawn and counted the money. It was a flop, but not a total flop as we feared when we made counted the assets, so as my brother notes they need to organize better, have a few more sponsors and try not to aim too high. It's good if you want to try to get a 1000 people (and hence a lot of tickets), but aim too high and you're in for a big fall. I'm still waiting for the pay, since my big bro has gone on another business trip. We were even more tired than when we went to see Weezer, so on Sunday I took it easy, watching NFL games. My bro had to do his work on that day, but what are you gonna do? x_x
Well, that's all I can say about my weekend. Hopefully, I'll turn in a review tomorrow. :3 Come December, we're gonna go to Los Angeles for the Oasis concert. Man, what a trip it's gonna be. @_@
miércoles, 15 de octubre de 2008
Beast Wrestler - Quickie review
Well, reviews were lacking a bit, so I have a quickie this time around.
I'll talk about Beast Wrestler, one of the various games brough by Telenet Japan for the Sega Genesis. Telenet brought some games with Wolfteam such as Final Zone, Sol Deace, El Viento and Ernest Evans; most of them are good, but a few of them are bad and Beast Wrestler is one of them.
Basically, great beasts are fighting each other in a large ring and they do it by wresting. The 1-player story mode (Or Career Mode if you like) gets you into the fray as you buy your beast from a merchant and you become its manager as you train it to become the Dragon Warrior (No relation to the NES RPG games). First you must win the regional tournament that pits you against other beasts and then you fight at the main event to obtain the title of Dragon Warrior. Yeah, that's all there is to it to the story.
The gameplay... well, let's just say it could use more variety. With the D-pad you move your beast around the ring. A button lets you throw punches, B is for the tail whip and C is for your special attack, which is active when you see an A symbol on your side of the screen. Depending of the beast you've chosen (This goes when fighting vs the CPU or a friend), it has a set number of LP, which indicates your endurance and SP, which can give you an idea how long will it take for you to get your special attack. When you grapple your opponent, you have the option of biting its head off or squeeze with your tail. If you catch it from behind, you can use a body slam, although it's hard to do that since your enemy moves away to prevent you from slamming its ass to the canvas. :S
Where it suffers the most is when you grapple. You don't have many options to begin with and even when you develop your monster on story mode, you're not gonna get more, which sucks giant ass. You're stuck with the biting and tail crush and while you can squash your opponent or give him a headlock while they're down, those are all the moves you have available. By current standards of wrestling games, Beast Wrestler is sorely lacking in this deparment.
The graphics are okay, for the most part. The beasts are detailed enough and at ringside you can look at the crowd as they cheer on during the fight, although they're pretty small (Hey, you're like Godzilla after all). The music isn't bad, but there isn't much variety on it; nothing memorable, really. And the versus mode suffers from boredomitis, since with the limited repetoire of moves can only do so much damage and it can take a good while before you get the Life Spheres of one of the beasts into red, meaning it's a step away or two being beaten. It takes a lot of effort just to reduce one part of the life bar and more often than not either player will win by decision depending on how much damage you did, but you don't really get to see how much. You'll turn it off after a round or midway through and that's all the 'fun' you're gonna have.
At best, Beast Wrestler is mediocre. There isn't much to write home about for this game and lo, it gets a 5/10. If you want real wrestling, try some of the NES games like Tecmo Pro Wrestling or the older Wrestlemania games. Beast Wrestler isn't really worth your time.
I'll talk about Beast Wrestler, one of the various games brough by Telenet Japan for the Sega Genesis. Telenet brought some games with Wolfteam such as Final Zone, Sol Deace, El Viento and Ernest Evans; most of them are good, but a few of them are bad and Beast Wrestler is one of them.
Basically, great beasts are fighting each other in a large ring and they do it by wresting. The 1-player story mode (Or Career Mode if you like) gets you into the fray as you buy your beast from a merchant and you become its manager as you train it to become the Dragon Warrior (No relation to the NES RPG games). First you must win the regional tournament that pits you against other beasts and then you fight at the main event to obtain the title of Dragon Warrior. Yeah, that's all there is to it to the story.
The gameplay... well, let's just say it could use more variety. With the D-pad you move your beast around the ring. A button lets you throw punches, B is for the tail whip and C is for your special attack, which is active when you see an A symbol on your side of the screen. Depending of the beast you've chosen (This goes when fighting vs the CPU or a friend), it has a set number of LP, which indicates your endurance and SP, which can give you an idea how long will it take for you to get your special attack. When you grapple your opponent, you have the option of biting its head off or squeeze with your tail. If you catch it from behind, you can use a body slam, although it's hard to do that since your enemy moves away to prevent you from slamming its ass to the canvas. :S
Where it suffers the most is when you grapple. You don't have many options to begin with and even when you develop your monster on story mode, you're not gonna get more, which sucks giant ass. You're stuck with the biting and tail crush and while you can squash your opponent or give him a headlock while they're down, those are all the moves you have available. By current standards of wrestling games, Beast Wrestler is sorely lacking in this deparment.
The graphics are okay, for the most part. The beasts are detailed enough and at ringside you can look at the crowd as they cheer on during the fight, although they're pretty small (Hey, you're like Godzilla after all). The music isn't bad, but there isn't much variety on it; nothing memorable, really. And the versus mode suffers from boredomitis, since with the limited repetoire of moves can only do so much damage and it can take a good while before you get the Life Spheres of one of the beasts into red, meaning it's a step away or two being beaten. It takes a lot of effort just to reduce one part of the life bar and more often than not either player will win by decision depending on how much damage you did, but you don't really get to see how much. You'll turn it off after a round or midway through and that's all the 'fun' you're gonna have.
At best, Beast Wrestler is mediocre. There isn't much to write home about for this game and lo, it gets a 5/10. If you want real wrestling, try some of the NES games like Tecmo Pro Wrestling or the older Wrestlemania games. Beast Wrestler isn't really worth your time.
domingo, 12 de octubre de 2008
Quickie NFL preview
I graduated Friday night and I had some drinks on the side too. It was a nice day overall and yeah, now I finished college and should vie for a job. Looks like I'm gonna check my sources for that. :P
I'm gonna do a quickie of Week 5 on the NFL today.
Baltimore at Indy: The Colts are still hurting despite their comeback against the Texans, and the Ravens had come off difficult defeats on their previous 2 losses. Sparks are gonna fly.
Carolina at Bucs: The Panthers have their best start thus far and want to keep going. Will the Bucs stop them from gaining hold of the NFC South?
Oakland at NO: Kiffin got axed and the Raiders look to start from scratch now. The Saints may make them suffer following their terrible defeat at the hands of the Vikings.
Texans vs Dolphins: The Wildcat, or single wing formation, or whatever you wanna call it, has worked so far with the 'Phins and they want their next victim. The Texans are gonna play with more than a chip on their shoulder if they want to win this one at home.
Broncos vs Jags: This is a big one for the Jaguars as they go at Denver. How will they contain Jay Cutler's aerial attack?
Cards vs Cowboys: They may be 4-1, but Dallas may be in for a world of trouble if the Cards paste them like Steven Segal beating up punks in his prime. Can their defense step it up? And, can Tony Romo stop trying to be Brett Favre Mk. II?
Pats at Bolts: It may not have the luster it had at the beginning, but it's still a significant game for both teams. The Patriots are looking for a tie with the Bills and the Chargers need to win this one to keep up with the Broncos. How will both teams respond?
Enjoy your games!
I'm gonna do a quickie of Week 5 on the NFL today.
Baltimore at Indy: The Colts are still hurting despite their comeback against the Texans, and the Ravens had come off difficult defeats on their previous 2 losses. Sparks are gonna fly.
Carolina at Bucs: The Panthers have their best start thus far and want to keep going. Will the Bucs stop them from gaining hold of the NFC South?
Oakland at NO: Kiffin got axed and the Raiders look to start from scratch now. The Saints may make them suffer following their terrible defeat at the hands of the Vikings.
Texans vs Dolphins: The Wildcat, or single wing formation, or whatever you wanna call it, has worked so far with the 'Phins and they want their next victim. The Texans are gonna play with more than a chip on their shoulder if they want to win this one at home.
Broncos vs Jags: This is a big one for the Jaguars as they go at Denver. How will they contain Jay Cutler's aerial attack?
Cards vs Cowboys: They may be 4-1, but Dallas may be in for a world of trouble if the Cards paste them like Steven Segal beating up punks in his prime. Can their defense step it up? And, can Tony Romo stop trying to be Brett Favre Mk. II?
Pats at Bolts: It may not have the luster it had at the beginning, but it's still a significant game for both teams. The Patriots are looking for a tie with the Bills and the Chargers need to win this one to keep up with the Broncos. How will both teams respond?
Enjoy your games!
miércoles, 8 de octubre de 2008
The importance of NOT being idle
Well, I screwed up with the driving portion of my license test and I have to try again next Monday. Got a little too nervous and messed up a few elements, it won't happen again. >_>
Well, I write something of my life. I have to say that being lazy and idle doesn't constitute for anything good in life, mainly because we could be doing a lot of important stuff we should do, going somewhere, doing your job and other things that should matter. I say this because I'm going to do some of the Community Service I didn't complete while in college and it has come back to bite me for being lazy. When you gotta do things, they have to be now; at the moment they have been given to you, you have to get them done. But being the lazy asses that we are as a species, we either put them at the backburner, skip them or forget them altogether and that isn't the way to go. Sure, there's other stuff we need to do and it's understandable, but if there are other things that really matter and we have to take responsability for, I say they must become your highest priority. If you don't, they'll come back to haunt you and bite you in the ass.
It's important to know that the best thing to try and combat laziness is to do things. Anything goes, just as long as we get to them nicely. Once we finish all your important activites you'll have plenty of time to rest, so take it from me since I've learned that the hard way. Don't be a lazy guy like me, learn from your mistakes, do your job and you'll be fine. That's what I wanted to say.
Tomorrow I'll give you guys a review. Wait for it.
Well, I write something of my life. I have to say that being lazy and idle doesn't constitute for anything good in life, mainly because we could be doing a lot of important stuff we should do, going somewhere, doing your job and other things that should matter. I say this because I'm going to do some of the Community Service I didn't complete while in college and it has come back to bite me for being lazy. When you gotta do things, they have to be now; at the moment they have been given to you, you have to get them done. But being the lazy asses that we are as a species, we either put them at the backburner, skip them or forget them altogether and that isn't the way to go. Sure, there's other stuff we need to do and it's understandable, but if there are other things that really matter and we have to take responsability for, I say they must become your highest priority. If you don't, they'll come back to haunt you and bite you in the ass.
It's important to know that the best thing to try and combat laziness is to do things. Anything goes, just as long as we get to them nicely. Once we finish all your important activites you'll have plenty of time to rest, so take it from me since I've learned that the hard way. Don't be a lazy guy like me, learn from your mistakes, do your job and you'll be fine. That's what I wanted to say.
Tomorrow I'll give you guys a review. Wait for it.
sábado, 4 de octubre de 2008
Vehicular bullshit, NFL Week 4 preview and a manga recommendation
Stupid car, didn't run. Of course, the radio was on, but did the car stayed like that when it's supposed to? No. Now I'll have to wait to get my license on Monday. Piece of shit.
I'm gonna do a double feature today. Week 4 preview on the NFL and a manga recommendation 'cause I like you a lot. :P
Chicago vs Detroit: It's the first game in the post-Matt Millen era and the Lions want to start off with the right foot against the Bears. Here's hoping Millen sticks to being a sidelines commentator. God knows one team had enough with his incompetence; why should another one hire him while shootimg themselves in the foot?
Seattle at NY Giants: The Giants are fresh from their bye week and look strong thus far. Can Seattle get quickly back on course before things get worse?
Washington at Philadelphia: The Redskins want to show the league that their win at Dallas is no fluke and they're looking to get the Eagles into a hole early. McNabb and the crew must bounce back following their loss to Chicago on Sunday Night.
Tennessee at Baltimore: The Titans want to keep going as an undefeated team and it looks like Vince Young wants to get to work in order to get his job back. The Ravens must pick up the pieces and stay strong unless they want a repeat or worse when they played the Steelers.
Tampa Bay at Denver: The Bucs sucker-punched the Packers with a good win now they're gonna try and smack the Broncos in their teeth. If Denver doesn't recover from the gargantuan upset they suffered at the hands of the Chiefs, there will be blood.
Buffalo at Arizona: The Bills are the second unbeaten team and they visit the Cardinals at the hot desert on Arizona. How will the Cards handle their beating at the hands of the Jets? Will Buffalo take heart of that game? (Go Bills!)
Steelers at Jaguars: Both teams come from overtime wins and they now face off after last year's playoffs. A hot, recent rivalry to be sure. Will they meet again in the post-season as well?
My recommendation for this week is... Houshin Engi.
I read this manga 4 years ago and to tell you the truth, I loved it. It was a pretty unique take on one of the legendary tales from China, made by mangaka Ryu Fujisaki.
Read this copypasta snipnet from Wikipedia:
The 23 manga book series follows the adventures of Taikobo and his trusty "Rei-jū" (霊獣, "Rei-jū"?) ('Spirit Beast' or 'Riding Beast') Sū-pū-shan (四不像). Taikobo was given a mission by Genshi-tenson (元始天尊) (Taikobo's mentor and the leader of the Sennin (仙人) World - Konrong (崑崙)) to complete the Hoshin Project.
The goal of the Hoshin Project, as explained by Genshitenson, is to trap Dakki and her minions in a 'middle' world between the Sennin World and the Human world, renamed 'Shin' (神, 'Shin'?) (Deity or Gods) World (Named 'Shinkai' in the English version). Taikobo's mission is to hunt down the 365 people whose names were written on the Hoshin Scroll. As Taikobo defeats and seals off each of the 365 people on the scroll, their souls are instantly transported to the Hoshindai (a floating island made to trap souls) and sealed there for all times.
At first, it does begin with Taikoubou (the MC of the story) getting started with the Houshin project and from the first volume, we begin to see how the story unfolds. I must note that the anime released 3 years into the manga's run takes several departures from the plot and there are many key differences as it progresses in the story (Dare I say can you spot them all? :P). Taikoubou himself is anything but typical when it comes to Shounen manga main characters, namely with some of his madcap, zany schemes, he doesn't shy away from doing a few underhanded tactics when he needs to and he adds what few protagonists deliver: humor. Some of his schemes and tactics get to be so low that even a few of his allies boo him because of it, especialy Suupuushan. Over time, though, you can see his commitment and his looking out for this allies and friends and probably an element that makes him shine is his unyeilding determination to make a better place of the Human World even when things get to be grim.
The manga has a plethora of characters that grow on you the more you see them and their different motivations as the plot advances whereas the anime cuts them in half and takes several departures from the source material as mentioned above. Perhaps one of the greater antagonists I've ever seen, Dakki may well be Taikoubou's polar opposite and it shows well at the first 5-7 volumes. Her cruelty, along with her beauty and her intelligence add to one of manga's more memorable antagonists and gives HE a particular dimension whereas other villains may seem unidimensional in contrast to her complex characterization.
The art is quite good for its time (It ran from 1996 to 2000, just so you know); the characters do look true to type with plenty of detail in the backgrounds and various scenes when the story takes place. The mystic aspects of China's storied past meet with the technological advances of the future (At least where the Kongrong mountains are concerned), but interesting enough it doesn't make it look like some futuristic tale that embelishes a legend by pure aesthetic appearance. As expected from shounen action manga, you'll see blood in good detail, but not scary as to make it into a seinen manga or anything like that. While the anime catches on with some of the stuff seen in manga, it pales in comparison to the source and ultimately you'll have enough after watching it once. There is plenty of battles and action that can keep any shounen fan quite satisfied, making it stand on even ground with other manga like Bleach, Naruto, Dragon Ball and others and more often than not you'll be hooked into the story as you read it all the way to its conclusion.
Kudos to Ryu Fujisaki for creating such a fascinating story and perhaps one of the best manga ever made. It is highly recommended you find it, buy and read it. If not, you can always Google for One Manga. It's 23 volumes long and you owe it to yourself to check it out. n.n
Whew! That's enough for today, I say.
I'm gonna do a double feature today. Week 4 preview on the NFL and a manga recommendation 'cause I like you a lot. :P
Chicago vs Detroit: It's the first game in the post-Matt Millen era and the Lions want to start off with the right foot against the Bears. Here's hoping Millen sticks to being a sidelines commentator. God knows one team had enough with his incompetence; why should another one hire him while shootimg themselves in the foot?
Seattle at NY Giants: The Giants are fresh from their bye week and look strong thus far. Can Seattle get quickly back on course before things get worse?
Washington at Philadelphia: The Redskins want to show the league that their win at Dallas is no fluke and they're looking to get the Eagles into a hole early. McNabb and the crew must bounce back following their loss to Chicago on Sunday Night.
Tennessee at Baltimore: The Titans want to keep going as an undefeated team and it looks like Vince Young wants to get to work in order to get his job back. The Ravens must pick up the pieces and stay strong unless they want a repeat or worse when they played the Steelers.
Tampa Bay at Denver: The Bucs sucker-punched the Packers with a good win now they're gonna try and smack the Broncos in their teeth. If Denver doesn't recover from the gargantuan upset they suffered at the hands of the Chiefs, there will be blood.
Buffalo at Arizona: The Bills are the second unbeaten team and they visit the Cardinals at the hot desert on Arizona. How will the Cards handle their beating at the hands of the Jets? Will Buffalo take heart of that game? (Go Bills!)
Steelers at Jaguars: Both teams come from overtime wins and they now face off after last year's playoffs. A hot, recent rivalry to be sure. Will they meet again in the post-season as well?
My recommendation for this week is... Houshin Engi.
I read this manga 4 years ago and to tell you the truth, I loved it. It was a pretty unique take on one of the legendary tales from China, made by mangaka Ryu Fujisaki.
Read this copypasta snipnet from Wikipedia:
The 23 manga book series follows the adventures of Taikobo and his trusty "Rei-jū" (霊獣, "Rei-jū"?) ('Spirit Beast' or 'Riding Beast') Sū-pū-shan (四不像). Taikobo was given a mission by Genshi-tenson (元始天尊) (Taikobo's mentor and the leader of the Sennin (仙人) World - Konrong (崑崙)) to complete the Hoshin Project.
The goal of the Hoshin Project, as explained by Genshitenson, is to trap Dakki and her minions in a 'middle' world between the Sennin World and the Human world, renamed 'Shin' (神, 'Shin'?) (Deity or Gods) World (Named 'Shinkai' in the English version). Taikobo's mission is to hunt down the 365 people whose names were written on the Hoshin Scroll. As Taikobo defeats and seals off each of the 365 people on the scroll, their souls are instantly transported to the Hoshindai (a floating island made to trap souls) and sealed there for all times.
At first, it does begin with Taikoubou (the MC of the story) getting started with the Houshin project and from the first volume, we begin to see how the story unfolds. I must note that the anime released 3 years into the manga's run takes several departures from the plot and there are many key differences as it progresses in the story (Dare I say can you spot them all? :P). Taikoubou himself is anything but typical when it comes to Shounen manga main characters, namely with some of his madcap, zany schemes, he doesn't shy away from doing a few underhanded tactics when he needs to and he adds what few protagonists deliver: humor. Some of his schemes and tactics get to be so low that even a few of his allies boo him because of it, especialy Suupuushan. Over time, though, you can see his commitment and his looking out for this allies and friends and probably an element that makes him shine is his unyeilding determination to make a better place of the Human World even when things get to be grim.
The manga has a plethora of characters that grow on you the more you see them and their different motivations as the plot advances whereas the anime cuts them in half and takes several departures from the source material as mentioned above. Perhaps one of the greater antagonists I've ever seen, Dakki may well be Taikoubou's polar opposite and it shows well at the first 5-7 volumes. Her cruelty, along with her beauty and her intelligence add to one of manga's more memorable antagonists and gives HE a particular dimension whereas other villains may seem unidimensional in contrast to her complex characterization.
The art is quite good for its time (It ran from 1996 to 2000, just so you know); the characters do look true to type with plenty of detail in the backgrounds and various scenes when the story takes place. The mystic aspects of China's storied past meet with the technological advances of the future (At least where the Kongrong mountains are concerned), but interesting enough it doesn't make it look like some futuristic tale that embelishes a legend by pure aesthetic appearance. As expected from shounen action manga, you'll see blood in good detail, but not scary as to make it into a seinen manga or anything like that. While the anime catches on with some of the stuff seen in manga, it pales in comparison to the source and ultimately you'll have enough after watching it once. There is plenty of battles and action that can keep any shounen fan quite satisfied, making it stand on even ground with other manga like Bleach, Naruto, Dragon Ball and others and more often than not you'll be hooked into the story as you read it all the way to its conclusion.
Kudos to Ryu Fujisaki for creating such a fascinating story and perhaps one of the best manga ever made. It is highly recommended you find it, buy and read it. If not, you can always Google for One Manga. It's 23 volumes long and you owe it to yourself to check it out. n.n
Whew! That's enough for today, I say.
viernes, 3 de octubre de 2008
License!
Tomorrow I'm gonna get my driver's license. I should probably get ready for it, since I'll be able to drive more freely, atlhough if I want to check out some bars, I'd need money. I really gotta pressure my big bro to make my curriculum. I need a job ASAP!
At any rate, my birthday is on Sunday! Tomorrow I'll make the NFL preview and a manga recommendation as well. Cheers!
At any rate, my birthday is on Sunday! Tomorrow I'll make the NFL preview and a manga recommendation as well. Cheers!
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