Me and WJ went on a camera frenzy, capturing almost all the cosplayers we met as we wandered around aimlessly before the May’n concert. We were quite late though, for most cosplayers would have already went away from the main cosplay event about 2 hours back. Nevertheless, we did pick up some great looking ones…

*spilt coffee* Final Fantasy!

*nose bleeds* ..so…this is what a Kaimen Rider gets after joking around in a “beetle” suit…

*purposely spills coffee* poser kia…

*no more coffee to be spill-ed* …front-stage

still front-stage ><” (quite creative and funny ^^)

this is what an A-LAWS pilot would see if he’s lucky

this is what an A-LAWS pilot would see just before he got his butt kicked

this is what an A-LAWS pilot would see if he wants to whoop back Exia’s butt ( note: aim the fleshy neck)

Then there was a young singaporean band playing about 5 well-known japanese songs (UPDATE : the band name is Quis), among them “Alones” from Bleach and “Poison” from GTO. I have to say, they put up a great live-band performance. Me and Fad recognised the guitarist as a ex-schoolmate. Plus, the vocalist was really not bad…

UPDATE : 50 secs of Quis goodness

And of course, about 20 minutes later came the upcoming queen and current galactic fairy May’n !

(background info : She’s the singing voice for Sheyl Nome in the recently concluded hit anime Macross Frontier. Her singles have been hitting 3rd place in the Oricon charts…mean feat for a 18-year old!)

She was enthusiastic in addressing the crowd (“many,many people” she said), the crowd loved her, many were belting out “May’n!”s, her showmanship was great, her moves were slick, the dancers were really in synch with the star, the lighting was impressive, her vocals were near-perfect for most songs….but it seemed like everyone tried hard subconsciously to ignore something glaringly…obvious and irritating. The stupendous BASS!!! Argh! The BASS was so loud, sometimes it obscured her voice and worst still, the music itself! But let’s be thankful…the big screens helped a lot to give another viewing perspective from the sea of human heads, and we couldn’t help but to give some cheers and claps for May’n because the crowd was really supportive and enthusiastic and the ambience was just…nice – not to mention, I’m her fan myself. I really hope she recognises us S’poreans as a legion of die-hard fans!

as ironic as it seems, she appeared at 7.20pm. And nope, I chose to respect the rules…so no May’n pics! (UPDATE : She actually appealed on her blog not to upload pics/vids of her performance as it may hurt the chance of the managers arranging a comeback)

UPDATE: Oh yes, forgot about the song list…being the usual STM me…

Roughly..

1. Welcome to My Fanclub’s Night! ( the obvious choice for the opening song ^^….her voice needed some warming up in the beginning, but took off thereafter…)

2. What ’bout my star (I think this was sung, but certainly not as the last song…..the all-powerful bass destroyed this song somewhat…of course, her voice was still unwavering, her bridge was captivating and when she stretched the “starrrr”, my heart just turned mellow)

3. Infinity

4. Yousei (it came to my realisation that this song is prolly the hardest to sing in terms of the range needed to cover; she did some mistakes but capped it off with a nice overall performance)

5. Diamond Crevasse (the ambience somewhat suited the song pretty well, for that particular 4 minutes or so…quite a feeling)

6. Northern Cross ( It seems that the crowd anticipated this one…it is after all one of the last of her “legacy” in MF, and the beat had some people actually nodding their heads!)

7. Don’t be late ( The crowd went “Mottekeiii!” in unison. and oh, just before the song, the star on the stage asked who she is, and everyone shouted many emphatic “May’n”s! Fantastic crowd ! And it’s “Ma-y-N” btw, as taught by the star herself…)

She really did sound as well as her CD cover..heck sometimes even better, especially with those top pitches…really destined to be a star in the near future

Forgetting about the awful bass which literally shook the ceiling, it was certainly a night not to forget. All the effort mustered in going down was all worth it. Never get the VIP tickets? It’s alright, because May’n..no, Sheryl-san rocked the whole house.

UPDATE : More pics! This time on the exhibits and models!

Valkyrie Profile iirc?

D-Grayyy.. (oh)..maannn odex is here XD

Code Geass!

Super Saiyan! BTW, I’m quite sure many DragonballZ fans are in gaming fever. YES, Dragonball MMORPG coming soooon ^^

Masked Rider…the good days…

]]> http://firestingerx.wordpress.com/2008/11/23/mayn-live-and-afa-2008/feed/ 2 firestingerx http://firestingerx.wordpress.com/2008/07/19/amd-vs-intel-whats-next/ http://firestingerx.wordpress.com/2008/07/19/amd-vs-intel-whats-next/#comments Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:07:49 +0000 firestingerx http://firestingerx.wordpress.com/?p=51 ]]> Economics stuff wasn’t really what I have in mind to kickstart my blog again, but I thought (honestly) that this may at least get some readers to my blog.

AMD, the perennial underdog to giants Intel, just posted a straight 7th month loss, accumulating more than 1 billion dollars in losses and resulting in a change in leadership from Hector Ruiz to Dirk Meyer. Hector Ruiz was the one who led AMD to the heights of the Athlon first 64-bit, integrated-memory-controller fame, only to see it crumble now, because of a controversial, expensive buyout of graphics company ATI and the late release of new processors (Barcelona) which churn out lower-than-expected performance. Dirk Meyer sure do have an uphill task on his shoulders. But to any fanboy onlooker yearning for AMD to pick itself up again and provide real competition to Intel’s domination, the things AMD need to lookfor now cannot have been much clearer. As someone who hasn’t got a formal education in economics but is somewhat aware of its dynamics, I thought the following can help AMD get out of the blackhole it has gotten itself into.

For the short term, AMD really needs to:

1. Something already in the works…Sell away non-core business i.e. the consumer unit making graphics solutions for handphones and high-definition TVs (Imageon and Xilleon). By selling them, AMD can raise more money to write off the goodwill debt arising from the purchase of ATI and start a period of profitability for AMD.
2. Get that Asset-light strategy right. Whatever that means. It may be good to get on with selling away some of the under-utilised fabs or fab equipment that would incur maintenance costs and leave the actually fab manufacturing to third-parties.
3. Now that consumer graphics are off AMD’s headache, time to make out which markets to really zoom in. Mid-range desktop, laptop and server lines are the way to go.
4. Change its stance in marketing AMD platforms (AMD processor and chipset). Sell their platforms not just by their superior integrated graphics performance (which is undoubtedly much better than Intel’s), which may only confuse consumers. Make a point that an AMD chip can do what it does well too. Why a Ferrari when you can also drive a Hyundai to your destination?
5. Launch 45nm Shanghai chips successfully and convincingly in big quantities in the channels before 2008 ends. Paper launch is unacceptable. This would put a foot into the market before Nehalem arrives in 2009. Shanghai has shown about 15% improvement over Barcelona and this would at least match AMD’s quad-core chip to Intel’s hugely popular Q6600 and allow AMD to sell higher-clocked chips. 45nm dual-core flavours will also be available to give consumers more choice and compete with Intel C2D.
6. Continue to build on the recent home-run successes of the graphics cards line led by 4850 and 4870 by getting 4870×2 on time.
7. Actively release drivers that will really uncover more performance out of the 4000 series graphics cards, especially in CrossfireX mode, to sustain the appeal and momentum 4850 and 4870 has generated.
8. Release low-power, very affordable graphics cards which promises good performance (inherited from 4850) for the OEM market a.k.a. 4650 that would set a new benchmark for entry level gaming cards.

The long term goals should roughly be..

1. Guide 45nm process to perfection, with high K-metal gates ready to go. This would not result in a repeat of the clock scaling and power consumption problems of 65nm process for Barcelona and Phenom.
2. Keep on track for Fusion which would be a true 64-bit, x86 CPUGPU chip, not a sytem-on-chip like that of the impressive Nvidia Tegra and upcoming models by Via and even Intel. Fusion will constitute a whole new line of chips (and source of income) that may revolutionise computing with its promises on radically better performance per power consumption.
3. Produce a totally, radically new microarchitecture that will not at all be a follow-up design to K10. Just like what Intel did from Netburst to C2D.
4. Get Fusion on the right trackfor laptops, then the desktop.
5. Fusion.
6. Continue on with Fusion no matter the outcome.
7. More creative and convincing advertising, which has been seriously lacking thus far.

The rise of Dirk Meyer is not without its critics. Dirk Meyer is a great and proven chip designer, but even though his resume include a degree in business, a chip engineer and hard-core business pro are not the same. It remains to be seen how Meyer will guide AMD back to its heydays, let alone out of the current situation, but he will certainly give AMD a fresh voice and younger drive to survivability and sustenance.

Quite true to fans’ deliberation and speculation, HEART STATION was released on March 19th 2008 in Japan. Which naturally means this post comes in awfully late for a review on Utada Hikaru’s latest album, but I’m gonna get over with this anyway.

Before the album was released, 4 songs were pre-released as singles. I had to re-evaluate of my allegiance for Utada (as a fan, duh) when I first listened to them (they didn’t struck me as impressive), but slowly, I grew along with that Utada-style that has captivated legions of international fans – interesting mix of Pop, RnB and electronica coupled with vocal superiority.

Subsequently came the thought on how the 4 songs would complement each other in a full album, and it didn’t take long for them to be furnished in a nicely-balanced album which sticks to a central theme of life and the world, and most importantly… it sounds pleasant to the ears. However, this album is everything but an evolutionary step. While the previous album ULTRA BLUE (which I enjoyed a lot) encompasses songs of vastly varying styles (from ethereal Pop to beaty RnB to strictly electronica to slow ballads), HEART STATION is more laid back and seems more like an album stuck between the land and sea. It’s still a great album worthy to be on Utada’s discography, nonetheless…

1. Fight The Blues (4.5 out of 5)

What’s up with the word “Blue”? It’s everywhere in Utada’s world. But none of that thought came when the song started. This has to be an exceptional OP song. It is strictly synthesized, and is masterly crafted at it. The song started off with much energy, then drops a bit before springing back with the excellent bridge, where Utada seems to be in suspense amidst a captivating echoic breathing background. The chorus was not that impressive but it was a great album opener. And oh, most fans would remember the song Exodus while listening to this one.

2. HEART STATION (4 out of 5)

The album’s named after it…probably for a reason. Maybe it is the most meaningful of them all lyrically, I’m not sure. For someone who appreciates most of J-music by its face value, I’ve learned that the metaphorical nature of the lyrics culminated in the mysterious but mildly hopeful ambience emanating from my speakers. In fact, HEART STATION’s music video means a lot by portraying a solitary Utada in a train of black human figures : either the song is strictly for the lonely soul yearning for that special someone, or it’s for someone who has fallen asleep at Boon Lay and just ended up at Pasir Ris station.  Nice and rememberable chorus, by the way.

3. Beautiful World (5 out of 5)

Beautiful World is notable for being the experimental song. The nice experimental song. Its predecessor is BLUE in ULTRA BLUE, and both of them share this unique natural aura that makes you feel out of this world. In the case of Beautiful World, one would feel himself running through a lush sunny field of green grass, but nearing the chorus, dark clouds start to take over signifying the darker times in life, before they disperse and hence, life returns to normal. To portray this, Utada unleashes the whole range of vocals and left listeners in awe. Seriously. There are intriguing highs and lows throughout, and Utada hits them all perfectly. The instrumentals in the background are in total tandem with her already-beautiful vocals and so, this sums up yet another great pop song.

MORE COMING UP SOON

One series that I’m currently following is….

Allison and Lillia

A heartwarming series on how two orphans, Allison and Will from the country Roxche, were reunited in a twist of fate in the search of a treasure…. rumoured to be able to stop the 2 major warring worlds, Roxche and Sou Beil, from their Cold War-like stance. Their backgrounds and past interestingly involved people from both countries; Allison being a junior Roxche air force pilot who had letter exchanges with an “enemy” pilot, and the fact that they were raised by a renowned philanthropist from the enemy state Sou Beil, thus putting them in a favourable position to explore the unknown in enemy territory. With more twists of fate and luck, coupled with the overly-optimistic Allison’s prodigious piloting skills, and Will’s impressive IQ, an adventure like never before is bound to happen. Plus, the plot is set in the 1940s (think biplanes, water-planes and aerial dogfights), which makes it all the more interesting.

Arsenal just could not cope with the surging runs, tenacity and enterprise of tough-tackling Anderson, who looks set to replace Scholes anytime. For once, it was Man Utd who was running the show for Arsenal, with short passes well strung together and the traditional runs from the attacking right and left defenders being fully appreciated.

Rooney scored the first goal with a good header. After some effort from Man Utd to swing the ball into the penalty area from a corner, Anderson was on hand to head the ball towards Rooney, who in turn directed the ball past Lehmann.

Nani, in Ronaldo’s total absence, delighted the crowd with a piece of trickery; he sidestepped a defender to the crossline before faking a cross, and finally duly delivered a nice cross for Fletcher to head in – possibly with a little bit of help from Gallas’s head.

Rooney had a couple of chances, with crosses coming from Park and Fletcher. While he did very well to control the ball and get between the towering Toure and sturdy Gallas, his final finish was wide of the mark.

Carrick showed his vision and trademark pass to pick out Nani, who was then making a surging run to the left, chested the ball and smacked the ball to the right. 3-0 to United within the first 35 minutes of first half and United was in cruise control.

Arsenal’s misery piled up when Eboue was sent off for a high-legged challenge on Evra when they were battling for an aerial ball on the 49th minute, before Nani again turned provider, executing a couple of sidesteps into the penalty area before unleashing a high cross to the far post for Fletcher to convincingly head in the ball. 4-0 to United.

It was the style of play that used to be a trademark of Man Utd and it remains till today, but even the first team hasn’t played as convincingly as today’s supposedly second team. Man Utd fans and non-fans alike will agree that Man Utd’s performance today was simply breathtaking.

…btw, beta version is a version of a program which is still under development. Hence, Firefox 3 Beta 3 means it is still being tested, and it is in its 3rd form. There is no fixed number of betas before the final completed program is released, and so far, Firefox betas are fully functional enough to be used as your one and primary web browser…

For a casual user, Beta 1 and 2, with all those new and improved oblivious features like increased security against malware, viruses and other threats, one can only observe better loading times (partly thanks to memory leaks being ‘plugged’) and better rendering of websites previously less nicely intepreted by earlier versions (thanks to the adoption of the ‘Gecko engine’ that runs the new Firefox).

With Beta 3, for once, I had difficulty trying to adapt to the removal of the Home button from the main navigation bar, though I’m perfectly fine with it after a few tries. Beta 3 also had a newly-rendered forward/back buttons that adds a sense of sophistication, and downloads progress are now shown in the right side of the bottom bar (besides the page loading progress bar). Also, not forgetting a further 1000 changes over Beta 2, which includes about 350 plugs for memory leak and fix for stability issues.

Click on the picture for a better view!

Beta 3 still retains the new changes from the previous betas. The address bar conjures a drop down menu showing the websites related to the word being typed in the bar, complete with the website icons and a star – to indicate whether it has been ‘favourited’ – beside it). The downloads manager still has the search box, which filters through the downloads on-the-go according to the word being typed.

Performance-wise,the 1000+ changes are not certainly not redundant in reducing loading times, though the amount is not that great with some websites – but then, you can’t really complain, as the new firefox is still significantly fast enough. Only a few plugins can work now (vs. none in Beta 2), and so far only StumbleUpon works for me – don’t think about trying MSN, Yahoo and other Web 2.0-related plugins as Beta 3 is not ready for them yet.

Also oblivious to many is the new-found ability to take on the thematic/graphic settings of the different OS it is operating in, much like a chameleon : it will look different in Windows vs. Linux, Windows XP vs. Windows Vista, Ubuntu vs. other Linuxes.

*** Update

How can I forget about the link to download?  Click here to get your copy!

Be sure to take note that it will overwrite your current version of firefox but bookmarks etc will be untouched and still rendered usable in the new firefox 3 beta. I’ve been using firefox 3 beta as my primary web browser with absolutely no qualms.

So..as promised, here are some of the best instrumental songs that the great anime Eureka 7 has to offer.Featuring the very original works of Naoki Sato, also known for his contribution to Neon Genesis Evangelion and more recently, Heroic Age (both animes btw).

They’re guaranteed (depending on how you see them) opuses of psychedelic excess, simple yet nice melodies, or simply mindless yet relaxing japanese singing that are sure to guide you peacefully though your book, mugging or sleep =)

Click here to launch the player!

 Here’s a quick guide of what you’ll be listening to:

1. Long Journey : A pleasant song with a nice thumping beat which seemingly tries to make you sway as if you’re really on a long, lazy journey
2. Just in the Centre of the Earth : Yet another nice song with a mild and slow tune that will slowly melt your heart
3. Warmth within Hopelessness, However : With this song, you can always catch the tune of hope in the midst of despair
4. Below the Sky,the Earth is Connected : The kind of song with a mellow and soft tune that is very eager in revealing something that is seemingly little yet so powerful in our lives.
5. In the Sea of Memories : A song bursting with both vigour and sorrow in the best moments encompassing the later part of Eureka 7- which every fan would love to reminisce every now and the.

My preference for a blogging service has always been a user-friendly and highly editable blogging platform like wordpress and to a lesser extent, Blogger. And backed by a reliable, free and not to mention, ad-free hosting service. I was previously on a great one, until they started imposing ads on every single page. That kinda screwed up the blog’s theme. Exasperating for a quick fix, i hopped onto a few services at the same time (talk about kiasu-ism), but was let down by an irritating cookie bug that kept me logged out of the
user logins.

So, i settled on wordpress.com. WordPress is actually installable at any servers, and wordpress.com is really generous enough to also provide hosting space for anyone in need. The drawback though is that the additional functions e.g. counter, stats,
special photo albums are strictly limited to what wordpress.com offers. This kinda writes off the “extremely editable” tag WordPress is well-known for. Nonetheless, no one can beat WordPress.com in terms of nil server crashes and loading times – and that
is enough to win the hearts of many.

Come to think of it, this experience suddenly reminds me of life. All of us have some goals and expectations in mind, and by default, we have to achieve them to garner happiness and satisfaction. But, sometimes, it is really the basic stuff that we’re really
lacking – and those are usually the very stuff that can make us feel cosy with our lives. Finding an ad-free and fast blog hosting (a hard chore at it) had me crawling in the end, only to revert to the “old and basic” wordpress.com for salvation. It’s pretty much the same for life – one can get PS3s,PS2s,PSPs,Wiis and XBOXes for all he can – but many, especially now, grossly undermine the power of love and care with loved ones and those close to us.

As if the apocalypse were descending on us, ODEX began to transcend that line and vowed to hunt down illegal downloaders, by enlisting the services of a company called BayTSP to track down downloads via bit torrent. However, to do so, ODEX have to drag the ISPs to court to be granted the permission to track downloaders’ IP addresses – with the intention of tracking those who are going against copyright laws. And from there, ODEX clearly gained the upper hand, and has since issued the dreaded warning letters “indiscriminately”. With those letters came the statement asking the unlucky recipients to pay up a few thousands in settlement and compensation for various costs (in employing BayTSP and court fees primarily).

The manner ODEX fishes out offenders and slaps them with a “fine” has inadvertently met an uproar in the community. ODEX has since tried to lighten the situation by not issuing the letters to offenders according to backlogged illegal downloading activities, which means past downloaders are spared. However, ODEX still treads on with a serious and unrelenting stance.

Many fans are outraged by the amount of money they may be forced to pay up, or risk facing court action by ODEX. Considering that the number is in the thousands, many are also inclined to believe that ODEX are trying to make some profit and stem losses for the past few years, something which ODEX has denied. Perhaps, more leniency could have been employed, like posting warning letters to particular first-time offenders, and not just vague warnings on forum posts that have extensive but not a thorough reach to the community. Some has questioned their ISPs authority over protecting the customer’s privacy policy, which ODEX has demonstrated to be “assailable”. More importantly, the whole saga raised a common question : does a private company, whether it is part of an affiliation or not, even have the right to claim damages and bring forth infringement cases while acting on behalf of Japanese animation houses? Such is the discernment of some members of the community that ODEX’s recently opened online anime CD store was hacked and its page splashed with questions on its policies [ take a look at Dark Mirage's post ]. To tarnish the already affected reputation of ODEX, warning letters were mistakenly issued to downloaders abroad, resulting in even more uninvited backlash (though they were sent under BayTSP’s name).

My take on the issue? It’s quite simple, really. I see ODEX as becoming an “all-seeing big-brother entity that overlooks the workings of the anime world”, in Singapore that is. It’s pretty much like the Celestial Being in Gundam 00. Here’s how ODEX resembles Celestial Being in real life :

This is Gundam KyriOD. (BTW, that’s a deliberate typo). It travels at ridiculous speeds to deliver you-know-what to targets.

Meet Gundam EXia. The one with the all-seeing eyes. Blue glowing ones to be exact, lit by high-tech LEDs.

When Gundam KyriOD and EXia combines, I am Gundam ODEX!

Looks very high tech indeed.

Teeewww! Got that, you downloader? BTW, that’s not a laser. It’s those signals in cyberspace that only home in on bit torrent users. Those kind that can only be seen using high-tech infrared sensors. Really.

[ some of the pictures are taken from Dark Mirage ]

I firmly believe there are better ways to rejuvenate the anime business. ODEX’s approach can be easily dismissed by anyone as a form of “tyranny”, since they should understand that downloading of anime has become a norm in the whole world – it’s the big reason why there are so many non-Japanese followers – and acting “aggressibvely” will only result in the opposite effect. In fact, if you were to look at RIAA’s war against illegal downloading in the US, a war chest of cash and a lot of paperwork are absolute necessities. It’s really not easy to change something that has become somewhat a norm.

Instead, ODEX should look at providing alternatives that better what torrents are offering. Plus, they should listen to the fans’ complaints all this while. Provide CDs with better picture quality with better and spot-on subtitles. Add to that cheap and affordable pricing, deliberately spark off threads saying that newly ODEX-published CDs are so good in popular forums, and loyal fans will ensue.

ODEX’s new online store, which also offers Video On Demand (VOD), admittedly looks very promising, but only to be bogged down by the lack of choice of animes. Especially so for VOD, it’s a must for new animes and episodes to be constantly added to keep up with the pace of fan-subbers. This is to satisfy the hunger of fans who have already been addicted to the swift avaibility of fan-subs. No wonder some subbers ban those irritating fans who kept asking about release dates from their forums…..

To provide fast updates in the first place, an audacious and ambitious plan have to be hatched. I’m thinking of a “bidding system” where anime publishers bid for fan-subbers’ services, according to their subtitling speed and quality. At least fan-subbers need not worry about losing their status in the anime world. Anime publishers like ODEX will have a wealthy source of quality subbing.

To top it all, for any one of these ideas to become reality, both sides will inevitably have to make compromises. I’m fully aware that given the current situation, my suggestions may not even be taken into consideration, or probably meet considerable objection, let alone take off from the drawing table. There will be gains and losses, but ultimately, satisfaction and a peace of mind will slowly become a normal part of the ever-passionate and loyal anime fan base.

The battle between Clare and Priscilla continues in the same volcanic area, a purposely and decidedly epic battleground. After unleashing a blinding blue energy, followed by the silhouette of a humanoid figure with extra arms , it appears that Clare has actually selectively awakened another part of her body – this time, Irene’s arm and to some extent, her whole being. In the meantime, Priscilla is still very much engrossed in thinking about Clare being Teresa,and the evil Yoma who have murdered her beloved ones. And for that, Priscilla loses no time in ending Clare’s share of limelight by ferociously shooting the green spikes from her wings, but Clare uses her improved technique to evade the attack and launch swift counter-attacks. Clare may seem to be faster now, but Priscilla is up to the challenge, effortlessly twarting Clare’s meelee attacks with ever-slight, lazy movements of her own sword.

Finally, Priscilla manages to grab Clare, and for a moment, I thought she is going to rip her extended arms apart, but somehow after seeing Clare’s symbol, she realises Clare isn’t Teresa – not that she’s gonna forget about killing Clare anyway. She throws Clare down towards the reddish-glow abyss, dives after her and lets green spikes rain down on the helpless Clare. But, another memory flash reminded Clare on avenging Teresa’s death, so she summons up an inspired counter-attack. The thought of Teresa coming up to Priscilla scares her so much , she merely freezes when Clare rips pieces out of her.

Priscilla is frightened to the point that she reverts back to her human form. Clare proceeds to slain her, but Raki finally makes his existence known to the world. He tries to convince Clare that Priscilla is yet another victim of the Yoma – just like him, but when that doesn’t seem to work, Raki hugs her and reminds her of the promise she made and the love they’ve forged in the past; with Clare visibly shaken by the memories. However, when her awakened arms moves autonomously, Jean pushes Raki away from the clutches of death and gets stabbed instead. Clare is then further touched by Jean’s words; on the promise of her own life for Clare, and how various people have sacrificed for Clare to survive all odds, while Jean hangs in the balance between her own life and the Clare’s very own (piercing) awakened arms. Jean unleashes her last bit of Yoki to help Clare un-awaken (just like the last time when Clare saves Jean from awakening), and when she finally did it, Clare is left devastated by Jean’s unevitable death.

Isley then makes an appearance to bring Priscilla out, but when Miria, Helen and Denevie gear up to fight him, Isley simply said sayonara to Raki and -poofs- ….such is the power of the Dwellers of the Deep =p

Meanwhile, No. 8 Galatea uses her long-range Yoki senses to provide some feedback to Rubel, the mysterious hat-clad guy from the organisation. Miria, Helen and Denevie regroups their swords once again as a promise to meet again someday, while Clare grieves at Jean’s grave. Clare gets back to her feet and Raki hugs her again for a -finally- long-awaited reunion. Clare looks back at the grave, and saw the memory of Teresa giving the blessing for her to live on…..

The snapshots of Miria, Helen and Denevie, Isley and Priscilla, Clare and Raki at the very end can only mean one thing…. CLAYMORE SEASON 2! Right, right? But one cannot deny that it’s quite a lousy, let-down ending….but kinda expected it since ending off a high-tense, epic battle , together with a “conclusion” in just one episode is a bit too much. The series ends off like punching a deep crater into the earth, leaving cliff(hangers) all around it. One epic battle down, but what about Isley and Priscilla (they’re about to roam free again – and a promise unfulfilled), the inner-circles of the Claymore organisation, and the fate of doomed, head-hunted Claymores like Clare and co.?

Well, all I can say is, read the manga, whether or not a second series do appear. Though I thoroughly enjoyed the darkness and desperation and battles exclusively portrayed in the anime thus far, the manga should be better off at the expense of papers and trees. And if you’re wondering why I didn’t blog about all those earlier episodes or maybe…I probably got so hyped out about the first episode, got lazy in the middle, and only remembering about the last episode… I mean, c’mon…give somebody who’ve watched all 25 episodes in 3 days a break, yea?

***  Click here…for the whole album!