Shigatsu wa kimi no uso (anime)

The title is: Your lie in April.

Ahem, so before i get on with the review, a few things you should know - the manga is complete, i've not watched the anime yet, very much tempted to though; must read on my list, like, right NOW. Like stop reading this post and go read the manga. Also, it's about 50 chapters, so pretty short. And... spoilers ahead, so don't blame me if i spoil your fun :D

Interesting title in my opinion, considering that this is a piece to do with musicians. SO our protagonist Arima Kousei, is basically a really sad depressed person who can only see in monochrome - like the piano keys he so loves yet seems to keep running away from for some reason.

We find that his world starts to change and i mean literally starts to change when he meets this girl Kaori. It starts off by him seeing color! I feel like its a bit cliche, but considering the kind of plot they're running with, it works pretty well.

Now Kaori is this really happy go lucky person who loves stuffed toys and sweet things. She's also a violinist! In any case, she decides that she wants Arima to play as her accompanist for her performance at some competition.

Arima says he'd rather not, reason being that he can't hear the piano. he says it feels like he's down at the bottom of an ocean, a deep dark ocean where he can't hear anything. The reason he became like that was after his sick mother's death. As the story progresses, we find out that he has this image of his mother and a cat that he had adopted some time in between as his tormentors - they prevent him from playing and for some reason, he keeps imagining his mother as hating him, telling him that this is his punishment.

However, in comes his mother's friend Miss i couldn't be bothered to remember, ahem, but she's a famous pianist and decides to tutor Kousei. Sometime around here, we find out that kaori is actually a really sick person (poor thing) and that she's in the hospital, not totally bedridden, but around there yes. Kousei finds this hard to cope with - her image and the image of his mother overlap and kind of create the stepping stone for him to 'advance' his music.

We find though that during one of Kousei's performance, he realises that his mother doesn't hate him, but that he created her ghost in that image because he was afraid and sad, but most of all, that he was guilty. finally able to let go of all that hinders him, you would think everything's going to go well now!

And it does, Kousei is finally able to admit to himself that he likes Kaori while his childhood friend realizes her love for him and it's like a love triangle. However, the whole time, Kousei never says anything because Kaori is already his other friend - Watari's girl.

In terms of character development of their interactions i would give a 10/10. i mean, it really captured how conflicted people feel, when you find that your world has changed, your horizons broadened, and the person central to all of that is with someone else, but you want to spend as much time with them as you can.

In any case, after all this great development happening and him meeting up with his competition that he was never aware of, things take a turn for the worse. Kaori gets worse. She's in the ICU for some time before she returns and tells Kousei that she's going through with the 'surgery'. now, don't ask me what surgery because i have absolutely no idea. i don't even know what's wrong with her.

But whatever, the date of her surgery coincides with the date of Kousei's final performance in the manga! Now, Kousei after seeing the death of a cat around the time he sees kaori getting worse, gets to him and he kind of reverts back to how he was when his mom died.

In any case, Miss what's her name drags him to the competition and we find that Kousei, instead of giving up or anything of the sort, says 'I have to play'. And this is surprising shocking and inspiring at the same time. and the whole sequence of panels that show his performance are absolutely mind smackingly beautiful and sad. I admit i cried a bit there and somewhere earlier too, it's just that it's so beautifully written and illustrated and the fact that it's almost like you're talking about any other person you know that makes it touch you in a more personal way - you can sort of relate to it.

However, we find that Kaori dies and she leaves behind a letter for Kousei. What's in the letter was shocking, surprising, made a whole lot of sense and kind of makes you look back on all their interactions and kind of go 'oh'. And her letter explains the title.

Trust me, you should read the manga, otherwise i can honestly say you're missing out on something amazing. And currently, it's my favorite manga.

A song that's been on my mind and tugging at my heartstrings

it started gently, softly, thoughtfully, as though telling me a secret - it's secret. the voice grew larger as it builded its argument, gaining momentum as though racing time, growing larger and larger like a tsunami, washing me into its shores without being overpowering or overbearing, simply drowning me with its notes.
sometimes quiet, sometimes erupting with sound, capturing me quickly and quietly so that all i know is the song, the notes, the strings reverberating across the piano. teasing me, racing across notes and picking keys to harp with, calling out softly, yet in a strong and demanding manner, it told me of its love.
Tickling my ears with fingers that deftly pick out notes that run across my ears and tickle my scalp causing me to smile and sigh, making me wait anxiously for the next call. So caught up in the sound, in the notes, the strings, i forget that the song has to end. yet as i wait for the next call, instead of reaching a crescendo, it slows down, becoming softer, gentler as though letting me go - as though bidding me goodbye or kissing me goodnight.

This song had continued to capture my heart and mind for at least a year or two now. Absolutely mind blowing and no lyrics! The original song is called Crush, by David Archuleta. This is a piano cover done by an absolutely amazing artist whose name i don't know and i've been desperately looking around for but welll.... in any case, if anyone finds out who the artist is, will you tell me?

Ahem, so i'm attaching the song via G drive coz i just can't figure out the whole... attaching an mp3 thingy so :/

But, here it is :)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0ud-9xKG-kJSEMzenA0M1BmZ2M/view?usp=sharing

do tell me if the link doesn't work though!

Let's talk music! Review: Nodame Cantabile (anime)

A fun watch if you like piano music <3

So why should you watch this anime? Well, it kinda breaks stereotypes and doesn't act like an 'otome' game (the protagonist is a female character who gets to choose amongst the males she's surrounded by... kinda harem right?), which is why i like it and think it's quite different!

Ahem, our main character Nodame is a woman who decidedly acts like a kid, can't cook, doesn't clean her room or herself for days on end, says 'Gyabo' (literally) when she's annoyed or frustrated or happy - all in all an atypical female character for an anime show, not just because of these characteristics, but mostly because she really doesn't seem to have a goal.

Our other lead protagonist Chiaki, is a man with an ambition, a neat freak, maintains himself, is aiming to be a conductor (though he can't seem to catch a break for whatever reason), can cook and speak in French though he has a fear of any and all kinds of transport other than cars and buses. Apparently, any time he tries to leave any area, he finds that the mode of transport he's using 'breaks down'. This is actually only his imagination, he suffered trauma when he was younger (i won't tell you what though ~)

Now, these two happen to go to the same music school and while Chiaki is given a hard time, Nodame is generally left to play whatever she likes, since she doesn't do well under pressure. It also doesn't help that she has trauma to do with playing classical pieces and therefore refuses to play a classical piece.

It is only after she meets Chiaki that her interest in Mozart and Bach and Beethoven picks up and she is finally put under the tutelage of a very strict instructor. In the beginning however, she simply runs away, until they finally use words instead of violence and sign a contract. From there begins Nodame's true training.

In the midst of all this, a famous conductor comes by after having met Nodame by chance in search for his 'high-school crush'. Nodame being naive, invites him to her place (cough cough Chiaki's cough cough) and Chiaki ends up throwing the man out and warning Nodame.

The next day however, they find out the he's a world famous conductor. Chiaki tries to leave the piano group in order to study under the conductor, however, every time the conductor simply rips apart Chiaki's letter and says that he will accept Chiaki only if Nodame kisses him - this doesn't happen. What does happen though is pretty funny.

We have scenes later on, where Nodame seems to try to communicate with the spirits of the pianists whose compositions she must play after receiving hints from Chiaki, she successfully communicates with the spirits and plays the pieces in a way that sounds like their character.

Of all the seasons (3), i happen to like the Paris chapter best. It takes everything they built up in the first season and puts it to use in the most wonderful way. Ah, did i mention Nodame's an otaku? She's a HUGE fan or Puri Gorota.

Well, if you choose to watch it, tell me what you think :)

Review: Pocahontas (yes, the disney movie)

So, firstly, sorry i didn't post for a few days! Just that classes started in earnest this week and i REALLY need to consider writing drafts and simply editing them and posting them later - anyway, before you say "No! Why a Disney movie?!"

See, i have a course (Maya - the 3D software?) where we're learning how to create effects and dynamics as well as a course that deals with 'drawing for animation', where we're learning about drawing (of course) techniques as well as about different animators and they're styles - i learnt a bit about Glen Keane.

Amazing guy this man. Left Disney though and well... i doubt the 'princesses' or any characters for that matter will be as great as when he animated them :/

So, this brings me full circle - he animated or rather did the character design and animation for Pocahontas. Now, what amazed me was how expressive her face was. I mean, i know i sound a bit ridiculous, but the thing is that there were no lines on her face - i mean, yes she's young, but all the lines he used in total were her eyes, her eyebrows and her mouth. While a lot of people might say it's easy, it's not. i mean, if we compared Pocahontas' character design - her expressions and features to any other character, they don't seem to have as much of a feeling to them as Pocahontas does, which is quite interesting to note especially when you think how they're all in the same movie!

Eyes all over the place, indicative of a certain direction near the other character's eyes, but not. I mean, i probably won't be able to watch films anymore - animation will ruin me, but i think that's okay.

Also, one thing i'd like to point out. In pocahontas, there is this one scene

Now this gif above is apparently one of the only scenes of Glen Keane's that was left as is (he does it in charcoal or graphite and when they convert it to 2d into the movie or whatever, all of the rough lines and shading is cleaned out, that's why all the lines are even) and just looking at that one part and seeing how different it is from the rest of the movie not just in terms of how it was drawn, but the sheer beauty and the feeling that strikes you - how different would Pocahontas have been if Glen Keane's sketches were used without any corrections?

Storyline wize, i have to say Pocahontas is a bit different from all the other disney princess'. Firstly, she's the chief's daughter - equivalent to a princess, but her attire is nothing as such, also, unlike the other princess' she doesn't exactly go through 'hardships' - the evil stepmother or other such stereotypes. Pocahontas confronted the real world as it was and maybe that's why it isn't so popular - they stated it plainly but subtly and loudly through the story that when we can't understand someone or something, there is a niggling doubt in your mind as to their treatment.

Pocahontas though startled initially by the appearance of John Smith, runs away, but once she understood his words, she realized that perhaps they weren't so different - each had something different to share, each was satisfied with the way they lived, but John Smith tried to tell her that her people are savages - what was taught to him, ingrained in him for so long that he thought not to question it. Pocahontas helps him question those 'laws' that were ingrained to him and taught him of a love for nature.

I feel like taking a tumble in the grass too after hearing what she had to say - to hear a wolf howl at a blue corn moon... if only right?

Lastly, the storyline is different from Beauty and the Beast for though there is this kind of 'love conquers all' hint, it's made clear that John has to leave - something that didn't happen with the other princess', leaving in your mind this 'So what now? does he survive? Will Pocahontas end up marrying someone from her tribe?'

But what i love most about Pocahontas' character is that she 'listens to the spirits' to the voices of those around her and then lets them guide her where they may - to where the wind takes her. I wonder if any of us can achieve that in today's world. For those who try, how far can we understand the spirits of the land or are we so lost in ourselves and in finding ourselves that we can no longer hear the call of the spirits?

I like that she isn't 'princessy' - she doesn't wear a gown or anything, but she is beautiful as she is. A child at heart, with the wisdom to understand the world around her with the guidance of the spirits. Lastly, the fact that John Smith leaves gives you this - her first and last love? or the first love of many?

A good watch for those who are looking for something a little different from the regular disney princess'! The quality amazed me - honestly, i mean, it's a 1991 film... but the quality! (i only recently got a new tv, so i only recently discovered 'picture quality')

Review: Chobits (manga/anime)

Not watched the anime, but if you're looking for a cute Shoujo-ish manga to read or to watch the anime, this is one of em.

Now, Chobits are 'human looking robots' with (some amount of emotion built into them) several orders built in based on their function and how humanity progresses with the use of these 'dolls'. Our protagonist finds (in the trash) a Chobit that looks unusual, but finds that she doesn't know anything and there seems to be no information etched into her (let's ignore how he switched her 'on'. please.)

Anyway, the story progresses as they built some sort of relationship together and he teaches her different things. Also, they learn that she has a self 'teaching' feature, meaning that if another chobit performs a task, she will be able to record and remember how to perform the same task.

As the story progresses, we find out that this chobit is a 'special' chobit - one of the first built and designed to be like children. The chobit originally had a twin sister, however, her sister falls in love with their father and eventually dies to heartbreak (wow... what a way to go... i mean... i know they say you can die but still~), however, just before her sister can die, the chobit erases her memories and stores her sister's consciousness in herself and she falls in a deep sleep as her sister dies.

After this, the chobit requires to build new memories, however, everyone who finds her abandons her or throws her away because she has no pre built programs and no one wants to take the effort to help her or 'fix' her.

Further into the story, we find a man who tries to hack into the chobit's database to gain the program that made her. At this point, the Chobit overpowers his servers and we find that she can control all chobits in the world and for a few moments, all the chobits come to a halt.

At the end of the manga, the chobit's sister takes over and tells her current owner that if he chose her sister, that he would never be able to make love to her and also that all chobits would gain a personality of their own - they would be able to love and receive love. if he chose otherwise, all the chobits would stop functioning - unable to recognise even faces.

I won't tell you what he said, but i'm sure you can get a clear picture of what he may have said to that. So, why do i recommend it? Well, i've always found people a bit... much. i mean, i don't mind people online... you can simply block them or log off and problem solved, but in real life it's not as simple. It also interests me - a world where robots that looked somewhat humans could exist and love. I know that i probably sound pretty silly, but doesn't that sound better than today's world?

Well, tell me what you think anyhow ~

Review: Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood (anime)

Another mainstream anime, but this one i guarantee you is a must watch - ONLY if you enjoy alchemy. Also, it's a war anime - so stay away if you don't like blood and gore... mostly lots of blood and dead people not so much gore.

So why is it so great? Well, compared to the previous seasons, this one has better graphics (obviously, it was made recently) AND the story is way way better than back when they were kids - the opening and ending songs are much better and in general, the fight scenes, the alchemy... okay. it's all better.

For those of you who haven't watched the previous seasons of FMA (Full Metal Alchemist), you don't have to worry, since all the references they make in FMA Brotherhood are all explained either before or after the statement or reference was made, secondly, a lot of people die - people you didn't want to as well as people you didn't expect (i will not be giving out names ~).

We have several new characters introduced (surprisingly, not too many to remember, but quite a few) and i'm telling you, the homunculus' just got creepier and far more disturbing than you'd have thought. Pride is a little kid - the major's kid. The major is of course wrath, lust is lust, though i have to admit she feels better finished? now. Then of course, greed died remember? And they found a replacement for Greed! Not nice... but whatever. Gluttony is still annoying, a bumbling idiot (he's nothing compared to Sloth though) and at one point, swallows Ed, Al and Envy. Envy is a tiny worm like thing by the way... he only had the appearance of a human because of the stone (la la la ~) and they get out through Ed's genius! Oh and Sloth's this huge man that hates working, but only does so because his 'father' says so.

Anyway, the anime will give you the feels because it got far more violent - they talk about the war, why people 'officially' hate Ed and Al, why Ed isn't growing and towards the end, Al sacrifices himself to save Ed who then gets back his arm and sacrifices his alchemy - the correct price to retrieve Al's body.

They finally get over their mom (i honestly don't like to think that, but they do), their dad finally meets his end - we have his background story too! (he's a really really REALLY old fart 0.0)

As for the homunculus, we find out that they were originally part of this being that existed in the space where God exists and where Al's body was left. The being thought that if he abandoned all of his 'sins' that he would be like God (wrong since he gets thrown into the abyss) and God wasn't too happy to hear that.

The end is clean, clear and crisp and i have to admit quite fitting. Though a Shonen, it doesn't hesitate to make the characters face things greater than the protagonists can probably face (yes yes, they always do that, but this one's a bit different - it also helps that its a war anime) and also gives the impression that it's okay to cry and ask for help - from wherever. While a lot of people may say that Ed and Al cry because they're still teenagers, i feel that they cry because they understand their emotions and want to be able to respect those they've lost and with that understanding do better to protect those they have (or maybe that's just my reading).

Also, the characters are paired of - no marriage to talk of thank god =.= (or kids)

So, if you do watch it/have watched it, tell me what you think!

Review: Shingeki no kyoujin (Attack on titans) (anime/manga)

Welll.... i haven't watched the entire anime, planning to though, so i won't be able to give you an in depth analysis of the anime.

The artwork in the manga isn't that great... the anime is leagues ahead. Also, the manga takes a month for every update >.>

Anyway, storyline wise i'd say end of the world storyline, where humans or rather 'the last of humanity' was forced into a fort? (it's circular with 3 walls) from where they defend themselves from the titans who are these giant nude beings with no sexual organs. So no one knows how they end up multiplying instead of dying out and disappearing.

Humanity organised itself via a monarchy and there are different divisions in their army (as in real life... kind of borrows and molds things a bit differently which is quite interesting) and our protagonists come from the 'exploration' squad (as i like to call it) which explores the regions around the walls and tries to find out something about the titans - who they are, where they came from and so on. This is so that they can defeat the titans and reclaim the land.

When Eren discovers his latent titan powers, Levi forms a special squad to take care of him called the Special Ops squad. Eren then uses his powers to prove that he can control his titan self and hence not be erased as he would be of great use and not a threat,

As the story proceeds forward, we find out that the titans originate from humans. No one knows how or why, but what they do know is that the area that they cut off at the nape of the neck, is the seat where the person who controls the titans rest. So more questions pour forth - was it a virus? Was it a mutation? What caused certain humans to turn into titans?

The only hint they have so far is Eren's house's basement. Eren only has vague memories of what went on in the basement, but with the key to the basement given by his father as the only clue to find how how humanity ended up this way, they aim for it, but sadly the area where they lived in had been breached by the titans right in the beginning, meaning they weren't sure how they'd get there and stay long enough to find out what they needed.

As if that wasn't enough, every time they seem to get closer to the answers, the more they seem to get diverted from the answers - from the titans attacking, to titans attacking in the night, overthrowing the false monarchy to place 'Historia' the true heir in place, these guys have been way too busy handling each mess that was created to find out what was in the basement. I wonder if they forgot all about it myself though xD

Anyway, worthwhile read if you don't mind blood, gore and action - good amount of comedy, great story line and in addition well picked music for the anime.

Tell me what you think if you've watched it though :)

Review: Tsubasa Chronicles (anime)

Sorry i haven't posted in such a long time! I had so many manga and anime i was catching up on and college just recently started in earnest, so may not post as often as i normally do :(

On with the review then? :)

So, if we're talking anime with some amazing instrumental tracks or with a whole lotta songs on its list, this is one of them. Personally, i love the instrumental soundtracks and also the openings and endings.

A long anime, so if you're one for a long story whose timeline sometimes confuses you and tries to mess with your head, this is it. Parts of the anime don't make sense unless you've watched xxxholic (NOT sexholic. Let's not even go down that road. xxxholic has that name probably because they wanted to draw in a more 'mature' audience... so no, no 'ecchi' or 'sex' scenes. I'm guessing the reason they wanted a mature audience was because of the content - touching on myths, kind of why certain 'rules' came about and why they're still here, etc. I'll do an in depth analysis in a review for it :) ) and cardcaptorsakura.

The reason i'm saying that is because tsubasa chronicles travels through three 'main' time lines that Clamp has already talked about. Cardcaptor sakura is mentioned only towards the end though, while xxxholic is a mention throughout.

So, what's the story? Our protagonist(s) Sakura and Syaoran look eerily like Sakura and Syaoran from Cardcaptor Sakura. However, the timeline is set in an alternate dimension, where magic is 'said' to exist as a possibility. We find that Sakura is the princess of the land and her brother Touya is King (nothing much is mentioned about her parents) while Syaoran was adopted by someone who looks eerily like Sakura's dad from Card Captor Sakura (CCS).

Sakura and Syaoran were childhood friends, still are when the story begins. There is an excavation site that Syaoran is working on and for some reason, Sakura begins to resonate with it, causing her to open up a pair of 'wings' (for got to mention, Tsubasa = wings therefore Tsubasa chronicles means chronicle of the wings) and starts to sink into an emblem that looks similar to her wings when Syaoran barely manages to grab her. The feathers scatter and Sakura looks deathly pale.

Those feathers were Sakura's memories. After being sent to an alternate dimension with a white 'Makona' (a cute rabbit looking like thing that can travel between dimensions with people as well as 'import' and 'export' objects from different dimensions so long as the other makona receives it or gives it. The other one's black and is seen in xxxholic) who if i remember right was given by the 'dimensional' witch (Yuuko san from xxxholic) to aid his search for Sakura's memories.

Of course, as repeatedly mentioned in xxxholic, a 'price' must be paid. In this case, for Syaoran it was his sword, Sakura her memories and two others who join on their journey - Fai loses his tattoo and staff while Kurogane loses his sword.

Now, the reason they were lumped into one group together was because they essentially seek the same thing or rather the person who caused them this misery - a 'shadow' left behind of Clow Reed.

According to the story, Clow Reed loved Yuuko, but after he died and found out that Yuuko doesn't live, her froze her in time to look through all the dimensions, to find one in which Yuuko can still live. Syaoran who is with Sakura was apparently a 'fake', but as later explained was actually Syaoran's father and so we find a second Syaoran with an eye patch who tries to get rid of the first Syaoran because he's the real Syaoran and the other's a fake.

Sakura too was a fake (if you're getting confused, it's because it is confusing, so don't worry ^^) and apparently the fake Sakura and Syaoran were Syaoran's 'parents'. his real parents have his 'other' half Watanuki.

So let me explain it in order. Yuuko knew what Clow Reed's 'shadow' was trying to attempt and for it, he tried to take away Syaoran. So, to replace the Syaoran in her world, she creates Syaoran's 'other' half Watanuki, who remains with Yuuko.

Now, since Syaoran technically doesn't have parents, in an image that he takes out in the beginning when he's with 'princess Sakura' we find at the end has no one in it because no one existed for the photo to capture other than Syaoran.

Syaoran and Sakura are 'stuck' in a never ending cycle where Clow Reed tried to find a dimension in which Yuuko will continue to exist, however, that isn't possible, because once a person dies in one world, technically they will also die in the other 'world' lines. So Syaoran and Sakura travel through several dimensions where they meet people who look like people they've met but actually haven't. The one thing i couldn't figure out was why they never met themselves... unless Makona 'merged' their souls in each dimension they visited so there were never two of them?

Right at the end of the story, we find that Clow Reed despairs that Yuuko is to die and when Syaoran's parents 'die' (i believe the parents were from CCS), the story comes full circle and Yuuko disappears and Watanuki takes Yuuko's place (kind of explained when they say 'everything happens for a reason' in xxxholic).

All of this only becomes clear after you read xxxholic and CCS though :/

So, happy reading ^^

Review: Fate/stay night Unlimited Bladeworks (anime)

Note how i'm very VERY particular about the title. This is the 2014 reboot you could say of the same anime that was released back in 2004 (i think, but somewhere around that time, back then it was just 'fate/stay night'). The story was pretty good... the fighting scenes were... meh.

In the Unlimited Bladeworks version, the story was revamped. there's a better buildup of characters (of course the graphics are much much better, where's the doubt?) personalities, quirks and so on, giving a better insight into the character's mindset. Not just that, but the timeline of the night when our protagonist 'almost' gets killed has also been revamped and is actually far more complex than before - leaving you to wonder how, why, when and who planned it?

Our heroes (the summons) now have better looking equipment, their weapons look far more polished and their attacks are AMAZING. I loved the revamp mostly coz of this! I mean... who doesn't love a great well detailed fight scene?

Anyway, a lot of loopholes were finally fixed and the story seems to be fleshing out way better than back in 2004. This anime i would recommend to Shonen fans who love their fight scenes as well as to those who would like to see a well made anime where the characters are not as stereotypical as they normally would be.

A must watch and sadly I've only watched season 1 (or rather the first 12 episodes~) of unlimited bladeworks as of yet.. so i'm waiting for season 2 to download and for those of you who haven't watched the older version of fate/stay night, DON'T.

And do NOT spoil my fate stay night for me ^^

Review: Coppelion (manga/anime)

The way it starts off, makes it seem like an end of the world anime, but you can't really classify it there and it borders more on sci fi, but one does wonder if a reality similar to what was shown on Coppelion could be true for the rest of the world a few years down the line.

Coppelion has been set in a future where people were and are dependant on nuclear energy, but the story has been set in Japan, specifically Tokyo where the Daiba nuclear plant is present. However, in this show, the Daiba nuclear plant 'exploded' contaminating Tokyo and making it near uninhabitable as shown in the beginning of the manga and anime, where you see old buildings ready to fall apart, a terrible road a few poles around and so on.

In this future, 'dolls' called Coppelion have been created - they look like thinking breathing humans, however, the speciality of these dolls is that each of them have a superpower (varies for each) and they don't suffer from radio active poisoning. This is because each of them had this 'coded' into their DNA.

Disturbingly enough, the Coppelion weren't 'completed' or 'perfected.' in fact, the older Coppelion let out neutrons and can cause radio active poisoning amongst 'normal' people, but stranger than that is that at some point in their short lives, they fall into a deep sleep and die. The cause was never found out.

Amongst the Coppelion, there are different groups - initially the exploration group, then the clean up group and finally our lead protagonists the 'medical' group who are searching for survivors to bring them back to Tokyo.

Our protagonists suddenly find themselves fighting other Coppelion who 'defected' and after just barely getting away from them, find survivors and begin to unravel the mysteries behind the Daiba nuclear power plant as well as why they were created by humans.

This i would classify as a Shoujo manga with action and maybe a hint of romance, which makes it very different from the normal Shoujo mangas out there and also why i'm putting it up as a must read. The point of view that they show via nuclear tragedy is something that people should keep in mind, though take with a pinch of salt. But as a manga, well written and if you're watching the anime, well made, good songs, the action sequences have come to life! But, if you can get the Japanese dub with English sub, it would be better than the kind of out of place English dub.

Note that the manga and anime are on going. Currently, i found the complete chapter list on  mangahere.co

Happy reading :)

Review: Law of Ueki (anime)

This is an anime worth watching. Second only to Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (I'll do a review later <3 ) of course, and maybe a few others.

In this anime, the protagonist has a superpower that allows him to convert 'trash' into trees. One might think that the power is a bit underrated, but with the way Ueki uses it, one wouldn't be so sure. As they start off in the beginning, it would seem like he's your ordinary high school (a bit cliche for anime yes, but if you bear with it . . . ) student, till he finds out that he can convert trash into trees.

As the story progresses, we find out that Ueki is a 'heavenly being', that he can gain alternate skills other than his main power (trash into trees?) and also that his friends or the people he seems to bump into have superpowers themselves and they eventually band together to form a team to take part in the different competitions.

Its worth watching for the songs (i loved the openings and endings) and for those who like action and comedy. This manga is a Shonen manga (lead protagonist is male), but well made and if you're looking for something a bit different, this is it.

A review: Last Notes (manga)

So, i thought about doing something a little different with things i like, so i decided to try and write a review... i'll try regularly writing a review of a manga i've read or recently finished reading.

Last notes interestingly enough seems to have nothing to do with the title, at least as far as i can discern. If i were to accurately describe it, it would be quoting the author "An aromatic love story." quite a pretty way to put it, if i do say so myself and maybe a bit unusual as well.

But i certainly liked the story as well as its pace. The story's theme would be 'incense sticks' which somehow bring our lead protagonist together with the one she likes. Our protagonist is a young (beautiful) girl who lives in the countryside. Upon receiving news of the death of her grandfather (the only family member whom she has), she leaves her home (in the village where she was isolated because the villagers believed her mother was a very promiscuous woman) and follows the instructions her grandfather gives her - to an incense stick shop.

Unsure of what she is to face, she gives a piece of bark to the two men who run the shop after explaining her situation to them and informing of her condition. Interestingly enough, the protagonist has no idea what her Grandfather does for a living or even of the state of affairs of her father or mother.

The two men in the store are kind enough to our protagonist and one of the two men has an excellent sense of smell, one so advanced that he can get sick from smelling something that he thinks smells bad. I feel sorry for him, honestly. This poor guy also loves to pick up stray kittens probably because he sees himself in them . . . his background story's pretty sad.

Over the course of events, the protagonist who was never loved before or 'loved' herself, finds herself in love for the first time and only understand what she feels when her friend puts it in perspective for her.

For a fourteen chapter story, i think its an interesting read for those who like shoujos (female protagonist takes the stage) and romance :)

Thesis: Fairy tales - a blindfold or a bed-time story?

Fairy tales are a convenient blindfold we created to hide from the true face of humanity from our children. The original tales were written by the brothers Grimm and their tales were as grim as their names, if not more. These tales were then re-forged, for something more fitting for a time long past. The question then becomes are they relevant in this day and age? Should they not go back to their originals, the ones that spoke of the truth of the world, instead of letting others hide behind the innocent façade we created, or is it alright to let children discover the lie that we wove for them in the first place?

Fairy tales were originally written for adults, so why is it that we have altered and adjusted them to suit our needs – to show our children a ‘hope’ that is unreal? If for example, we were to talk about the brothers Grimm, their stories always made you question what the real truth was – animals can’t talk, so we eliminated that. Then comes punishment and torture, people abandoning one another, mothers jealous of their children, so on and so forth… this part was probably the most realistic part in the entire tale. Blood and gore, did we not build human civilization on that?

On the other hand, I have to agree that we’re building ourselves up as a ‘prim and proper’ society, but wasn’t there a time when we were truly barbaric? These tales, the best example being red riding hood, tend to touch on those ‘primitive’ or ‘barbaric’ emotions.

The actual story as written by the brothers Grimm stated that red riding hood upon being enticed by the wolf to play in the forest surrounding her path loses track of time and ends up hurrying to her grandmother’s place towards the evening. Upon reaching there, she is asked to partake in meat and wine by her grandmother and discovers that she ate her own grandmother’s flesh by a cat that lived in her grandmother’s house. Red riding hood is then asked to take off her clothes and get in bed with her old grandmother. It is only then that Red riding hood realizes that the wolf she met in the woods earlier was pretending to be her grandmother and so she asks to go to pee. The wolf senses a ruse and so ties a rope around red riding hood’s ankle and only then lets her go. Upon not returning for some time, the wolf calls out to red riding hood and on receiving no answer, goes outside, only to find that the rope was cut. He then chases after red riding hood, but luckily she managed to reach home before the wolf could catch up to her and so the story ends on a somewhat bitter sweet note.

I suppose and perhaps that is the reason why we swept these terrifyingly grim stories under the carpet. So why do we hide this barbaric nature from our children? Why do we make them grow up believing that someone will come save them in their time of need? Is it because we do not wish to show them the horrors previous generations lived through?

Whatever the case may be is it not wrong to pull the wool over their eyes and make them believe in something that will never come for them, that society is as simple as it seems in fairy tales, that there is always a happy ending? In reality, we are aware of what people are like. If fairy tales are what they first read and learn from, should it not make a beginning to help them understand the world better?

Another point I would like to make, is that the characters presented in these tales have little or no detail – there is no background to help relate to or understand them. Is it not odd? It is true, that unless you talk to a person you may never begin to understand them, so why is it that the fairy tales we altered do this? Are we teaching our children to only look at a person’s face value? However, in the original tales, the characters were given some amount of development considering that they were short stories. Then again, when you look at each of the characters more closely, you find that they have only given hints as to the darker aspects of the character and as far as I’ve found, they never label the character as being ‘bad’ or ‘evil’ outright.

This leads me to a similar yet different point – stereotypes. The characters in current fairy tales tend to lean on stereotypes, as though presenting that the world is all black and white and that there are no gray areas. Is that not strange?

In the world we live in, we are clearly aware that there is no such thing as ‘just’ black or ‘just’ white. Very often, we tend to deal with the ‘gray areas’ on a daily basis. Is that why we enjoy oversimplifying the horrifyingly graphic tales that were written by the brothers Grimm because we are afraid or reluctant to face or understand what people might have had to go through, because we had enough and didn’t want anything to do with realism or could it be that we want neat and tidy endings, simple enough for children to understand? Again I ask you, is it alright to let them go blindly into the world, believing in such fantasies?

Why is it then that we continue to cultivate this ‘false’ or ‘misleading’ hope that states that things simply fall into place and that you do not need to work hard or persevere for it? In all the fairy tales that were written recently, we find that things tend to ‘happen’. Cinderella’s fairy god mother gives her clothes. Snow White’s prince saves her. Prince charming always appears on time. The character tends to move in one direction yes, but is it not odd and absurd how things take place? It seems as though all their fights are being fought by an external force for them and that all they have to do, is wait.

Real life is never that ‘lucky’ and ‘fortunate’ or ‘kind’. If we need something or want something, we have to go out there and get it ourselves. So why is it that we’re reading stories to our children, making them believe or rather giving them the hope that they don’t have to do anything and that things will fall into place for them at all times?

All in all, I have to say that while fairy tales make good bases for stories, one wonders if we should keep the fairy tales that we’ve edited. Would it not be better to read the original instead of a fake, if only to get children to understand the real world better?

My friend the sea

Mottled blood that powdered on touch, with fingers stained red I traced the jagged edges of someone’s bite. Sturdy yet brittle a piece fell off. Waves crashed as she called for a game. Protesting for my attention, she called out louder.

Sprayed by the ocean, I giggled and ran. She heaved a warning and I dodged the next spray. She warned me again, but I was caught. Laughter and giggles resounded around us as she called me for the next game.

I ran along the shores, feet digging deep into the sand while dodging crabs that scuttled by. Some hid in their shells and others waved their claws in warning. She roared in laughter and chased me once more, spraying my feet and hair.

I ran, and ran till I couldn’t, and with a fit of giggles, flopped on the sand. Protesting slightly as she bathed my feet, I faced her disgruntled. Drenching me to the bone I let out a yelp of surprise and ran towards her in protest. In apology she held me gently and I settled to listen to her lulling lullaby.

She would tell me of stories of old, of times when I wasn’t yet born as she decorated my hair with seashells, ‘of a time long past when she would wear the most beautiful of dresses for every occasion . . . a dress of topaz blue would be for a nice sunny day, another of a million blues and reds for the wedding of her daughters, another made of corals for festivals celebrated in her realm.’

She would sound sad as she told me these stories, as though those times of long past would never return, for these days she wore a sad blue for the death of her many children and though she weeps for her children, she always smiles for me and spends her time with me, a someone who has no one. But that’s a lie, isn’t it? I have a friend and she’s called the sea.

Of haikus and sonnets...

So, just recently we got back to college after a long break (2 months! muahahahaha) and our facilitator was a word lover (addict sounds more accurate though) and though everything he said was interesting and insightful, i suddenly found that he seemed to be droning on and on and on... i really thought he was boring for a while till i realized that i was just extremely saturated and half zoned out.

Anyway. he told us that to write better or to gain more control over words, we should write 'poems'. not necessarily become poets per say, but just try writing with those constraints. honestly speaking, it wasn't... that challenging, but i did struggle a bit when starting. oh right - we were given 3 choices - a haiku, a sonnet or a villanelle.

i chose haiku. for those who know me, they could easily guess why i chose haiku. for those who don't know me too well, you'll realise that if my facilitator was a word lover, then i'm a lover of most things japanese. funny right?

Which will probably bring you to the question - what IS a haiku?

a haiku is a 3 line poem, with a 5-7-5 syllable requirement, meaning that your first sentence is 5 syllables, second 7 and third 5.

Now, i honestly wonder how they manage to write haikus in japanese because most japanese words are at least 2 to 3 syllables. english isn't any easier. in fact, because english is an 'iambic pentameter' language (apparently, so my facilitator says. or something like that) the syllable count is more 'comfortable' in 10 syllables, so haikus changed to either 6-4-6 pattern or 4-6-4 sometimes.

i somehow managed to write my haikus in 5-7-5 patterns, so do tell me what you think :)

Dusk blossoms orange

Red like fire flowers fall down

Darkness consumes all

  

The moon shines brightly

Ripples form from sakura

Winged fish swim closer

  

Darkness cloaks the night

Where ghost like orbs shimmer bright

Released by sad hands

The haiku above is in reference to the 'bon' festival in japan, where you release lanterns while saying a prayer for your lost ones. i don't remember the equivalent for the bon festival in india, but something similar is celebrated in many countries.

Cold sky blushes pink

Cherry blossoms turn bright white

A dew drop slips down

i'll be writing a few more in the coming week and i'll give my hand at a sonnet or a villanelle, wish me luck!

A little wildlife and a little landscape...

So, i had recently visited Tamil Nadu - beautiful place, but the heat was almost unbearable. I like the cold. Not the wet. The cold. It's nice.

Anyways, here are some pictures i took!

I got to see peacocks. Honestly speaking... they can fly. Like fly 'fly' and not just glide? And they're big... how DO they manage it? Anyways, its really not nice to see them flying around when you're driving and they glide right in front of you to get to the other side of the road.

Always a pleasure otherwise... well... maybe not more than a beautiful landscape.

This reminded me of something straight off of Unreal Engine. For those of you who don't know, Unreal engine is a game making software and just recently they released UE4 which is free! So feel free to check it out - it's the most awesome thing out there. Even more awesome than icecream and that's saying something.

I spotted some birds... ont really sure what they are though soww :(

Also, i don't know why, but this picture looks really really familiar... like someone took the exact same shot and i took it too and yeah... so do tell me if you've seen this image before somewhere ^^

For whatever reason, i found that the peacocks come first and then the peahens. They don't seem to arrive together or maybe they do sometimes but the peahens get annoyed by the peacocks strutting about and so don't come together? Who knows.

The things you find when you're bored...

Hi minna! (everyone)

so, i was sitting at the passport office yesterday, bored out of my wits and took out an itsy bitsy drawing pad that i usually use. Now, this one i hadn't seen in a long time, so i was rather surprised by my findings as well as impressed that i managed to draw (vaguely) a male character who actually looks the part for the first time.

Yes, i was obsessed with mermaids... i drew quite a few now that i think about it.

Anyway... for some reason... she reminds me of Moka's 'evil' or original half from rosario vampire (the image on the right). i really don't know why i think that, but i just do.

 











Also, i drew something like an angel... i'm guessing this was around the time i was reading the 'Fallen' series. Really nice series, must read if you like fiction and romance!




























And finally, the first male character i have succeeded in drawing in a manner that looks like he's male xD

Yes, i like mythical or magical creatures if that's what you're thinking. in any case, all of these were 2-5 min drawings - the mermaid took 5 minutes, the angel took about 2 minutes if i remember right and the elf took me about 4 minutes.



Also, i draw far far better with a pen than a pencil, i still haven't been able to figure out why though.... maybe its that with a pencil even if one makes a mistake one can simply erase it so one does not take it very seriously, however, with a pen you either cover up the mistake or include it to become a part of your drawing or it could just be that i'm not comfortable using pencils...

Mermaid - to animate or not to animate?

So, i was looking through some of my older drawings and i found this one:

This one's one of my personal favorites, probably because this is one of the first drawings in which i managed to add 'emotion'. i drew this remembering the fun times i had during the flash mob we had during my school event called 'tapestry'.

So, i redrew her after looking at some blender tutorials - think i'll be able to do it? :)

And yes, i agree i just can't seem to draw hands. which is rather ironic since i can draw my own hands pretty well :/

Well, whatever. This was the first time i drew her back, i have to admit that it looks pretty okay XD











Well, let's see how well i can render it :)

Also, maybe in a few weeks time, i'll be uploading some more of the knitted stuff i made - hope you like it :)

A little bit of material exploration... or is it product design?

So... we just finished another of our five week courses, this one was called 'illuminated structures'. i could easily guess why i was placed there (this time wasn't a sign up, but the courses are chosen for us based on what we displayed during the time of our interview when we first joined the school), reason being that during my interview i had displayed a doll made from a tetra pack, with string, a straw and a pencil - no glue was used as per the rules.

i named her Kreide - this is what she looks like!

So, the tetra pack is her body, pinched in the middle to give her a waist. the head is just a small ball of wool and the hair i braided using embroidery thread. after i put it on the ball of wool, i stitched it down using a pink embroidery thread so it looked like it was some sort of hairband.

The belt around her waist is a braid made by using 'doug's braid'. it's a seven loop braid and kind of hard to make since you can't really take a break in between and it takes time. but it's fun to do and worth the effort in my opinion.


the hands i made i breaking a pencil and then wrapping it with wool after making holes in the appropriate places in the tetra pack. the dress too was made by using embroidery thread simply wrapped around. honestly speaking, i didn't think it would stay. i had my doubts.






The second reason was that i had made 'pinhole' drawings not originals of course - based on anime characters with the help of a print out and they loved it!

This is what they look like when lit up!

This one is from a series called 'Ah! my Goddess' and from the one on the extreme right is Urd, in the center is Belldandy and i kinda forgot the left most one's name....

This one's from an anime called Inuyasha - the one at the bottom is Kagome and at the top, holding the sword is Inuyasha.

This girl is from an anime called card captor sakura (i liked the manga and the movies more though... they were so... touching :') ) and obviously, the girl holding the staff is sakura and if you can identify a tiny creature waving from her right shoulder, that's kero.










Those were probably the two reasons as to why i was placed there and i was pretty excited as well!
of course, i didn't expect that we'd make products of anything, but i was definitely looking forward to what sort of explorations we'd do related to light.

our first assignment was to draw structures and identify how they were put together - through welding or screws and so on... the point was to understand how structures are made and with that understanding probably use it to make something. i wasn't that far from the truth... but it also made me learn a few other things.

Yes, it's kind of obvious that making a product is not as easy as you think... but, the amount of forethought that tends to go into it is rather amazing when you try to figure out how and why things were put together the way they were, the number of failures they must have gone through before they found the perfect design... how they thought about the ergonomics (an applied science concerned with designing and arranging things people use so that the people and things interact most efficiently and safely) and as a result might have compromised on the aesthetics to a certain extent.

The next assignment was similar to the first... we had to figure out how things were put together and then 'check' if we were right.

this was the drawing i made by guessing what must have been inside the boombox.

there were time when i wanted to open certain parts because it was only then that i realized that though i had used this product often enough, i knew next to nothing about what might be its contents...

and at that point i realized that very few of us understand and actually 'see' like the avatar 'i see you' see products for what they are and their value.

considering that we use some products very often, do you not find it strange?







and so, i reached a point where i could finally... dismantle it and all my assumptions about not understanding the product came true.

And so i felt kind of silly by the end of the assignment, but definitely gained more respect for those who designed these products, i suddenly realized how hard it might be to make a beautiful finished product.

After this, we were then asked to draw out the 'floor plan' of the second floor of our college. Sounds simpler than it seems... you see, most structures would try to go with a conventional design that is easy to see on a floor plan, however, in our college, part of the walls start extending outwards, this meant that some of the pillars or beams had been displaced on that side.

Which as we began to draw out confused us and made little to no sense.

This was the brief sketch i made at first for the basic layout plan... it looks very unstable... however, once drawn in scale, it looked... normal, relatively.












in this drawing, we were expected to place furniture, the brick partitions as well as the actual layout. And so i did...

After the struggles of making this, we were then expected to draw out the structures of 'organic' structures. Sounds nice and fun like a biology class i guess... however, we were expected to draw what we thought was the skeleton of the tree or plant was in straight lines and then over it place an ohp sheet and draw out the actual tree or plant as we see it.

This was far easier than when we were trying to draw the layout of our school since we could see the entire tree as well as a closeup. the hard part was trying to figure out whether or not you wanted to split a curve into two lines or make it a single line as well as how accurate you wished to be.

Anyway... after having my pride cut down, we were asked to make 'something', literally anything from mount board, masking tape, twine and a coconut broom. This was given to us after we were asked to look up some architects and designers and i was quite inspired by Antoni Gaudi as well as Frank Llyod Wright's 'Falling water' and was thinking of making a 'building'.

This was my initial design, since i wasn't exactly sure what i wanted to do.

i openly admit that i had absolutely NO idea what i was trying to achieve or what i was trying to draw... so let's not go there at all.

what i started doing and what i ended up making... well, i'm not sure how that happened either.






So i started by making the 'dome' that would be mostly made of glass or something which would be right at the top. the technique i used was similar to basketry, except instead of using bamboo slivers OR cane, i used the coconut leaf broom's sticks.

After i looked at this, i realized that it wouldn't stand on it's own or hold it's shape unless held i place as seen on the right. but this meant that i couldn't use it as a dome for the top of the building... also, the more i thought about it, the more i realized that as a staff top it would look far better.

so... i attached the stem of the staff. but because of the height, it felt off mostly because the top wasn't big enough or flashy enough to off set the size of the length of the staff and make it look normal. in the end, it looked something like this -

it looked quite nice as it was, but of course i still wanted to improve it, so i gave it a coat of paint...















And it looks like this!

   

A little after this, we decided to explore 'lights' and how to light things...

This was created by using a white LED torch on two sheets of glaze paper - one red and one yellow. the closer the torch is to the color, the more vividly it shows.

In this case, i wrapped a chart paper around the camera lens and took a photo of the LED torch from above, to see how much light would be shown and how well it would capture it.

This one was simply crumpled glaze paper, under which i placed the LED torch to see how much i could crumple it and as you'll see in the next image how the glow of the light could change because of that.

this was a small object i made, wanting to see or know how the light would reflect off of surfaces especially if i would make a lamp a little later.

Now we had reach the third week and had to decide and design what we would make. The first decision we had to make was whether or not we wanted to make something that was utilitarian. the more i thought about it, the less appealing making something utilitarian sounded. so instead, i decided to make something that was not utilitarian while at the same time having a back up plan in case what i wished to do wasn't possible.

my backup plan was making a statue from shattered glass - something along the lines of making an ohp sheet base to work on and making it almost like a cubist product.

i admit that it looks kind of silly and quite childish, but i love anime things, so i guess i wanted something like an 'anime girl' for my statue... though i wasn't a 100% sure how it would turn out, but sure that it would work.
















my actual product that i decided to design though, was a staff. i've always wanted one so i decided to make one.

When i first tried to design my staff, i found myself leaning towards the conventional designs that most staffs have, till i realized that i just needed to look for inspiration.

my inspiration became more defined as i tried to understand what i was looking for. as i drew these designs, the things in my mind were - wings, buds or flowers, trees and patterns created by creepers or vines.

This design came from a little bit of inspiration from an anime called Tsubasa Chronicles (Chronicle of the wing)




this was my inspiration and what helped fix my final design:

The final design ended up looking like this:

Once i got a green sign for it, i began to discus materials...

At first i thought i would make the stem of the staff using metal and give it a coat of papier mache so as to give it a 'woody feel', make the orb of the staff with wire and cover it with plastic. the wings on top were to be made with either ohp or acrylic sheets and at the bottom a similar setup was to be made.

however, it was pointed out by my facilitators that i could use bamboo since that could be bent using something called 'heat treatment' you use the same method when you wish to bend metal pipes as well.







And So... making a teeny weeny prototype began. while making this prototype, i thought 'What if one could put lights in it and have switches? This meant that i'd need to carve 2 holes into the bamboo and insert all my wiring on the inside, which was a nice idea, i just wasn't sure how well it would go.

For my teeny weeny prototype (i'm going to start calling it proto now) i decided to make the ball from wire. While wire manipulation is a bit hard, i somehow managed to get it to resemble a ball of some sort, but then as i tried to cover it either from the inside or the outside, neither seemed to work.

Assuming that it was just the plastic that was not as mold-able as clay, i gave up. I tried a different attempt with paper by trying to make a paper ball, but even that didn't seem to work since the effect i wanted and the effect i got were completely different, i kept it as a back burner option.

After i made several realizations - from how am going to connect my top to my bottom, to how do i cover my orb? - i kept them in mind as i chose my materials.

While we had a second round of material session discussions, one of my facilitators said "You could wrap jute rope dipped in glue around a plastic ball and when it sets, you could cut the ball in half and stick the two back together"

I liked the idea, but not the method or material. It clicked however when i saw a 'plastic ball'. After having purchased the plastic ball, i bought cane and an 8 foot tall bamboo stalk. The idea of the cane was to stick it onto the plastic ball using fevi-bond and once it dried to take it off i guess.

However, even as i began this process, several people questioned whether or not it would stay. They said that since the ball would pop, would it not disrupt the cane? Honestly, at some point even i wasn't sure, after all if even your facilitators aren't sure, how can you be?

But, i somehow managed to get my cane in the arrangement i needed and waited for some time for the fevi-bond to set before i decided to pop the ball. I didn't get the chance to wait too long, since it seemed as though the cane was trying to break free of the fevi-bond holding it to the ball, but i wasn't sure if the ball itself had shrunk.

On stabbing the ball with a blade though... none of our predictions came true. It didn't pop or shrink or explode... it just was.

It took me some time to separate the fevibond from the cane, since i had to cut it away from the ball and slowly pull pieces of the ball out.

Even when i was done though, and could remove the ball, i had to continue to remove the fevibond so that my orb looked 'cleaner' to say the least.

After i managed to get my orb free from the plastic ball, i gave it a coat of varnish with wood stainer - it was a turkey wood color and ended up looking something like this:

The photo doesn't do it much justice since it almost looks like chocolate, not sure it's very tasty though :3

it's poisonous too, so no letting kids near it! (The wood stainer and varnish that is)

After this, i began sanding down my bamboo. While it's true that i seemed to be on the back end since i had only finished my orb, which took me 2 days, sanding down my bamboo took me upto 6 hours and made me bust almost 7 sheets of sandpaper... and that was before i had to sand it down by hand!

Oh, this is what a bed sander looks like: (you can look up more on google =) )

So, you place your sheet of sandpaper onto the bed and sand your wood down for a smooth finish.












After i sanded my bamboo down, i had to give it a coat of varnish and it looked pretty good. Of course, i carved out the holes required for my switches into the bamboo!

The switches were really tiny and adorable! This was mostly for the fact that i needed something super small so that my hand could conceal it. Note that i have tiny hands.


Now then, cutting holes is not easy - bamboo especially. what you need to do it draw the amount of space you think your 'item' will need and drill a hole inside that area. This is your safeguard - to prevent you bamboo from splitting mostly.








This is a power drill:

Note that when you're drilling a hole, your 'drill bit' should be of equal size or smaller than either the width or the height of the hole you're trying to create. Otherwise, you will have a gap that looks a bit odd.






These are the tools i used to widen the hole:

This is a chisel basically. In order to chisel ANYTHING and not just bamboo, you hold the instrument at an angle AWAY from you and hammer on the back of the handle.

Now, in the case of bamboo, as i said, it had the capability of splitting easily. And i said that you drill a hole into it as a 'safeguard'. the reason your hole acts as a safeguard is because when you chisel the bamboo, if you chisel into that hole, the bamboo has a very low chance of splitting.

I also used a carving knife, sadly id on't have an image of it. You use this knife once you've made your preliminary gap to carve out the hole properly and cleanly.




And that's how my two most important parts were done. Now, how to bring them together? Well... i was more desperate to have it together than have it look beautiful i guess... So...

After all my wiring, i had to figure out how to fix the bottom. the suggestion i got was to use m seal. Not the most brilliant idea thinking about it now...

but, this is what it looked like - the sphere is a TT ball.

the objects around the ball are supposed to be leaf like shapes made from PVC. I didn't need to mold them, since the ball held the shape for me. However, because i used m seal, i didn't have access to change the light inside if something happened and not just that, but the m seal made my tt ball dirty :'(

In any case, the tt ball kept shifting around too since the m seal didn't have enough time to set. So i kind of tore it off later.

The top... welll......... it looked terrible!

Okay...ahem. Horrible? I mean.. the m seal was showing and there were those disgusting colored leaves and... well, they all looked nice individually (not the m seal) so i just thought that they'd... go... well together?

Fine beat me up later! But... even i was really disappointed after my high from completing it and was tempting to break everything apart an throw it away, till my mom pointed out that we could simply dismantle it.

And that's what we did and i was back to square one, working overtime to make it look good.

I made a comeback! (takes a bow)

This looks a lot like the original that i drew, doesn't it? =D

Anyway, The golden wing like things resting on the orb were made from PVC and given a few coats of spray paint - to be more precise a metallic gold spray paint. the curves are being held by the PVC wings simply because i used a thin wire tacked down to it to mold it into any shape i desire! That's why it has such prominent curves.

Secondly, the wings aren't actually attached to the orb. there's a wire that runs through the wings held in between the wings by double sided tape. the wire has been looped around the orb so that it hold both the wings and the orb together (so long as the sticky tape holds the wire to the orb) and is then looped around the top of the bamboo held in place by tacking it down.

I covered all the visible parts of the wire with my varnish wood stainer mix, so it's not as visible and doesn't look odd. the cuff like thing around the top is also a small piece of PVC that was given a coat of varnish and wood stainer and tacked down.

So, this is what it looks like in the night!

Since as i said earlier that i had dismantled it completely, i didn't have a light that could be placed in the orb at the top.

So, we had illuminated it from the outside using an LED torch and well... you can see the results for yourself.

Now for the bottom - this took me awhile to figure out, but once i did, it was pretty simple. So, i cut out the leaf shapes i wanted and instead of sticking it on the inside, i got a piece of wood that almost fit in the diameter of the bamboo's inside. after tacking the leaves into it, i began the process of hammering it in. this was where i had to be careful, since if my wires went in, they would never come out and secondly, i had to make sure that my wires didn't get cut.

After having successfully placed my wooden block in, i made my wire connections and attached my TT ball to it. It's true that it did stick to the double sided tape that was already there, however, it wasn't exactly staying. so i tacked it down using the leaves made of PVC.

These leaves i painted green using ceramic paints!

And overall, this is what it looks like!

I can't tell you how relieved i am to have finished this piece and that it looks so good.

So, if you have any questions, feel free to ask =)