Killer Bunnies

So we finally got a set of the Killer Bunnies card game on Sunday (it's full name is Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magical Carrot). It's a non-collectable card game that is expandable through the addition of many booster decks that add new dimensions to the game. The point of the game is to collect as many carrots as possible through the use of your killer bunnies while trying to slay as many of your opponent's bunnies as you can. At the end of the game, the magic carrot is revealed, but you have to have at least one surviving bunny in order to win (which is the point of trying to kill your opponent's bunnies - if they have no bunnies, they cannot win.)

It's kind of a strange game in that you can have the most carrots and you could of been kicking ass the entire game but when it all comes down to it, winning is a lottery since no one knows which carrot is the winner. Having more carrots gives you a better chance of having the winning carrot but so far, more often than not, someone with just one or two carrots ends up winning. Maybe it's karma. :P

Pros
So if you are ultra competitive, that might frustrate you. I rather like it as it means you can also win after having played the suckiest game ever - no matter how skilled you are, it all boils down to luck, which makes it an even game for anyone. So no matter if you win or lose, what you remember are all the bizarre ways you were able to scrape by in the game or annhiliate bunnies.

The cards are humerous and inventive and often outlandishly powerful - like the Nuclear Warhead card which automatically wipes out 5 bunnies (a LOT) or the Ebola Virus, which infects one bunny per round - and to survive, a bunny must roll a 12 on a 12 sided die to live. You cannot get attached to your bunnies as it is nearly guaranteed they will die. More often than not, though, you have to laugh at HOW they die.

Good replayability. Our first morning, Kais and I must've played it 6 times in a row. Because the cards you draw are random, you could have a really powerful game, you could have a game where all your bunnies constantly die, you could have a game where it's difficult to even GET a bunny, or maybe you get one survivor bunny that hangs in there. And of course you can never be sure who is going to win.

The cards are super durable, extra glossy and thick.

Cons
The instructions that come with the game are about as clear as mud. We played three games with what we thought were correct rules before downloading a more precise PDF version off the Official Killer Bunnies Website. So if you do get the game, PRINT OUT THE RULES FROM THE SITE!

The game artwork is a bit too simple. The illustrations and the coloring are not very complex and look a little cheap. Although some of the bunnies are hilarious - like the one in the "Containment Suit" card or the astronaut bunnies on the "Black Hole" weapon card.

The cards are super durable, glossy and thick. This is only a con if you get several of the booster decks because you end up with so many cards that it takes a LONG time to thoroughly shuffle them all. And the durability of the cards makes them too thick to use in an automatic shuffler.
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All in all, it's a really fun game. Once you have the rules down, it goes rather quick - at least, if I compare it to Settlers of Catan or Zombies!!! (which can occasionally turn into a 3 hour game), so perhaps an hour is an average length game with just the Blue and Yellow decks (the Killer Bunny decks are color coded - blue is the starter deck and each booster must be purchased in a certain order. Yellow is now packaged automatically with the blue cards.)

Killer Bunnies can be played with 2 to 8 players (possibly more with the addition of more booster decks) and is for ages 12 and up. The game is not gorey at all - not a drop of blood to be seen, just slightly violent.

The Night Watch

I forgot to mention a few weeks ago that I finished reading The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. Despite the very different era and story format, it still has the feel of a Waters novel but I found it to be a bit lacking. The story starts in 1947 and works backward - it starts off with characters in a dark place and they're given to you without any backstory -- you find out about why they are doing what they are doing, how they got to be where they are, etc. by slowly being given their story as you go back through time. It's a really cool way of filling us in, revealing the mystery.... My only problem was that I was expecting the novel to twist and pull the rug out from under me like in the previous two Waters novels. Instead, I found the story kind of predictable and the ending disatisfying. I wanted to know much more about the characters than what we were given.

Good points were that the characters were really interesting and the backward format was well done. I liked the story itself and the telling of it. I just wish the story were longer and fuller. The lack of length and depth left me wanting more in a very wistful way -- because the story starts in despair and goes backward to a more hopeful time, you do end up feeling a bit more hopeful but again in a wistful way. Maybe that was her point. That after all is said and done, we look back to better times.

Gokujou Seitokai and Azumanga Daioh

Trey and I have started watching Gokujou Seitokai which is full of more WTF-goodness (and most of it in Pucchan) than in most other anime I've seen so far. I think the whole Pucchan puppet character *alone* has more WTFness than Sana-chan of Kodocha - okay, easily. Just... WTF? *laughs* Oh, it's too good. And we've only seen four episodes. :D

Trey also started me on Azumanga Daioh which possibly has the best "pat-on-the-head" character of all time in the form of Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga. What's great about this anime is how realistic a lot of the humor really is. For instance, at one point Osaka is spacing out in class but at the same time is like she's intently following something around in the air. The first thing that came to mind with the way her eyes were moving is when you look at the sky and see dust motes floating across your eye itself and as you follow them they dart away, so you look back to the starting point and there they are again. And it turns out that is *exactly* what she was doing! ROFL! And here I thought I was the only one. ;)

LiveJournal

When I look back at my very oldest entries, it is apparent I didn't really know what to do with myself once I obtained an LJ account during its famed "invite only" era. It has eventually evolved into an amalgam of sorts, a multi-purpose area that I use for a few things. Mainly, that would be to 1) Keep my friends updated on my life and to 2) Journal, to rant and rave and think out loud about everything. These are the two main reasons for my LJ existing. But secondarily, I keep my LJ to meet people with similar interests and to talk about and do creative stuffs involving those interests. This last element is something I simply cannot do in person so in a way this secondary reason really could be an integral reason for my LJ's being.

Beyond that, LJ is my social life in a masochistic sort of way. Masochistic in that people are generally pretty busy and response time to real time problems often doesn't line up -- which really is my own problem of needing to be a little more self-sufficient, I suppose. It's hard to quantify how much of it is my own fault/problem when I'm so isolated in my life at the moment. Like, even if I get my drivers licencse, say, where am I going to go? I don't like social places. Introverts simply don't hang out. Anyhoo, that's not really the point of my post.

Okay, we have established LJ is yay social life. :D

I don't like timeframes, I really don't. I tend to keep my life as flexible as possible so that should the mood take me or someone gives a call, I can usually take leave and go do something at a moments notice, or at least with shorter notice. I'm pretty good with email and will generally reply as soon as I read it - which is actually due to the fact I recieve so little email. But I like LJ so much better because most of the people I care to communicate with are on LJ. Not everyone has time to chat, so by posting I can tell everyone everything all at one time in a format that people can read at their leisure.

I like the comment structure. I like that it's all self-contained (although now Gmail is kind of built the same way - I find Gmail really appeals to the LJ side of me).

I love the design of LJ. Its clean, uncluttered, and easy to follow. People can make a visual mess of their journals but they generally have to really go out of their way to do so.

I love that the user info page is seperate from the blog bit of the page, kind of like the foyer from the house. Again, navigation is pretty straightforward there.

I like that communities look exactly like regular journals so there's no confusion as to how they work.

I... heh, I was going to list a bunch of other little things but thinking about it, it's all navigation stuff. Interests, communities, just -- all of it is so simple.

I also like that the basic information that you can plug into your Info page is just that - basic. And you don't have to give info you don't want to give. MySpace, in comparison, makes it look like a dating site - height, weight, age, sexual orientation.... If you WANT you can plug all that info into your user info text area but really, who cares? I'm not going to read your journal differently if you are 5'2" as compared to if you were 6'2". I mean, seriously.

To me, that lack of information makes journals seem a little more... serious, I guess. Though definetly not all journals are serious - and there are plently of blinky-meme filled LJ's just like you find on MySpace. They just seem to be a little fewer between.

I like that LJ was made by a single guy, a home grown type of thing that is run by a smallish company who is gonna keep it relaxed and not cluttered with ads and all that crap.

All in all, LJ is a place I actually feel GOOD about paying an optional $25 for a paid account. I am not much of a power user but I do like having that much more flexiblity and it just feels good to support something so well designed. :D

Feng Zhu [art]

Feng Zhu is an awesome artist. He's done designs for all kinds of things, from video games to movies, comics to television shows - including Stargate. What I really like are his digital sketches and the simplicity of them, but how he can turn them into something fantastic with a little color and strong lighting.

Symphonic/Goth Metal

Symphonic goth/metal

A Wikipedia article about Symphonic Metal
A Wikipedia article about Gothic Metal

Symphonic goth metal is basically unheard of in America. The closest thing we have is Evanescence (which I don't care for) and even then it's still not anything like its European cousin/predecessor. From the vast amount of symphonic goth/metal [sgm] bands, you'd think that's all they listened to over there. ;) It's definetly not like anything on the radio in the US, or possibly in the UK, either, seeing as how it's kind of hard to find even sgm stuff there (according to Trey, anyhow) and so for most Americans it seems to be an acquired taste.


The first I ever heard of it was when Trey showed me some songs by Dutch band Within Temptation. I knew one of their non-metal songs, "Neverending Story" from a Xena fan-vid that was made from the song. I was shocked to hear all this other music that they made. It was their not-so-metal stuff that pulled me in first. Songs like "Ice Queen" and "Dark Wings". Their older stuff contained "death growls" which are apparently typical of goth/dark metal and at first I didn't know what to make of them. The thing that got me beyond the death growls was the fact that the music was so intricately done and well performed. No two songs were alike and were all so very dynamic. The guitars weren't monotonous and were all very unique. The best part was the way that Sharon del Adel's voice (she's the female/main vocalist), despite its soprano, was piercingly strong and powerful, holding its ground with the heavy guitars and orchestra. Like a dove in the face of a storm. The immagery was fantastic and it just pulled me in.

I think the immagery is the main thing. SGM music is usually thematic. You could create an epic film using a single album from most of the bands. It's "musical" that way, almost sound trackish -- and generally I'm not big on musicals or soundtracks. I think because I saw that first Xena video I could see the power of the image within the songs. But strong immagery is part of SGM music, it seems -- usually medieval, fantasy, warriors, magic, ladies, vikings, stormy weather, lost love, romantisiced death, and all that is dark in that romantic way. This actually was not a selling point for me, but at least for Within Temptation, it did help pull the songs together. Listening to the albums like they are a story, like it's an aural film/story really helps the believeability for the American ear, I think. ;)


The next group I heard was Italian band Lacuna Coil. They're not really symphonic, just goth metal. All their albums could of been written in the same year for all the band evolves with their sound (or rather, doesn't -- it's more like they're slowly fine-tuning their stuff). They have two vocalists, one male, one female. The female sings on every song while the guy sings on about two thirds of them and sometimes does a harsher growlier voice, though genearlly never a "death growl" type of thing. With the dual dynamic, they can kind of do that stereotypical goth metal "soap operal" lyric thing, which isn't why I like Lacuna Coil. I like them because their guitars are so very unique and yet familiar. They don't sound like but they do remind me of Metallica - how you can tell a Metallica song anywhere, even if you've never heard it before, just because of the signature guitars and drums. Lacuna Coil has that same quality; the guitars and drums never get tired. Also, the female vocalist is more in the alto range and very powerful.

Some bands I've heard I really did not like at first- like Nightwish. Some SGM bands use a more operatic vocal that to me puts the music over the top into the realm of the absurd. (Wikipedia does, in fact, describe them as "opera metal"). Ugh.


In general, a lot of SGM bands I've heard seem to use soprano vocals in tandem with death growls. So far the only death growls I've ever been able to tolerate have been those in the first Within Temptation album (which, oddly, is my favorite of their albums - death growls and all). For me, the soprano vocals often tend to be too light and flighty; they don't hold their own with the power of the music.


Folk Metal: Leaves' Eyes

A Wikipedia article about Folk Metal

I recently discovered, quite by accident, the Norwegian folk metal band Leaves' Eyes when trying to find music by Lacuna Coil. They're once again interesting because of the folk element. Folk Metal tends to use native folk music elements. In the case of Leaves' Eyes their music hearkens back to the days of Vikings, and in fact their most recent album is about just that. (In fact, there is a sub genre called "Viking Metal", heh).

I made an offsite backup of their first album and for the most part it's pretty monotonous, actually. The vocalist sounds amazingly like Sarah Brightman, though not quite as strong and clear. They use some death growls here and there and they're quite badly done, unintelligible (you could actually mostly understand the death growls from Within Temptation) and just... un memorable. Leaves' Eyes' songs in general are not very strong - the songs all kind of run together and are not dynamic at all. Nothing pops out in most of them and it all sounds the same.

There are a couple jewels here and there, though, that I have become rather fond of. "For Amelie" is my very favorite, definetly more in the Folk Metal genre than in the symphonic/goth genre, and even then the guitars don't kick in til later. It's primarily a piano, fiddle, bass, and some kind of tinny folk stringed instrument - probably just an accoustic guitar. What makes it so great is the 3/4 time -- no one ever writes in 3/4 time. And 3/4 time with electric guitars (which, as I said, come in later) is even better. :D So the song overall has this almost lilting, wistful feel. I love it. If this genre sounds at ALL interesting to you, I reccomend this song.

I am working on making a backup of their more recent album, which seems a bit cleaner in terms of instrumentation, from what I can tell from four songs. So far, "For Amelie" is the lightest song by far on their first album. "Mourning Tree" is an even lighter song on their current album, mostly accoustic guitar with fiddle and flute, some keyboard strings, etc. - with no grinding guitars at all. I think they shine best when sticking closer to their folk element than to the goth/metal side of things.
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I doubt anyone will find this particularly interesting; I just felt like writing. It's kind of a mini-rundown of my thoughts about European symphonic/goth metal and related bands that I've heard so far. Description of the music, what I like about it, what I don't like about it... We just simply don't have it here in America, and I wonder how many people are aware of it who might like it. Definetly an acquired taste for Far-Western ears but fun nonetheless.

The Adolescence of Utena [movie]

I definetly have to agree with all those Utena pros out there that this movie makes WAY more sense if you've seen the series first. Which I had - I saw the series first - the only reason I was able to understand a lot of the symbolism was because I'd seen the series. Technically, and according to the creators, the movie is not in any way related to the series. Which is true as far as the plot goes. The characters have the same basic essences for the most part but their lives as we glimpse them are only distantly related to their incarnations of the series.

The first thing I noticed about the movie is how beautiful it is. I know Japanese animation quality goes from (in order of lesser to greater) series, to OVA (Original Video Animation), to movie. And for the most part I've just been watching serials. Utena is a "liney" anime - it has lots of thin, flowing lines to it. And to see it animated in a high quality with just... MORE... it was gorgeous! The designs for the entire thing are just astonishing - I adore the architectural complexity of their world. And each shot was framed so nicely; nothing was ever wasted.

The music improved, as far as my tastes go. I'd already downloaded the "love theme" Toki Ni Ai Wa (At Times Love Is…) and it was used so gorgeously in the nighttime dueling platform dance scene between Utena and Anthy.

Where the series ran way too long, the movie ran too short for me in terms of character development, particularly as far as Anthy goes. Although I think they tried to balance this by making the characters overal WAY more emotional than they were in the series. Where in the series we can only guess at Anthy's emotions, in the movie we get to see right away that Utena's princely behavior resonates with Anthy in Utena's first fight with Saionji.

Speaking of Anthy and Utena.... The tension between the two of them was at a low but usually consistant level in the series, though often rendered into subtext for season 2 and of course obliterated in season 3 with the whole Akio thing. The movie had it ramped way up which I both liked and almost disliked. I could of DIED, the tension was so delicious in the scene between Utena and Anthy in Utena's room after the duel with Saionji -- and on the dueling platform before their dance together. And the drawing class bit was good -- but I felt like we lost any motivation for Anthy after she was "won" from Saionji.

Spoiler warning here
I dunno... I only saw the movie all the way through once and a half now, so I'm forgetting things. I guess the car ending was what really threw things off. Neither the series or the movie gives an absolute end, and though we are more certain of Anthy and Utena's destiny together at the end of the movie, I felt like the drive for the two of them to WANT to be together was much lower than it was in the series by the last episode.

The ending... I understand the car thing completely, but only because of watching the series. I HATED the damn car metaphor in the series. Watching several episodes in a row with so many reused scenes really drove that one into the ground, ugh. I thought the car chase was a bit drawn out and predictable in the movie. I'm not a big car chase fan, so that doesn't help. Heh, I actually was TOTALLY lost as to why the hell Shiori was the one chasing Anthy in the Utena car because I didn't understand at first that Shiori was the girl who Touga tried to save.

So, oddly, that combines some elements from the series, though I'm confused as to how this all works. It seems that Utena was dating Touga. Juri wanted Shiori, Shiori had some pissy moment with Juri or something and to get back at her, tried to get Touga to go out with her? And then Shiori ended up in the river and Touga died trying to save her.... uh... I forgot why Shiori was pissed off at Utena for that, though. Grr. Remind me? END OF SPOILERS

Anyway. All in all, I like it a lot. It's a completely different feel from the series, different story, so if I want to relive the series, the only real way to do that is to actually WATCH the series, which is a hefty chore. :\ I'm going to have to find myself an episode guide and figure out what the highlights are and just watch those. :D

Edit to add: The manga version of the movie is a good way to summarize some of the story elements in a non-surreal way, though it has a slightly different story from the film as far as a few key relationships go.