lol Australia

Otakubell.com has NOT been working well lately.  At first I thought it was my fault – I had made a change to my mail server configuration and caused a nasty sort of feedback loop, which I didn’t notice until my girlfriend showed me a bounce message.  I fixed the problem, and all seemed well for 2-3 days.  But then the server seemed to just keep timing out for no obvious reason, and I didn’t have time to explore the issue.  So, I rebooted a few times, and the temporarily fixed it.

Finally I had time to address the issue and looked at my logs – bingo.  Someone from bigpond.com.au was hammering one file over and over, like hundreds of times per minute.  Charming.  I had mod_evasive installed, but not activated.  Well, I activated it, and all has been well since.

5/9/13:  Well, not quite.  It turns out there was some database corruption going on as well, and pretty much every page on otakubell.com is database-driven.  I repaired the database, and optimized it while I was at it.

Now watching: Tytania

Does it count as a LoGH rip-off if its written by the same guy who wrote LoGH?

Guess I’ll find out over the next few weeks.

2nd day thoughts:  REALLY?  You’ve traded out Yang Wen-Li for Irresponsible Captain Tylor?  This might get pretty annoying…

5/1 – A third of the way through – the series has diverged from LoGH and isn’t as good, but that’s an almost impossibly high bar.  Its pretty decent, in fact.

Sweet Blue Flowers review

After slogging through Victory Gundam, a series that wasn’t bad enough to give up on but wasn’t good enough to enjoy, I wanted to watch something that was very different, and boy howdy did I ever succeed.  Victory left me wishing the show were 20-30 episodes shorter.  This series left me wishing it were 20-30 episodes longer.

A few months ago TRSI / Nozomi / Lucky Penny / Whatever-name-they-are-this-week announced they had the rights to The Rose of Versailles.  I could not thrust my credit card at them fast enough.  RoV is one of my favorites.  It is the only anime I own on R2 DVD, and the only reason I don’t own it on laserdisc is because the discs are insanely rare – those who already own it aren’t gonna part with it.

So I’m still waiting for that to arrive, but in the meanwhile I got a postcard advertising Sweet Blue Flowers, a series I had no previous awareness of.  The back of the postcard began:

Erik – “What if the one I love is a girl…?”

To which, I internally replied, “Awesome, let me watch.”  I meant it in the most perverted of senses, but my interests were truly piqued – its been a while since I watched any shoujo/josei works (does Madoka count?).  Well, those DVDs aren’t available yet either, so I downloaded it.  Don’t worry, TRSI, I already have the DVDs on my Amazon Wish List.  It isn’t an instant buy like RoV was, but few things are.  PROTIP:  Legend of the Galactic Heroes would be…

About the show itself:

Let’s start with the opening.  When I saw it, my first reaction was “OMG, fucking SPOILERS,” but as it turns out the opening is a total lie.  Maybe that’s the final outcome in the original manga, but it sure as hell doesn’t come anywhere near happening in the show’s brief run.

No, this is a prequel to what we are shown in the opening.  Our main character, Manjoume, is firmly in the closet and suffering from unrequited love for her cousin.  There’s no evidence she’s ever said anything to her cousin or made any moves on her, and vice-versa, but she’s fairly tormented over her cousin getting married.  Enter Sugimoto, who makes a move on Manjoume with little hesitation.  Manjoume has her first girlfriend, her first kiss, and comes out of the closet.

Now, Manjoume is, apparently, pretty much exclusively gay, and doesn’t seem terribly conflicted about it.   That’s still a tough position to be in when you’re young, since most people aren’t and might react badly to it to boot.  Kinda limits your dating circle (and maybe that’s why the attachment to her cousin formed).  Sugimoto is either bisexual, or she’s just experimenting, but either way she’s much more forward about it than Manjoume.  But while Sugimoto is very confident and intensely talented in everything she tries her hand at, inside she’s a bit of a mess, confessing, towards the end, that she doesn’t know herself very well.  That’s admirable – Socrates would be proud.  It give a little more meaning to her “prince” persona – one who does not know themselves may adopt any number of personas, and perhaps even sexualities.  In the last episode we learn she’s leaving to study in England.  Maybe she’ll find herself there.  Good luck, Sugimoto.

The really interesting part is that Manjoume’s brief relationship with Sugimoto really makes Manjoume a better and stronger person.  Sugimoto tries a passive-aggressive approach to getting back together with Manjoume, and Manjoume tells her she just isn’t interested anymore.  Its hard to picture Manjoume saying anything like that to anybody at the beginning of the series.

tldr version:  Manjoume is comfortable with her identity but lacks outward confidence, Sugimoto is the opposite, and it dooms the relationship.

Now, a brief series like this should not waste any time, but this show managed.  This is one of those shows where nothing happens in the first episode.  Okay, I can handle that so long as things pick up in the next episode (they do in this case), but at 11 episodes, come on, really?  Then there’s the last episode.

The last episode is the only episode where we have a solid idea of how much time is passing – its a frog-march through several months of time.  In a way it reminded me of the finale to Maison Ikkoku, of all things.  MI was 96 episodes long, but the climax was episode 92.  The final four episodes were a final tying up of various loose ends – a long farewell, excellently executed.  SBF tries to pull the same move in an 11 episode series in one episode, and it does not work nearly as well – episode 10 could easily have been a more “natural” ending to the series.  But it does give something of a sense of life moving on for Manjoume and the other characters.  She certainly seems happier.  Maybe I’m just projecting.

These are really the only negatives that jump out at me.  The artwork and animation is particularly beautiful.  I really like the narrative technique of conversations not happening in realtime, but overlaying with scenes after the conversation – even if we don’t see a character’s direct reaction, it really sets a tone.

This series was a little painful to watch, because it reminded me of my own feeble and douchey relationships when I was younger.  I used to watch anime like this all the time, as it helped me make sense of my pain.  I’m way past that point in my life now, so I think I might not appreciate a work like this as much as I once would have.

Now, a personal note to whoever subtitled this:  I have never read Wuthering Heights, BUT I KNOW WHAT ITS FUCKING CALLED.  And I know it isn’t “WITHERING” Heights.  You, apparently, do not.  I can understand a translator not knowing that, like if English isn’t their native langugage?  Maybe?  Even though its a really famous book that’s probably been translated into every language including Klingon by now?  But come on, unless Kira is a one-man operation, that really rustles my jimmies – probably more than it ought to if I’m honest.  Its the kind of thing that makes me question the translation of everything else, though I didn’t notice anything else glaringly wrong (I do speak some Japanese).

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam Review – It Sucks.

SPOLIERS AHOY!

One of the advantages to taking public transit to and from work is I get to watch anime while in transit.  I’ve been slowly picking my way through Mobile Suit Victory Gundam.  Most of the reviews I’ve read have been glowing.  I’m here to tell you this is sub-par Gundam at best.

One of the DISadvantages, of course, is I can’t exactly take notes as I watch.

Anyway, that established:  Tomino is not my favorite director, and his biggest weakness, to me, is that he has a lot of trouble with beginnings.  Things just kinda happen “just because” and are never fleshed out (examples:  Dunbine, L-Gaim, Dunbine, and Dunbine).  But these shows tend to pick up once the initial situations are… well, if not explained, then just “established.”  Victory, unfortunately, never quite seems to reach that point.  This might be excusable if either the setting, or characters and their interactions, were at least interesting (examples:  Utena, Lain) – well, they aren’t.  I’m at the end of the series and find most of the character to be ciphers.

Let’s take Oliver as an example.  We have very little clue that he and Marbet have any sort of relationship other than Marbet being annoyed at the Shrike Team’s very existence until they get FUCKING MARRIED, very suddenly.  Then, a few episodes later, Oliver kamikazes himself and dies.  Why?  Beats the shit out of me.  As near as I can tell he did it because the script said so.  I guess we’re supposed to feel sad in the next 2-3 episodes, but I didn’t feel sad at all.  Why?  Because I knew next to nothing about the character, despite his near-constant on-screen presence throughout 2/3 of the series.

Let’s compare that with, say, Slegger from the original Gundam – Same series, same universe, same director.  We knew who Slegger was, we knew his personality,  he had established relationships with the other characters (Amuro, Sayla, Mirai, etc), and his death was actually meaningful.  Oliver can’t hold Slegger’s jock.  It would be too heavy for him.

Was Chronicle Asher supposed to be Uso’s nemesis?  He vanishes like halfway through the series and is mostly only mentioned by name.  They gave him that dumb facemask, so I guess he was supposed to the the Char-clone du jour.  But Char had reasons for wearing his mask – both the reason that was publicly given and his own secret reason.  Chronicle is all like “I don’t like Earth dust,” but then proceeds to wear the mask in space anyhow, and sometimes doesn’t bother to wear it on Earth either – so why bother with the mask at all?  It certainly can’t cover the fact that Chronicle is not a very interesting character.

Maybe Katejina was supposed to be Uso’s nemesis.  No, mostly we just see her tailing Chronicle around, sometimes, and then get in a few scraps midway through the series, only to vanish without further mention until the end, where she completely wigs out.    I despise Reccoa from Zeta for being a traitorous cunt, but Katejina was never really on the League’s side.  So was she always down with Zanscare and was just waiting for the right moment to join?  Was she abused and/or brainwashed?  Was she just fucking insane from episode one onwards?  Because she sure as well was insane by the end – we’re even shown a completely blinded and broken Katejina in the finale.

Hell, I’m not sure Nadia Shakti wasn’t Uso’s ultimate nemesis.  She’s either the most deceitful character in any Gundam ever or she’s pants-on-head retarded.  Sadly, I suspect the former was not the intention.  She defects to Zanscare at least three times that I can recall, and every time her lameass excuse is “Oh, they’ll TOTALLY stop the entire war if I tell them to!”  Yeah, likely story, bitch.  Is that why you crawled your ass straight into the Angel Halo, too?  I understand where she might have some conflicted motivations, but COME ON, Uso should have wasted her after the second time.

I will say I liked Cima Fualla, but she fakes her death maybe a third of the way in and we don’t see here again until near the end… eh.  But at least she’s entertainingly crazy at that point, and I at least kinda get it – we know she’s been through a lot.  Admittedly, I do like women with pink hair…

I also like the new enhanced Haro.  He’s awesome.

On the other hand, there’s Odelo – he starts out as highly-obnoxious “comic relief,” but becomes a pilot halfway through.  In fact, his death in the finale was the only death that had any effect on me, despite this show’s high body count.  I cared, because Odelo actually had an arc.  He actually changed and developed as a character.  In fact, now that I think about it, I think the only characters who really had any development was Odelo.

And what of our main character, Uso?  The only word that comes to my mind is “bland.”

On a larger scale:  We know next to nothing about the Zanscare Empire or BESPA, and we only vaguely know their motivations – their origins are just glossed over by a few lines in one episode.  Same deal with the League Militaire – where did they come from?  How did they form?  Who the hell is funding the creation of their units?  We knew a lot about the Zeons and Federation in the original, and plenty about AEUG and the Titans in Zeta Gundam, but Victory just doesn’t bother to explain itself, so I don’t really care.

So many missed opportunities:  The League Militaire uses child soldiers, including Uso and his little buddies.  You’d think a MUCH bigger deal would be made of this in terms of negative PR from Zanscare – you could show the League losing support from the people its trying to protect.  But no, other than a few throwaway lines here and there, its hardly mentioned.  We do see moments of Uso getting fairly traumatized and hardened, but these are never really followed up on, when they should have been a great way to grow the character.

The Angel Halo was a cool concept – too bad its just dropped in our laps, right out of the blue, ten episodes from the end.  By contrast, the existence of Gryps was established in the first five minutes of the first episode of Zeta Gundam, though its purpose was not.  Victory would have been SO much more interesting if the Angel Halo, along with Tasillo’s revolt, had occurred a full thirty or more episodes sooner.  Hell, Tasillo strikes me as far more interesting than Chronicle, and he has only a fraction of the screentime Chronicle has.  We could have learned a lot about Zanscare, about what made those characters tick, and in contrast learned more about the League and why they fight… maybe I’ve been spoiled by LoGH, I dunno.

As to the titular Gundam itself, I thought the Victory’s modularity was really stupid at first, and I think that’s because it was both introduced and used poorly in the beginning.  But it actually makes a lot of sense, assuming you have a situation where the enemy can’t intercept the parts before they arrive where they’re meant to.  The beam rotor concept is pretty cool, and I like the Zolo’s use of them for atmospheric movement in the early episodes.

As to the other mobile suits – the BESPA suits mostly have insect-inspired designs, and as mentioned above I rather liked the Zolo and its helicoptor/MS transformation ability.  Most of the other suits reminded me of the Zeon suits/armors in the original Gundam, in a BAD way.  The Zeon had some seriously fruity and unrealistic designs, but Gundam can be given a pass given that it was the first show of the entire genre and was made in the 1970s.  Victory should know better.  The Doggorla might have been the single stupidest thing I’ve seen in any Gundam, and it was used more than once.

Overall, I really can’t recommend this one.  Still, I’d rather watch this than Double Zeta…

New year, new ideas

Eh, some of the stuff from my last post was kinda stupid. I’m still learning, and I know enough now to realize that. Moving on.

I’ve been thinking of some new pages:

1) Lovers PK wiki: A wiki for documentation of Lovers with PK (and possibly other framework) mods. Most of the Lovers mods have been very roughly translated from Japanese, and it is often unclear how they function or even what they ARE. Hopefully such a wiki would help a lot in those cases. It could also serve as an open development platform, and a file mirror, which brings me to…

2) The Lost Mods Archive, a collection of game mods that, for a variety of reasons, have otherwise fallen off of the internet.

WTF is this shit? Bad stats from old providers

Know how I said otakubell.com got 8-10 millions hits per month?

Yeah, not so much it turns out.  Most like 500,000 hits per month.

Either my old shared hosting providers were feeding me lines of bullshit to try to upsell me, or their counting methodology is severely flawed.

I can tell you that I get, or at leased USED to get, all sorts of nasty hacking bots crawling all over.  They try, over and over again, to hit files and directories that aren’t there.  For example, I have IP addresses trying, OVER AND OVER, like as in hundreds of times, to load “apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png” and “apple-touch-icon.png.”  What are they?  No idea.  Never owned an Apple in my life (I was a Commodore guy, thank you VERY much).  These IPs now find themselves swiftly banned – so were old providers counting that shit as “hits?”  Because that’s bullshit.  And that’s only one example of weird shit that I find in my server logs.

Attack of the Apache

I have been checking my server a lot, as you can imagine.  I’m nervous about it, you know?  I checked it this morning before I left my (new) house (I moved here just last week, and my girlfriend moved in two days ago) – all was well.  I come back home thins afternoon, and my whole server is offline – no web, no SSH, nothing.  Time to reboot and debug.

Result:  Apache2, the webserver, had somehow sucked up all of the system memory and and OS panicked and began killing off process – Apache amongst them.  I thought my email was going to be the problematic part on the server…. in any event, I’ve tweaked the MPM settings in Apache and hopefully it will not be as wasteful with the RAM now.  And if it still is… well.  Expect more downtime, I guess.

Though I’m wondering if it was actually MySQL that went bonko…

New server!

Did you know otakubell.com gets 8-10 millions hits per month? Well, it does.  And given that its almost all PHP-based, including an installation of Mediawiki, shared webhosting was really not cutting it anymore.  My long-time host Beachcomber Creations trumped up some bullshit to throw me off at the end of last year, so I tried to set up VPS hosting at that time, resulting in otakubell being offline until late January.  I thought I had things all set up nicely.  And then, the weekend I was going to put the new server live online, the hosting company I went with vanished from the interwebs and wouldn’t respond to email or trouble tickets.  So much for THAT.  I quickly set up some shared hosting.

The shared hosting kept otakubell online, but boy was it ever slow.  The wiki, in particular, was not running well, and it seemed to be getting worse.  So, I decided to take another stab at VPS hosting, and, after a rather hairy week, here we are.

One of the trickiest things about setting up VPS:  There’s no way to know if things work UNTIL you turn it on, live.  With shared hosting, its simple – all the decent ones run a standard cpanel-based setup.  You back up the old data with cpanel, you upload that to the new server, and then you point your domain name to the new location and you are back in business, seamlessly, because all of the servers you are pointing to have been fully tested by others.  Here, I’m setting up almost everything from scratch – a raw operating system (Debian Squeeze if you’re curious) with an SSH shell, and that’s IT.  I can’t send email to myself to test the email server UNTIL I point my domain at the email servers I set up, and if they’re broken, guess who has to fiddle with them until they work?  And no email until its figured out.  Fortunately, I stumbled onto iredmail, which made setting up the email a lot easier.

Then there’s security issues – various bots were trying to hack my gibson almost immediately upon installing the OS.  My SSH is quite secure, thank you, and I have fail2ban set up and looking at all sorts of processes, so ha!

To-Y manga scans?

I own all five wide-ban volumes of the To-Y manga by Atsushi Kamijo.  I’ve looked around to see if there were any manga scans of this online – I have not found any.  I am unwilling to destroy my manga myself, but I’d love to find an experience manga scanner out there who will do it for me (and the rest of the world).

I hope to one day put together an ultimate To-Y pack – I’ll scan my soundtrack LP, make a fresh new capture of the LD and encode it in H264 with softsubs, include the entire soundtrack in mp3 form, and the entire manga.  That’s would be radballs.  I’m sure upwards of six people in the entire world would love to see that.

Otakubell slowdown

Site’s been running real slow lately – I need to revisit moving to a VPS setup again, but right now I’m in the middle of moving, so it will have to wait a little bit.

Otakubell.com gets 8-10 million hits per month.

Saw Dead Can Dance in Philadelphia last night, shit was awesome.