つり球 / おか

In all, I think this week is kind of lackluster. While there are some really, really good episodes (Space Brothers), a lot of this week’s episode just seem meh; a lot of them actually just feel like it is an intermission episode between two arcs/plot (Jormungand, Eureka 7 AO) so that while it had time to deal with other parts of the show that it is not usually talked about before, it either end up not executing it that good or just because the element that made me like the show in the first place absent or less prominent (Koko not being the main part of this week’s Jormungand) . Also since May 13 was Mother’s Day, three of this week’s shows incorporated mothers into the episode, either as a main device (Smile Precure) or just a small mention (Fate/Zero), and in general, I’m pretty surprised on how directors are able to take real life event into their shows:

Space Brothers – Episode 6 (15 points): I actually teared up a bit while watching this. As I have stated on Anime Power Rankings, this episode was really inspiring, something that I presume that the anime is set out to do. The idea of luck was tossed around quite often in this episode, of how Mutta believed that he is really unlucky, yet at the same time, unknown to him, a judge looked at his situation and went out of his way to help Mutta. This judge not only know him when he was little, but was further set on supporting him because of the judge’s similar past. Heck, this is one huge coincidence (you just can’t believe how lucky Mutta actually is), bordering on fantasy (there is no way that all these things would align to each other so nicely), yet, because of the solid foundation the show had laid before in showing all the details and all the connection to real life events, this whole coincidence just looks like a small ray of hope in the depressing reality of Mutta, and maybe also to some of us who are not in the best of situation. Just seeing how Mutta is supported in the most critical moments is just really touching.

Fate/Zero – Episode 19 (14 points): O Fate/Zero, I don’t know if it was planned or not, that is just such a depressing way to celebrate Mother’s Day. This is the second episode about Kiritsugu’s past, with this episode detailing the time he was under Natalia’s care. While the first was also solid, as we saw how the various mission have made Kiritsugu more and more stoic, and to have a short sequence where it hinted to form his current ideology and strategy, the best part of the episode is in the second half of the episode, where Kiritsugu communicates to Natalia over radio. Within that chat/small talk, they discussed of how they see each other as family and talks as if everything is fine (while both and most likely the audience also know that there is no way that the plane can land safely without releasing the bees also, creating more victims). In short, it does a good job of showing how Kiritsugu became more and more broken. (Source: Reverse Thieves)

Tsuritama - Episode 5 (12 points): The animation is lively, the characters are quirky (and sometimes a bit annoying), and there is a good amount of character development in every episode, this show is growing on me.

Smile Precure – Episode 15 (12 points): As if I have forgotten about Mother’s Day, Smile Precure did a whole episode about Mother’s Day, showing how important it is to give graititue to your mother (;A; I’m sorry that I only called my mom and not get her something for Mother’s Day). Aside from seeing how Miyuki fails at helping her mom and laughing at her, it is also interesting to see what the other four Precure’s made for their mom, showing their personality and their relationship between their family. Also, the Precure’s were relative collaborative in their attacks, and YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Akane/Precure Sunny for stepping up to help Miyuki and to stop Woflrun’s from dissing Miyuki. O and next episode preview, what is this…

Saki: Achiga-hen – Episode of Side-A – Episode 5 (11 points): Call me biased, but the reason that I forcefully made Saki to be so high in rankings is because of it finally being what I like about it: the characters either on the mahjong table playing or discussing about the game. Finally. The characters are still blend, they are all still rather weak, but at least they are playing the darn game and not just going on about chessy lame stuff. This finally feels so much more like a Saki sequel; now all is missing is the over-the-top playing style or abilities (comeon, I’m not asking a character of Saki caliber, but someone cool like Hisa).

Nazo no Kanojo  X – Episode 6 (11 points): Similar to last week, while there are nothing really to write home about, it just a simple cute story between the two, with each episode of them finding a new aspect that they don’t know/haven’t tried with each other, investigates it and finally understand each other more and grow deeper in their relationship. The Untold Story of Altair & Vega talks more in detail about the episode.

Sakamichi no Apollon  - Episode 5 (9 points): Yes, this is the same show that I ranked it as #1 last week. This episode is mediocre. Suddenly Kaoru’s mother is introduced (relating to Mother’s Day) and this episode talks of how Karou went to see his mom. In the end, more questions were raised than answered, leaving us hanging there for answers (and not as a cliffhanger, but as a “we-might-talk-about-this-later” type of hanging), and while we do see a temporary solution to the tension between Karou and Ritsuko and see the tension between Yurika and Junichi, the whole episode just feels off from the usual plot.

Natsuiro Kiseki – Episode 6 (8 points): Upon dropping Upotte!!, I decided to watch Natsuiro Kiseki, a show that have been getting solid rankings on APR and a show that I was on the verge of watching in at the start of the season (but forgot about it as the season went by), and to my surprise, it is pretty good. Yeah, it is the same old “4 cute girls doing cute things” setting, it does a decent job in viewing the more serious aspects of the friendship between the 4 and about themselves, not to mention the distinct personality that each characters brings into the friendship and the show.

Rest:

Sankarea (6), Hyouka, Tasogare, Mouretsu (5) [filler episode + QUALITY animation] Eureka 7 AO, Zombie desu (3), Jormungand (1), Accel World (0)

Dropped: Medaka Box – Episode 6: The show is just too shounen, with most of the times spent on the action. The characters are one dimensional, and therefore, I don’t really care about them and their battles. For people who enjoy One Piece, Naruto, Bleach they might like it. I guess I just don’t like shounen manga/anime in general, putting it as on-hold (not really dropped, but since I rarely go back to my on-hold list, it is good as dropped).

坂道のアポロン / マサト

Nothing too surprising this week. Space Brothers is becoming a bit better since they are finished with the more mundane astronaut test (for now), Apollon is continuously solid, made even better by connecting back jazz to the over plot, Mouretsu gave us a fine example of how to attack an opponent that seemed to be undefeatable at first, and worse of all, Upotte!! gave me a nasty aftertaste, with me reacting to it by dropping the show half way through it (since I dropped Upotte!!, there is one less possible points given to each remaining shows).

Sakamichi no Apollon  - Episode 4 (14 points): As if the staff of Sakamichi no Apollon have read Aftershok entry about episode 3, jazz became much more prominent in this episode, riding side by side with the love triangle plot. The emotional aspect of the development in episode 3 was shown in greater detail in this episode with the effects it has on Kaoru during the practice.  The idea of the rich (Kaoru) and the poor (Sentarou) was lighted viewed upon during this episode, showing how different, yet similar, their upbringings are. Along with their background, a bit about Sentarou’s reason for wearing the rosary was revealed. Lastly, the closeness that Karou and Sentarou has by the end of the episode can be seen in the live performance, where it was Kaoru pushing Sentarou (instead of Sentarou pushing Kaoru earlier) to play properly (though that friendship might be tested again later as it is hinted of the addition of another node in the relationship graph). Again, I shall point to Aftershok of Anime Instrumentality for a more in-depth view of the episode.

Fate/Zero – Episode 18 (13 points): I am pretty happy that my commentary landed on this week’s Anime Power Rankings, so I guess you can go there to read about my views on this episode…or I can regurgitate it…: While this episode of Fate/Zero is solid, it just doesn’t feel the same without ideologies being thrown around (as seen in the first half of the episode), especially this episode takes place after the defeat of Caster (14-15), the defeat of Lancer (16), and death of Tokiomi (17), all with huge amounts of different ideologies, personalities being mixed together. Hence, this is why I do think that the first part of episode 18 feels a sudden leap and at maybe even out of place. Yet, as I have said in APR, that thinking is just absurd, since the image in the first half of episode 18 is more close to what most of us experience than the whole freaking Holy Grail War (it is not like most of us are mages fighting to survive). This unease of the normality and hint of romance (Kenny has toward Shirley) help us to understand of how much Kiritsugu has departed from normality, and how he was cast into the world of mages and mage killings, all began by his dad’s research. Ya, Kiritsugu has some screws lost in his head when he decided to murder his dad, but comparing the past that he lived in and the hell that he went through in second half of episode 18 and onwards, you can’t really blame him for blaming his dad for messing up his life.

Mouretsu Pirates – Episode 18 (12 points): A course that I really liked last term is computer security (as you might have seen from my several more security related posts) and hence I will jump at anything that can be viewed a security-related way; this episode of Mouretsu is an example for this. With the Bentenmaru under attack from Jenny uncle’s ships, they decided to discuss various tactics that can force her uncle to be retreat. Knowing that the uncle himself cannot be easily exploited, they went after Jenny’s fiance, and finally, with the help with the original Bentenmaru crew, used solid proof detailing the shenanigans between the uncle and the fiance’s dad. So instead of trying to win hazardously, the utilized the Principle of Easiest Penetration, and found the easiest method to find dirt to force the uncle to retreat (or to nullify the marriage, so the pursue is useless). Then, the original Bentenmaru simply hacked into Hugh and Dolittle and found useful documents against Jenny’s uncle, again pointing to the importance of data security. Finally, during the raid, Bentenmaru broadcasted the raid live, hoping that when the proof were revealed, everyone can know, similar to how a whistleblower will leak some information through Wikileaks, hoping that the the target origination cannot deny or silence people from the information (since it is so readily available). All these good use of strategies just make me leap for joy. Chiaki going gun crazy this episode was pretty good also.

Smile Precure – Episode 14 (12 points): I liked both Kyoto episodes, with the previous episode focused on the failures of Miyuki and this episode focused more on the other four character, with Miyuki taking the back seat. This episode we see more of Nao more delicate sides (and her vast expressive expressions), with her not taking hunger that good, while we see Yayoi being all hyper thinking the whole trip as a RPG game, and they both shine in this episode. I also liked the contrast between Miyuki/Yayoi and Akane/Reika/Nao, where one team was actually enjoying the trip, while the other team was basically running all around trying to find the other two…Why you make them suffer so, Miyuki ;A; Lastly, the battle scene was pretty interesting, with Akane, Reika (almost out of character) and Nao flying around, ‘playing’ around with Akanbe. Again, refer to Baka Laureate for more about Smile Precure.

Space Brothers – Episode 5 (11 points): Finally we are done with the examination part, and Mutta gets to go to visit the Huston NASA Space Center to visit his brother. We see more the interaction between Mutta and his brother, and the personality of each and such. Nothing much is really happening, but it is good to visit the relationship between the two brothers.

Tsuritama - Episode 4 (10 points): I guess I’m finally warming up to this show. From seeing the APR results and seeing people talk about this show on Twitter, I know that a lot of people are liking this, but for the longest time, I’m just confused on how people find this so excellent. After reading a post from The Untold Story of Altair & Vega, and being more observant of the stuff talked about in the post, I guess I understand more of Tsuitama and both the relationship between the character and the character change (mostly of Yuki) that happened in the previous and this episode.

Nazo no Kanojo – Episode 5 (9 points): I think last week’s episode was kinda awkward, so it is good to go back the the more cutey, simple love between the two character for this week.

Hyouka - Episode 2 (8 points): As I have said from last week, I watch and enjoy this show is because Oreki’s personality. This episode, we see the disconnection that he has with the rest of the world around him, feeling how distant away he is from the three other characters while they were chatting; I would be lying if I said that never had the mentality of the world being distant and that I’m just observing it.This connection to my older self [mind you, I would like to think that I'm less distant from people nowadays] is just what make me want to watch Oreki more, and by extension, Hyouka. It seems that not only am I connecting to Oreki’s personality, but lostty of Anime Princess can also relate to Oreki.

For the rest: Jormongand (7), Eureka 7 AO, Sankarea (5),  Zombie desu OTD, Accel World (4), Tasogare Otome x Amnesia (2), Saki Achiga (1), Medaka Box (0)

And least:

Upotte – Episode 5 (Dropped): This show thrives on moe and references to guns. So in episode 4, while the conflict between M16A4 and L85A1 was weird and made me close to dropping it (it is not moe anymore), I could have laughed it off by saying that M16A4 is the stereotypical American being all mean to others and to say it is a reference between the conflict between the real guns themselves. In comparison, I see no references to back up Sako’s sadistic personality other than the fact that she is based of AK’s as far as I can tell (which does not make sense either, since Gariru was normal). I stopped around the scene where Sako was repeatedly shooting Funco at close range.

夫として、父親として、/ 椿屋

This season is my second season participating in Desu ex Machina‘s Anime Power Rankings, and it seems that I tend to have different tastes from most people. Seeing that I’m now a NEET and hence have more time to write about stuff, and viewing this as an opportunity to view more anime blogs, I have decided try to keep a “weekly musings”, talking about  the current season shows that I have watched and have ranked against each other. Since the ranking that I have made for the shows are mostly for APR, it will be based on the timetable that APR has given (ending in Saturday night, with some Sunday shows included). I will list the show in descending points, where each point is given to a show that I feel is superior to another show (for example, if I watched 12 shows this season, the max points that a show can have is 11). Without further ado:

Fate/Zero – Episode 17 (15 points): While less awesome than last episode, we were finally shown what is inevitable for anyone that went through Fate/Stay Night. In a sense, this episode was one that might relate to Fate/Stay Night more than any other episodes (Rin’s scene and the dagger Azoth). I particularly liked Reverse Thieves’ post on this episode.

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia – Episode 3 (14 points): As I have said in my post about Tasogare, I really liked the implicit social commentary about the idea of how people view others based on what they know of them already, no matter if those info are correct or not. I like stuff like this, so I’m just biased for this show. The fact that they were able to turn a generally boring (for me) genre, horror to make it more romantic and fun is also a plus. As suntzuanime did mentioned, there is an issue why Teiichi is seeing Yuuko the way he is seeing Yuuko, I figured that it would be something that is revealed at the very end, like a twist that was hinted back at the end of episode 1.

Sakamichi no Apollon  - Episode 3 (13 points): I tend to agree with Aftershok of Anime Instrumentality’s views about this episode: while I agree that the plot is really well done, a part of me want it to be more about jazz.

Moretsu Pirates – Episode 17 (12 points): I know, the last (including this episode) might not have been the best, with the Yacht Club messing around and such, but you know what, I liked seeing the Yacht Club learning and such. This episode was another episode of them being bold and doing stuff, yea, they might be way more clumsy then the normal crew, but it shows the difference in experience that is independent to character and talent, but how the latter two can help fast track the former. Ya, that yuri scene was still pretty lolwut.

Hyouka - Episode 1 (11 points): Hatters gonna hate, according to APR seems that the first episode of Hyouka was not well received. I liked it. I like Oreki’s personality, not because he is fabulous and such, but that I can relate to his personality to an extent, of just going through each day finding the easiest path to do anything, though the end of episode 1 might suggest that he might be slowly opening up to Chitanda,because he actually likes her or that he, from experience, knows that it is easier to go along than to try to go against them. Lastly, the animation is really good.

Space Brothers – Episode 4 (10 points): While still solid, it was still a pretty mundane episode.

Smile Precure – Episode 13 (10 points): Wow, this really should be higher…maybe I still don’t want to confess that I’m actually enjoying this show etc… This was a pretty fun episode, with seeing how Miyuki fails in so many different ways, and the other four girls trying to support her in their own ways. Krizzlybear of Baka Laureate did a good job in pointing out the different interesting parts of this episode.

Eureka Seven: AO - Episode 3 (9 points): To be honest, nothing really stands out much for me in this episode aside from the girls going on future nico nico douga, blogging and singing karaoke as Miku/Ranka (?).

For the rest of the shows: Tsuitama (8), Sankarea (7), Jormongand (6), Nazo no Kanojo (5),  Accel World (4), Zombie desu OTD (3), Upotte (2),  Medaka (1), Saki Achiga (0) since I’m just going to talk about the top floor(# shows/ 2) shows for the week

うみねこEP8ネタバレ絵 / YUO

I’m opening this game board one last time…… for you, Ange… … – Battler Ushiromiya, episode 8

What a long journey it has been, of waiting and playing each episode as it releases. According to Wikipedia, the first game was released on the summer of 2007, just as I was entering into university (guessing a <1/2 year for the English translation, so within 2007). Episode 8 released at winter of 2010, and as I recall, it took the translation group, WitchHunt, longer than usual for the last episode to be fully translated, so I didn’t really get around to playing it until around end of 2011 or beginning of 2012, which is around the start of my last term as an undergrad. So I guess Umineko been with me for my whole university. Finally going through all the episodes, all the battles between the characters, all the shenanigans etc, seeing how the story finally concludes does bring a tear or two….through….

I would be lying if I said that I’m not surprised or disappointed with how Episode 8 ended up. I was surprised, since episode 8 went in a different direction that I didn’t expect (though that is expected to a certain extent; I stopped trying to predict what will happen next since episode 4 or 5); disappointed since the episode3 didn’t fully wrap all the murders in the previous episodes, and that it didn’t really give us what really happened in the Rokkenjima Incident.

Coming off Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, I fully expected that Umineko would take a similar structure to Higurashi, where the first four episodes/arcs would lay the foundation of the mysteries, while the last four would be the solution to the mysteries that was laid before. Heck, I couldn’t be more incorrect. While the first four episodes did lay the foundations, the latter four episodes didn’t really provide the solution to the mysteries. Episode 5 looks like a solution to the games from first 4 episodes at first, but the conclusion from that episode brought us back to square one. Episode 6 and 7 provides us with more characters, more information, but doesn’t directly solves what was laid out in episodes 1-4. So, still hoping that I would get a solution episode like one of the ones found in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, I played episode 8 and came out disappointed, though in highlight, I should have been able to see episode 8′s direction.

Equipping for future mysteries

I’m convinced that one of the intent of the author, Ryukishi07, is to equip the audience to have a better framework to work with when the audience approaches detective fiction (and by extension, the mystery genre) in the future. In episode 5, we are introduced the Eiserne Jungfaru, or Iron Madien, with Dlanor A. Knox as the leader of the team. While this might be another excuse to add more female character into the series, making the series attractive to even more male audiences by touching more moe niche points, by including Dlanor A. Knox, the author introduced Knox’s Decalogue, or Knox’s Ten Commandments, which is a set of rules recommended to detective novel writers to make detective stories less unpredictable, so that readers can actually solve the mystery themselves. In episode 7, we are introduced to Willard H. Wright, having the same name as Willard Huntington Wright, the real name of S. S. Van Dine, whom also released his own set of rules for the detective genre. While as stated within the game, the incident that happened in Umineko might not necessary fit into the rules, as not only does it not say that it confirms to such rules, but also that Umineko itself might not necessary be a detective fiction (while there are many points suggesting that it is a detective fiction).

While the rules were used by Battler Ushiromiya to solve the game in episode 5, it was rarely brought back up in the latter episodes, so it can be argued that the rules themselves don’t serves much to the overall plot of Umineko. Yet, aside from having references just for the sake of having it, I believe that by introducing such rules, Ryukishi07 is giving a certain viewpoint and framework to analyze Umineko and subsequent mystery stories. This point is also seen from some of Umineko TIPS, especially the article on Anti-mystery vs. Anti-fantasy. Since Umineko, especially the latter 4 episodes, was so meta, it was a lot easier for the character to discuss analysis and observations on the game itself than Higurashi, which from my experience with the anime and the first game, had little room for meta. So while Higurashi might have been strictly storytelling, Umineko seemed more like an interaction between the audience and the author, with the author providing various frameworks to analyze the story in.

The motive behind the murder

Other from giving us S.S. Van Dine’s rules, the introduction of Willard H. Wright also called us to focus on the motive behind the murders. As the game has discussed, there is who, how and why in a murder, though it is discussed during Will’s introduction that the ‘why’ part are usually viewed as least important. Seeing in how much time is used to put to Yasu in episode 7, someone who doesn’t really appear after that episode, it gives more information about various characters and their relationships between different each other, hence hinting of the importance of knowing the character background, and by extension the reason (based on character background) that the murderer carried out the murder, hence showing to the audience the importance of knowing the why within a murder.

Aside from episode 7, in the earlier chapters, the love between Battler Ushiromiya and Beatrice was pretty obvious. Again, while this can be an excuse to make Beatrice moe, it is more to point to the motive that Beatrice started the whole game with Battler in the first place, something that was finally revealed in episode 8. Finally, by applying this idea to the whole game that Battler first played with Beatrice and finally with Ange Ushiromiya, the direction that episode 8 had gone doesn’t seem all that surprising, as episode 8 mainly focused on the reason why the game was played with Battler and Beatrice and finally why this last game was played between Battler and Ange.

Now for the rest of us who still want to know what really happened with the Rokkenjima Explosion Incident: The scene where the WithHunt members were eagerly waiting for Toya Hachijo (Ikuko Hachijo) to reveal what was written in Eva Ushiromiya’s diary, or the truth to the whole Incident is in parallel to the scene where Featherine Augustus Aurora is about to reveal the same book to…a bunch of Goat Butlers. From this parallel, I assume that Ryukishi07 is equalizing people who are trying to find who and how over the why behind the Incident (or has a flawed view on why based on false/twisted information) to the cruel and mostly mindless Goat Butlers. …wait really, Ryukishi07, you are now treating the fans that have been through all Umineko games to find out the truth as cruel dumb goats (not to mention of all the negative light that the Goat Butlers have gone through in the end of episode 8 from breaking Beatrice’s world)? That burns.

Sankarea

HNNNNNNGGGGGGGG (episode 4)

So Studio DEEN can make good shows apparently. When I was looking at the posters for upcoming shows for Spring 2012, I shortlisted Sankarea precisely because Sanka Rea looks like Saten Ruiko and nothing more, but was hesitant since it is by Studio DEEN and has ecchi listed as one of the genre. After people praising this show, I picked it up and was myself surprised what was in store for Sankarea. While this show does have a bit of supernatural and undead as a major part of the story, it seems to be merely used to talk about more heavy issues. The initial spark of the story, the Chihiro’s desire to resurrect his cat, touches on the issue of coping with the death of a family member. While for Sankarea, her situation heavily describes a broken family and a victim of sexual harassment by her dad. Aside from the heavy topics talked, I really liked the contrast between the male and female leads. We see that the Chihiro has a normal, uneventful but close family, while Sanka Rea has a rich but dysfunctional family (where there is no emotional closeness to each other excluding Rea’s dad to Rea). For Chihiro, while having an affinity for zombies, his act to resurrect his cat was not because of his desire to see an undead cat, but to return the natural days where the cat is a part of the family, and hence he longs for the past where the cat was still alive. For Sankarea, her death means the freedom from her father’s control and abuse, hence she long for death. This contrast between the background and the intensions of the two leads was well played. And man, the animation is pretty too.

It is a pity that episode 4 was pretty high in the fanservice department, please let this be an exception instead of the norm.

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia

When I listen Choir Jail, I'm reminded of Umineko ED and Ali Project (opening)

Now this plays straight to the whole feel of a horror show: a constantly dark animation, the characters as a part of the Paranormal Investigations Club, deals with ghost and horror stories. The only problem is that the ghost itself, who has amnesia, gets jealous, and interacts normally with the other characters, and hence livens up the whole mood of the show. Yes, the show does contain some Yuuko fanservice, but it is used in a way that a bit of importance to the plot (not that I don’t have an issue with that). Episode 1 was a good idea, to compare how someone who can’t see Yuuko would have seen the sequence (Momoe) and someone who could see Yuuko (Teiichi), but wasn’t too interesting. For episode 2 and 3 we were shown the idea of how Yuuko would manifest herself to the viewer according to how the viewer knows of her. Not only was this a good idea to see the relationships that the three character has to Yuuko, but I’m sure hidden somewhere would be some kind of social commentary on how we see others based on what we know of them already, even if what we know of them might not be true. Add that with the idea of how others and knowledge can shift your view of Yuuko (episode 3), Tasogare is an appealing show that I will continue to watch.

part of SZS ch28 pg1

Computer Security is important, especially in an age where we do banking online, use Facebook and Twitter and for some of us, interact using the Internet more than in real life. First, let’s define what security is. In the class I took, one definition for security is CIA, Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability. Confidentiality states that only the people who have authority to access the data can access the data, preventing any unwanted third party from knowing the secret. Integrity states that the secret data that you see is the correct one when you request and see it, ensuring that the data is not tampered with when it is transported to you. And availability states that when you request the secure data, it is available for you. While all three are important, let’s mostly focus on confidentiality.¹

So with confidentiality, only the authorized parties can have access to the object in question, but the main problem is that how do we know if someone is 1) a member of the authorized parties 2) the person is really the person that he/she said that he/she is. To do this, we need to both identify and authorize the person, to know the identity of and to know if the person is really the identity that he/she put forward as. In a simple website example, putting your username would be a form of identification, and putting your password would be authorization, as the password should only be known between the website and the person who registered as the given username. Obviously this is easier in real life than through the Internet, since in real life, the person, say Bob, doing the authorizing can physically see the person, say Alice, and can easily use a series of information for authorization (speech, look, body actions), especially if Bob have prior interactions with Alice. The amount of information that Bob can use to authorize Alice would most likely be a lot less if they had interacted through the Internet. ²

So….how does this have to do with anime? Well, in chapter 28 of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Zetsubou-sensei just deals with the issue of authorization. Chapter 27, we see the entrance of Majiru, of which he was brought to Zetsubou-sensei’s classroom. Zetsubou, having not seen Majiru since birth, and to start the issue of chapter 28, questions if the Majiru in front of him is the real Majiru (and not just some kid masquerading as Majiru), of which he then generalizes the issue and ask the whole class for each of their authorization, or proof of who they say they are.

At page 6, Zetsubou outlines the definition of what is needed for authorization, something that “only the real you would know”, let’s see how efficient Zetsubou is in getting proper authorization from his students.

A curly hair is fine also (pg13)

First he asked Chiri for authorization, of which Usui suggested her to reveal her breast size for authorizing. While breast size is a private information and hence wouldn’t be known by most people, the fact that most health record of Chiri would have such information, and hence anyone that have access to such health record can know such information, and that if someone is pro enough, he/she can guess Chiri cup size with a small margin of error. Since there is a small set of people that can know Chiri’s cup size without being Chiri, strictly speaking, her breast size is not the best way to proof her identity. Obviously knowing that cup size is not good enough for proof, Chiri showed that her hair is not naturally straight, but really curly, to which Zetsubou laughs off as interesting and authorizes Chiri.³ …Now really, not only is her curly hair not arguably an information that only she would know (surly her parents [which she might have killed off already] and her elementary school classmates would know [assuming that if any of them are still alive…Harumi is her friend since elementary school right?...so Harumi could pretend to be Chiri using that information]), but that Zetsubou-sensei has no way to prove that the information is something that is true to the real Chiri. Using the same example with Alice and Bob, Bob request something that only Alice (not even Bob) would know, but this does not stop Mallory coming in to tell Bob something is that only Mallory would know. Since Bob cannot know what this information is beforehand, and if he is like Zetsubou-sensei, he would just accept Mallory as Alice (which ends up breaking the whole idea of authorization). By this alone, we see that using Zetsubou’s method is totally useless for proper authorization, and hence I suggest that the information used to decide proof one’s identity should be shared by both parties (and only the two parties).

After authorizing Chiri, he asks for Abiru’s authorization, which she declines, and I donno, I guess he accepts her identity precisely because of her decline (as he guess the secret have to do with domestic violence).⁴ Really now, the lack of information to authorize something, this is something new to me. While, I can guess the Zetsubou is using more of the five senses as data for authorization, the cynical in me is saying that anyone that know Abiru’s rumors can pretend to be like her and be all bandaged up.

Nami passes with giving a normal answer. So normal. Well, I guess it prevents her from being masqueraded by un-normal people, which SZS is full of.⁵

As for Maria, who we all know got into the class from buying the identity of Sekiutsu Tarou-kun, and hence has been a fake from the very beginning. Instead of asking weird secret information as he did with Chiri, he asked background related information about Tarou-kun, and which Maria was able to correctly answer all of them. The teacher asked Tarou’s permanent resident, middle school, blood type and his father’s name, all of which are information that can easily obtained with a bit of research.⁶ This shows the lack of security by using publically accessible information as a proof for your identity (and hence the idea of security questions for security is just pure bull).

Finally coming to full circle, the idea of using a secret information for authorization that is not shared between the two parties came back to bite Zetsubou, where his students asked for his authorization. He first tried to show proof by dying, but the students objected, saying the information that they stored related to the teacher is not what he provided (different look, different personality).⁷ Obviously he didn’t know that is what the students had in mind of him (it is secret), similar to how he didn’t know that Chiri had curly hair, and was not given authorization even though he was really the teacher. The catch is that if the secret is not (partly) shared between the two parties, there is no way that a proper authorization scheme can work (you might end up authorizing the incorrect person or not authorizing the correct person).

For the people that know a bit about security or cryptography you might object saying that it is possible for the same secret to be not shared between the two parties but still have a perfectly working authorization scheme (public key cryptography). Well, yes….but the two parts of the keys are created in such a way that makes it possible. Here I’m saying how it is possible for Mallory to make a completely random secret and will be accepted as Alice.

1. University of Waterloo, CS458 Winter 2012 Slide 1-19
2. University of Waterloo, CS458 Winter 2012 Slides 3-29-32
3. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, chapter 28, page 6
4. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, chapter 28, page 7
5. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, chapter 28, page 8
6. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, chapter 28, page 9
7. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, chapter 28, page 11

阿良々木月火 / ant

I ranted against it, I praised it, and now I’m just a bit confused. From seeing Nisemonogatari’s ranking throughout Winter 2012’s Anime Power Rankings, it does seem that most people do think that Nisemonogatari is a good show. But I really don’t know if I actually like it or not. Let’s just go through the strengths and weaknesses that I think Nisemonogatari has and try to come to a conclusion of how I feel about the show.

Before I start

I was never a big fan of Bakemonogatari, the prequel of Nisemonogatari. Yes, it was well written, the character are all unique, the animation is amazing, but really I never seem to get a grasp of what Bakemonogatari was trying to do, and hence was also pretty confused on my stance on Bakemonogatari. In hindsight, I was partly to blame, since I didn’t watch as it aired, but watched it after the BluRays came out, meaning that I was able to watch each episode back to back (which I did). Looking back, this prevented me to actually watch episode, think and reflect on what just happened, and then continue on to the next episode. In short, Bakemonogatari can be (and is most likely) deep but I never took the time to look into it.

The following post might have spoilers for both Nisemonogatari and Bakemonogatari.

Strengths

One of the –monogatari series’ strengths is the character. All of them aren’t one dimensional, doesn’t necessary fit into a certain moe category, but is dynamic, each with their own quirky personality. This is even true in Nisemonogatari. Whether it is Koyomi having a casual chat with one of the girls or when something important is actually happening, each of their unique personality shows in their speech and actions. This is especially rare in a harem genre (a genre of which Nisemonogatari is arguably in), as most girls are either fitted into a certain category and/or is one dimensional, or stuff just happens just because the plot demands of. By making each character more unique and more dynamic, it also makes the characters more real, as it makes us feel that they are less constructed by a written hand, but that they have their own life (even outside of what is shown).

Going along the lines of realism in the characters, the character relationships are also dealt in a way that seems realistic. For Koyomi’s relationship with his ‘harem’, we see that he talks and acts with each character differently (Having deep discussions with Shinobu, harassing Mayoi, being abused by Senjougahara etc…). Also, even if he was dealing with one character in particular (in that person’s arc), it is not like that he didn’t see and chat with other female characters, as seen in most visual novel based anime, since in real life, even if you are dealing with just one person, it is not like you stop chatting with your other friends. Outside of Koyomi, we even see relationships between the girls (ie Karen and Kanbaru, Tsubasa and Senjougahara), reminding us that they have a life of their own, and aren’t just all bounded to Koyomi 24/7.

I really don’t remember much of the topics discussed during the various chats, but I’m sure some of them aren’t even directly related to the main plot. While really useless, all these dialogues exist to make us relate to the times that we chill out with our friends talking mindless nonsense which go no where. Are those talks even necessary to our future? Nope, but they are just fun to have when you are with your friends, and they also help to deepen friendships as it will potentially reveal more of the participants’ personality.

Also, animation, the openings and ending are all something to be praised about.

Weaknesses

To sum up my post

At core, the plot is very simple, and without all the extra stuff in the middle, the whole Nisemonogatari might just finish in 5 or less episodes. For Karen’s arc: Kaiki enters, did something bad to Karen, Koyomi takes Senjougahara along and talk to Kaiki. For Tsukihi’s arc: Kagenui enters, attacks Tsukihi, Koyomi takes Shinobu along and fights/talks to Kagenui. I guess most of the meat of the series is not in the main plot itself, but more in the characters, but I still think it is quite disheartening when you see no plot movement after a whole episode; most people call these filler episodes. In comparison, Bakemonogatari had less of this issue, since they fit 5 arcs in 15 episodes, averaging 3 episodes per arc, so if the plots are just as simple there, it would still have felt less filler-ish.

As I have said in my Anime Power Ranking commentary, I had an issue with the toothbrush scene, more generally, I had an issue with the high amounts of fanservice that is shown in Nisemonogatari; even Bakemonogatari wasn’t this excessive with their fanservice. I know that kevo and Aeroblip stated that in their podcast that the toothbrush scene does exist in the novel, and that Shinbou made the scene less scandalous by making it so over-the-top, but that just mean that I’m going to complain to Isin Nisio for including such a scene in the original novel. I was seriously thinking if releasing Nisemonogatari as a sound novel would be better, since I won’t be able to see all the (visual) fanservice, but then I realized that I won’t be able to see those pretty animations.

I think I can actually write more about Nisemonogatari strength, but the point is that –monogatari series (where Nisemonogatari is a subset of it) is not skin deep, but is something that I should be taking my time to chew all the good parts out. Yet, since the problems that I talked about Nisemonogatari is either magnified or unique to this series (and either less or not to Bakemonogatari), it is as if someone slapped a scoop of salad filled with mayo (I don’t like mayo) to my perfectly good -monogatari steak (of which I need to slowly chew to get the full taste of).

Picture semi related

Since some people on my Twitter timeline was having so much fun finding random pictures on a certain screen-short sharing site, I decided to do a quick look on the site, and man, their security is so lacking.

On their main site, it reads the following: “ Share them with the world or make them private, for your eyes only.” Ya, the whole issue of random people going through the picture sharing website looking for random pictures is a null point if your intentions were to share them to everyone (or everyone with the link), but it is a huge security problem if the uploader intended for it to be private. (Aside: Actually for sites like youtube, you can have your videos unlisted, unsearchable on the site, only accessible with a link, but you can’t really prevent other from sharing the link to people you might not even know after you have shared it, so only accessible by link might not be secure enough). From just testing few random values (and some not as random ones), I found that there are several problem with the system.

1) Make it freaking secure if the user desire to do so. Make something like a login system where upon entering the link, either request a login to identity the user and to determine if the user have the proper authorization to see the uploaded picture. Yet, the main problem is that the design of the whole site might need to be changed to accommodate a login system.. Haven’t try the upload program, but I won’t be surprised that it doesn’t check for username when a user uploads a picture, and even if a username check is needed, it might be because of stuff like “to prevent one user from uploading too much stuff in a short period of time”. Even if assume that a username check is in place in the upload program, the ability to mark a picture to be private would take more work than select part of your desktop to be shared and then share with the given link (aka gyazo).

2) The picture ID is way too short. Even without what I have said above, it is possible for people like me to actually find an picture on the site if the ID for each picture is longer than what they have right now. For their site, each picture is saved and then accessed with <sitename>/XXXX where XXXX is 4 character from the set [0...9,A...Z,a...z]. Meaning that there is a maximum of 62^4 possible ID’s which is less than 2^24. First this mean that there is a maximum of 62^4 accessible picture at any time, any new pictures might need to take over some old ID’s, causing those older picture to be inaccessible, second it means that if I do exhaustive search, I am sure that I can find a proper link with at most less than 2^24 steps. While 2^24 steps might sound a lot, this is considered to be simple work for a computer and should be done within seconds if not less. You might say that the website might be able to catch me since I’m doing so much request to their site with the same computer (and hence same IP) and will be able to block me from doing any further requests. Yet the fact is that 2^24 steps is necessary only if there is only 1 picture on the site, and it gets easier and easier as more people use the website to share pictures. For example, if the site if half filled (62^4/2 pictures), I can expect to get at least one correct link after trying two random links. So ironicly, the more popular the site is, the less secure the pictures are.

There seems to be an mistake with my reasoning above, while I have a higher chance to find a picture, I still need ~2^24 steps if I want a certain picture (assuming that I know it exists in the site). The fact is just that an attacker can get a sensitive picture easier and easier as the amount of sensitive pictures increases, it is still difficult if the attacker is trying to find a certain sensitive picture.

3) One issue that I also found is that the ID creation might not necessary be random. According to a forum about people finding through pictures on this site, one limited the search from 0xxx-l000 (anything except for the first character to be l or greater). While I was able to find some proper links where the first digit is greater than l, I found out that I tend to be less successful if my first character is of a higher value (counting in base 65 where a = 10, b = 11 and so on). This leads me to guess that the site doesn’t necessary just generate a value at random, but it have some kind of equation to calculate a correct value (one is not taken). Practically this makes checking if the value is used or not easier, since they are incrementing for any new ID, only ID that are smaller then the new ID is used, so by definition the ID is not used (unless they are already starting to recycle the ID’s, which my observation of less ID with high first character value does not points to). Yet, this is a case where the developers exchanged security for convenience. To add to the result, I was able to find a series of picture successfully by incrementing 2 to the ID everytime, possibly showing the simple nature of the ID generation.

All these wouldn’t be a problem if all the uses are using this site for public sharing only, but since the site itself does describe that if the user desires, it can be kept private (by not sharing the link). This is obviously false, since it is highly likely that someone (malicious or not) can guess and get the link to your picture relatively easy (I did mentioned that the site can block me if I do too many request, but what if the request are coming from many different sources (ie distributed), which is really easy, since the task can be easily divided (I take 0xxx-7xxx and you take 8xxx-cxxx).) And seeing some of the results that my twitter follow have found, some people are really using this site for private pictures….

As for the test: I tested around 26 links, with only 9 not working (and I tried more later….)

Edit: I found out that they also use capitalized letters, making the size of possible ID to be 62^4, which, while more than before, is still a piece of cake to computers. 

Edit 2: 

As otou-san have shown and after actually using their services, it is possible for a user to explicitly mark a picture to be private, prevent anyone except for you to view it, and hence meaning that most of my arguments above is thrown out the window. Good grief, this is what you get for not doing enough research on the subject itself, jumping into conclusions. Yet, still as seen with the presence of some sensitive information that some of my Twitter follows had undercovered, the either all or nothing security model might not be suitable for all users, and that by deafult any pictures uploded is placed to he public folder might be a problem if users don’t actually get around to change the settings of either their account (change default folder to private) or transfer the sensitive picture to private folder (though highly unlikely, the time between a user uploading the picture and the user transferring the picture from public to private folder is still an opportunity for attacker to access those sensitive pictures…..

Now I’m just trying to salvage what is left in my argument. I guess those developers aren’t so insensitive to security after all.

I know many people will disagree with me, but the opening for Kill Me Baby is an awesome song. I know that according to Anime Instrumentality this song is bad, but I disagree with his point of view. And since they are now focusing on J-Drama songs now, I wish to take this chance to clear out some disagreements with the song.

1) People complain of how annoying and random it is to have the title of the anime screamed over and over again in the song. Somehow we forgot that sometimes people use repittion to convey a very important idea/message. This is the same with this song: the writers and singers are trying to convey the title of the song, so much that you won’t forget about them. This is especially helpful us western viewers, since we would not know the title of the anime just looking at the sequence (the title is in katakana); why do you think that the creators of this anime chose to use an English name for the anime title. Therefore, it is sad that viewers not only didn’t recognize the creator’s intent to help us remember the name of the show but that we laugh at how poorly done the opening song is.

2) Using “cheesy Russian accordion” (from Anime Instrumentality)  and other cheesy background music. They are just playing straight to the current need of the current society, where cheesy pop music get more audience than solid music. Ya, it might be not your awesome orchestra music, but really, this music fits perfectly with the comedy and mix of characters from the anime.

And come on, admit it, this song is catchy as hell. It is perfect marketing scheme to get people to buy more of their CD’s; you gotta at least applaud of their good marketing skills.

With those two points, I fully think that the opening not only good, but a perfect fit to the anime.

$5 Cards:

咒詛「魔彩光の上海人形」

Original Equivalent: Ghost Ship
+2 Cards
Each other player with 4 or more cards in hand puts cards from his hand on top of his deck until he has 3 cards in his hand.

Another attack card. The effect can slow your opponents quite a bit, since you will be limiting their hands to only 3 cards. Even if they have the choice to choose which card to put back, because they are putting it back to the top of the deck, they might not want to put back useless cards, crippling their next hand, which might end up meaning that their current 3 card hand will be close to useless. Even if the opponents have + cards in their hand, they would just end up having to pick what they have placed back by your attack. The +2 card is a nice addition, but you might be using that so that you can recover from a ghost ship attack from one of your opponents. This card with Sea Hag can make a game very annoying and long.

Can someone please explain why that this spell card would be a good one to represent ghost ship? Aside from the general “this spell card limits the movement that the opponents has, similar to how the opponents can’t use as much cards”, I can’t think of any similarity between the two.

すきま妖怪の式「八雲藍」

Original Equivalent: Tactician
Discard your hand. If you discarded any cards this way, then at the start of your next turn, +5 Cards; +1 Buy; and +1 Action.

If you do use this card, while you might end up not getting to anything else this turn, it means that next turn you start with 10 cards, 2 buys, 2 actions, which IMO is better than having 2 turns of 5 cards, 1 buy, 1 action, since you have higher chance of getting card that can help you do combos, which you might be able to get 2 provinces, something that is less certain if you just had 2 turns with a 5 card hand. Obviously if your current hand is really good, don’t use it and then discard it, especially when you know that you are unlikely to grab such combination of cards (ie, there is a really useful card in your current hand, but you know that none of them are still in the deck). You also might want to try doing other non-terminal actions first, but before that you don’t play cards that have +card effect, since you will be discarding them anyways (when you play Tactician).

It appears to me that Yakumo Ran is intelligent (Touhou Wiki supports my image of her), so the image of Ran being a tactician doesn’t seem too far from the truth; the image art for this card also helps.

すきま妖怪の式の式「橙」

Original Equivalent: Duke
Worth 1 Victory Point per Duchy you have.

I usually would be buying this card near the end of game, mostly when I know I’m behind, and that I know I have enough duchies to make sure that this is a good buy. Since this cost the same and is as useless in game (can’t use this card as an action) as a duchy, which provides me 3 victory points, I need to have at least 3 duchies in my hand before this card will give me 3 victory points. Yet, the main issue is that usually I would not want to go for duchies during the game, since I should be getting card that can help me get provinces, and that it clogs my deck without giving the benefit of giving me 6 victory points. Only when I cannot get up to $8 with confidence (my deck is filled with crappy cards) or when I am few provinces behind and by buying province would seal my defeat (since the game ends when provinces are all purchased) I would start to do Duchy-Duke strategy.

Chen was the guardian of Mayohiga (represents Duchy in this deck) during Perfect Cherry Blossom (Touhou game that Touhou Shisouroku – Touhou Youyoumu-hen is based on), so it makes full sense for her to be the card that is closely related to the duchy card.

大合葬「霊車コンチェルトグロッソ」

Original Equivalent: Bazaar
+1 Card; +2 Actions, +$1.

A usual non-terminal card and it is pretty useful to pull combos. The +2 actions can help you to play 2 non-terminal cards (ie Bridge), while the $+1 can accumulate as you combo bazaar, on top of that the $+1 does not occupy any space in your hand, since once you play it, you get a new card (and a new action, having no negative impact to both your action limit and number of cards in your hands. One strategy is to use this to accumulate your coins, and then possibly draw a treasure, so that you can easily have enough money to get a province.

This card have 3 effects to it, and there are 3 sisters in the Prismriver Sisters. Or maybe the creators is telling me to use this card and all three of the Prismriver cards as a combo (I doubt it, at most Bazaar and Bridge (Lunasa Prismriver) might make sense, but I have never tried it before).

普通の黒魔術少女「霧雨魔理沙」

Original Equivalent: Tribute
The player to your left reveals then discards the top 2 cards of his deck. For each differently named card revealed, if it is an… Action Card; +2 Actions; Treasure Card; +$2; Victory Card; +2 Cards.

This is a pretty interesting card. One is that you can get pretty good effect from it (heck, from the looks of it, it has a bigger effect than, say, Bazaar, but it won’t be as effective if the person on your left lacks variety. Second, this card is not listed as an attack, so that person can’t prevent you from discarding two of his/her cards. The only caution of this is that the effects are not fixed, and hence it is not guaranteed that you can use this to pull off a combo or have the effect you needed.

Marisa steals other’s stuff and collects it to her advantage, just like how this card takes advantage of other people, forcing them to discard useful cards.

幽冥楼閣の亡霊少女「西光寺幽々子」

Original Equivalent: Explorer
You may reveal a Province card from your hand. If you do, gain a Gold card, putting it into your hand. Otherwise, gain a Silver card, putting it into your hand.

This card is good to get fast silver cards in the beginning stages, doubly useful since the silver goes into your hand. This becomes less effective when you can actually get a province, even if then you can get a gold, since usually your hand wouldn’t be filled with provinces that it would make it likely that the two card will appear on the same hand (% can increase if you use some card with +card effects).

Yuyuko is the owner Hakugyokurou (represents province in this deck), so there is a bit of connection between the effects of this card and Yuyuko.

楽園の素敵な巫女「博麗霊夢」

Original Equivalent: Counting House
Look through your discard pile, reveal any number of Copper cards from it, and put them into your hand.

This card is a joke. It is almost impossible (IMO) to actually use this card and win. This card depends on you having enough coppers for this card to actually benefit you, meaning that instead of discarding or trashing your coppers, you should be getting more coppers, so that when you actually get this card, you will have enough coppers in your discard pile to get you a province. Seeing how useful trashing and how useless coppers are, this card is just a joke, but man, huge respect for anyone that can win using this card.

Reimu depends on donations, and coppers are represented as money donations in this deck, so the resemblance is there. Man, I cannot shake off the idea that Reimu is so poor that anyone who actually want to use this card will be too poor to actually contain anything other than coppers. O you poor miko.

$6 Card:

「花見は神社で」

Original Equivalent: Harem
Worth $2
2 Victory Points

This is not actually an action card, but it functions as a hybrid between treasure and victory card. Since this cost $6, when you buy this, you should be thinking if this is better or is gold (treasure giving $3) better. While this will provide 2 victory points, it will still provide $1 less than gold, which it might be a deal breaker from getting a province at times, but at the same time, not getting those two victory points might make you lose to someone who just won with just one extra Harem. Both have pros and cons (I say get this card when you can, since there are only 8 or 12 of these in the game, while there is lot more gold, so you can always get gold when you want to, but there is a limited amount of harems).

Since this card describes an event in a location, it make sense to have the victory part into it (territories represents victory points), and the treasure part….the food consumed during the flower viewing. On another note, Rinnosuke would be a better candidate for this card, since he is the the one of the few males in the whole Touhou world, making him almost the center of the Harem (not that he is shipped with the entire Touhou cast).

Now that you have seen all of the cards that are in Touhou Shisouroku – Touhou Youyoumu-hen (東方祀爭録～東方妖々夢編～), now go and buy a set… (゜∀゜)