So yeah, I had another chance to write a Kino no Tabi fanfic for class, this time for Fourth Gospel (study of the Gospel of John). So you can expect this to be a religious allegory of sorts.
I'll start by saying that I'm not as satisfied with this fanfic as I was with my first one, and I had to rush the last third of the story or so. If you want to read a better (and shorter) fanfic, read this one.

Anyway, I wrote in the 1st person. I had fun getting into the mind of Kino (heh...;D)
Here it is:




He opened our eyes and saved us from death.

“We don’t get many travelers around here.”
A fat man with small eyes, decked in royal apparel, glared suspiciously at me from the tall counter.
I nodded. “Just passing through.”
The man continued to glare at me for a while before he finally turned away into the room behind him. “Very well. What did you want? Two loaves of bread, a canteen of water, and a gallon of gasoline?”
“Yes sir,” I answered promptly. The fat man disappeared into the room behind him, leaving me waiting quietly behind.
Unbuttoning my oversized tan traveler’s jacket a bit and taking off my pilots cap and worn goggles, I looked around the room. It was empty. The wood panels that comprised the floor and walls were extremely well polished, perhaps unnecessarily so. Pictures and certificates featuring portraits of the fat man decorated the wall; these, too, looked well polished. And despite the cleanliness of the room, the air was stuffy and heavy, and a certain despair and loneliness hovered over the room.
There was a small ringing, and the door at the entrance opened. I instinctively put my hand on the holster hidden underneath my jacket, ready to pull out a pistol. In entered a young man with ragged clothes. The man looked and smelled as if he hadn’t taken a bath for days. His hollow eyes were full of sadness. And yet he tried to smile when he saw me, and I relaxed my grip on my pistol.
The fat man re-entered the room and unceremoniously dumped a bag of supplies at my feet. I silently slid a few coins across the counter and picked up the bag to leave. Just before the door to the warehouse closed behind me, however, I caught a bit of the exchange between the fat man and the man in ragged clothes.
“You’re late again!” screeched the fat man.
“Forgive me, my lord. My daughter is sick and—“
“I’ll be canceling your family’s rations today.”
“But my lord! My family…”
I frowned as I let the door behind me slam shut.



It was hot.
I raced down the road smoothly and quickly on my motorcycle, as though I were carried by fleet-footed wings. All around me was a yellow wasteland, an endless sea of dead fields, devoid of any life. There was nothing—no trees, no crops, no animals. The dirt road, indicated by a rotting fence, was dusty and seemed seldom used. Up ahead, the setting sun painted the sky red, as though it were bleeding into the land.
This was the Land of Famine. I remembered citizens from the neighboring country telling me that. It had not rained for fifty years, and crops had been unable to grow for forty. The drought hit this country especially hard. It was a country based entirely on agriculture—families ran self-sufficient farms and paid a small tax to the ruling monarchy. Thus, when the famine struck, the country was left in utter carnage. Farmlands fell into disuse, families starved, and the monarchy fell. A company, which everyone simply called the Company, from a neighboring country eventually came to power. The Company, via connections from its home country, was able to provide the only food for the Land of Famine. And with the sole monopoly over food in a country that was starving, the Company could assert its demands anytime; the Company enslaved citizens who could not pay for food, enriching itself all the while. The common people were hopelessly dependent on the Company, and those who defied the Company simply starved. For the people, it was a pathetic existence.
I was now passing by another large warehouse, similar to the one I had just visited earlier. Around it was a disheveled array of tents that looked like they could do no real good against the elements. And in the midst of the tents, I saw people, though I wasn’t sure if they could be called human anymore. Their eyes were full of despair and sadness; there was no life in them. Men were lifting heavy crates, women were quickly tailoring cheap clothes, and all the while Company members in royal clothes barked orders at them and whipped them. I sighed as I drove on. It really was a pathetic existence.
The tents began to disappear, and the dead fields again dominated my sight. It was getting late; the sun was already halfway down the horizon. I was getting nervous; I didn’t want to sleep outside this night, especially out in this barren wasteland.
And then suddenly, unexpectedly the yellow wasteland turned into green fields. Suddenly there were trees, albeit few and far in between. Then these few trees turned into whole orchards. All around, the fields were no longer empty but full of wheat and corn. And there were houses, houses with their lights on; there were people living here. The sense of hopelessness no longer hung in the air.
Was this still the Land of Famine?
I felt confused but also too tired to think. I decided that I would ask one of the residents for a place to sleep.



I couldn’t believe my luck when I found myself enjoying dinner with a family in a homely farmhouse. After I took a bath, I told the eager children stories of my past travels—of the Land of Prophecies, of the Land of Immortality, and of several other lands. Afterwards, the father prepared a small cot in the kitchen corner for me to sleep. I thanked him, but there was one worry bothering me.
“Excuse me, sir,” I said just as he was about to blow out the candle. “May I ask….Isn’t this the Land of Famine? How are the lands here so fertile?”
The man beamed. “All of us here can only thank old man Inri.”
He saw the confusion on my face.
“Well,” he continued. “You know why our country is called the Land of Famine, correct?”
“Well enough,” I said.
“Before old man Inri came along, I was a slave to the Company just like everyone else. It was a horrible life. And worse yet, all of us accepted it. We passively followed everything the Company the commanded. We had no minds of our own….”
The father paused. “But then Inri came along. He opened our eyes and saved us from death. He made us realize the tyranny of the Company; he helped us step away from our lives of death.
“The Company before required us to purchase its wine. But then Inri told us that we no longer had to do this; he said he could teach us how to find our own water, how to make our own wine.”
The man smiled. “I’ll admit, I was one of his first followers; I believed in him. He taught me how to farm, even in a desolate land like this. I began telling my neighbors about Inri, and soon he became popular.
“And, well,” he shrugged, “we’re here now because of him.”
The man paused again. “You’re lucky you came tonight. Tomorrow is his birthday celebration. You’ll get to meet him.”
“I’ll look forward to it,” I smiled. “Thank you sir. And good night.”
The man blew out the candle, and darkness swallowed the room,



The next day was a festival indeed. There was music, delicious food, games. All the families from the surrounding farms came to celebrate. It immediately became apparent to me how much these people loved Inri, how much they owed to him. And in the course of the festivities, I learned more about the old farmer.
When Inri first began teaching others how to farm, the Company grew to despise him. Many slaves left the Company to follow Inri, but others, out of fear of the Company, decided to remain slaves. Inri helped those who followed him, but he also helped those who were too scared to follow him. One time, Inri gave a starving slave bread, but the slave, after eating the bread, proceeded to report Inri to the Company.



At the end of the day, I finally got to meet Inri. I never met a man radiating such kindness, such love. He thanked me for celebrating the festival with him, and he credited the people who followed him for the now fertile lands. Before we parted, he gave me a small sack of seeds as a gift.



I found myself the next day racing past the same barren wasteland I had seen before meeting Inri. That small land—the only fertile land in all of the Land of Famine—was far behind me now.
I soon was passing by yet another community of tents with people slaving around them. Instead of driving through, however, I stopped in the middle to watch the people. A family was walking by me towards another warehouse, probably to receive their ration of food for the day.
Seeing this family, I remembered the sack of seeds old man Inri had given me. I took the sack out of my pocket and looked at it for a long time. I thought about Inri, and everything he had done.
I threw the sack of seeds to the family and drove off back into the barren wasteland.

stolethisideafromkaruraandeazy let's move on

So. This blog has been long due for me. Ever since getting a last.fm account back in February, I've seen my musical tastes and my love for music grow in leaps and bounds. Music has become one of my primary passions in life, and I'm always looking for new stuff to listen to. Of course, my tastes wouldn't be what they are now if not for a few important people. So here's a shout-out to Vhien, Karura, and eazy.

In terms of favorite genres, my tastes are as eclectic as can be. (Indeed, one week the genres that were represented in my top 10 artists of the week included House, Hip Hop, J-Rock, Classical, Soul, Instrumental Remix, Pinoy Rock, Soundtrack, and 80's.) The only genre I find myself avoiding is death metal or anything of the sort that involves too much screaming. Just doesn't really appeal to me.


Anyway, tl;dr. On to the good stuff. The following artists I list are, of course, my favorites; I also list the general genre with which each artist is associated. The albums and songs, however, are not "favorites" per se, but rather albums or songs that I believe marked important turning points in the development of my musical tastes.

Artists:(kinda in order)
Japanese & Korean
m-flo (Hip Hop)
Crystal Kay (R&B)
Round Table featuring Nino (Pop)
Back-On (Rock)
Dreams Come True (Pop)
Cho PD (Hip Hop)
BoA (Pop)
Uverworld (Rock)
OreSkaBand (Ska)
June (Pop)

English
Rahsaan Patterson (Soul, R&B)
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony (Rap, Hip Hop)
Malcos (Instrumental, Remix)
John Legend (Soul, R&B)
Sugar Ray (Alternative)
Modjo (House)
Kanye West (Hip Hop)
Lupe Fiasco (Hip Hop)
Claude-Michel Schonberg - Les Miserable, Mis Saigon (Musical)
Switchfoot (Rock, Alternative)
Relient K (Punk, Rock)
Joe Jackson (Pop)

Other
Bamboo (Pinoy Rock, Jazz Rock)
Gotan Project (Tango)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Classical)

Anime/Drama/Game Soundtrack
Overclocked Remix
Misawa Yasuhiro - Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight OST (BGM)
Taku Iwasaki - Gurren Lagann OST (BGM, hip hop, jazz, etc)
Hideki Naganuma - Ollie King OST, Jet Set Radio OST (Funk, Hip Hop, Electronic)
The Pillows - FLCL OST (J-Rock)
Haneoka Kei - Negima!? OST (BGM)
skankfunk - Air Gear OST (Hip Hop, Funk)
Kohei Tanaka - Top wo Nerae 2 (BGM)
Yoshihiro Ike - Nobuta wo Produce OST (BGM)
Toshio Masuda - Mushishi OST(BGM)

Albums(in the order of when I first encountered them)
mmhmm - Relient K
Baby Rock - Back-On
Cosmicolor - m-flo
My Day Needs a Soundtrack - Malcos
Light Peace Love - Bamboo
April - Round Table
And I Love You - Dreams Come True
Stardom in Future Flow - Cho PD
E. 1999 Eternal - Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
Modjo - Modjo
Get Lifted - John Legend
WAO - OreSkaBand
A Song For You - Bizzy Bone

Songs(in the order of when I first encountered them)
Gone - Switchfoot
Who I am Hates Who I've Been - Relient K
Every Morning - Sugar Ray
When It's Over - Sugar Ray
In the Light - DC Talk
Chance - Uverworld
Summer Time Love - Skoop on Somebody
Love Don't Cry - m-flo & Crystal Kay
Candy - Crystal Kay
Bamboo - Truth
Sure Boy - Rahsaan Patterson
Konna Chikaku de... - Cyrstal Kay
Nothing Doing (Lazy Sunday) - Malcos
Nakama - Misawa Yasuhiro
Gun's & Roses - Paradise Lunch
Straighten it Out - Rahsaan Patterson
Seishun to Shite - Manzo
Dancing All Night - Round Table featuring Nino
Flashing Lights - Kanye West
Tha Crossroads - Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
Hoshikuzu Namida - ACKO
Omae no XXX de Ten wo Tsuke! - Taku Iwasaki
Soul Free- Rahsaan Patterson
Resurrection (Paper, Paper) - Bone Thugs-n-Harmony
Password 486 - Younha
It Don't Have to Change - John Legend
Muddy Waters - Bizzy Bone


WOW THIS WAS LONG

I love the picture. x33

Anime Relations: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

So I finished watching Gurren Lagann today, and it was so insanely incredible that I just had to write a blog about it. :P So here goes.

 

When I finally started watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, I was skeptical. It was so insanely popular that it had to be overrated. I thought that I was sure to be disappointed.

How ever wrong I was.

After finishing Gurren Lagann, I was blown away. Scratch that; by episode 8 I was already blown away. I have never seen an anime (literally) so epic. I couldn’t help but laugh at (in a good way) the utter badassness of everybody, especially when they were up against impossible odds. Nearly all the characters are likeable, and the ones who are annoying either grow on you (like Attenborou) or are easy to forgive (like Rossiu). And I loved how deep the characters were. The “bad guys” weren’t evil for the sake of being evil; they actually had legitimate reasons for their actions. The battles were amazing—the best I’ve ever seen in a mecha; they were so enormous that entire galaxies were flung as weapons.

And honestly, there’s really nothing for which I can criticize this anime. There are just so many great things about Gurren Lagann.

As a matter of fact, one can argue that Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is the best anime. Ever.

Certainly not my favorite anime (that honor goes to Kino no Tabi), but one has to admit, Gurren Lagann sure has all the elements of a perfect series. You laugh. You cry. You cheer. You’re inspired.

You find heroes. You find role models. You find characters you relate to.

You have the awesome, good-hearted protagonist character in Simon. You have the fanservicey character in Yoko. You have, arguably, the most moe anime character in recent memory in Nia. And you have the most gar anime character ever in Kamina (period).

You have a story of epic proportions. You have incredible battles—mecha and hand-to-hand. You have the themes of courage, friendship, coming of age.

You have the inspirational quotes, the amazing soundtrack, the time leap, the enemies turned friends. The list goes on.

But perhaps what I love Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann the most for is its message of hope. When times are bleak, when times are hopeless, continue to believe in yourself, no matter what. Even when the chances of success are 0%, “surpass the impossible and kick reason to the curb.” Yes, there are trials and tribulations; for Simon, Kamina dies and Nia disappears. But we must always stand up again and believe in hope, just as Simon did. This is a message to which everyone can hold. Perhaps, when it comes down to it, that’s the beauty—and the badassness—of Gurren Lagann.

Granted, Gurren Lagann came with its imperfections. Episode 4 certainly wasn’t perfect (I thought it was tolerable, but others hated it). The anime may have gone over-the-top at some points. The story might have been a little cliché. But with its message of hope, and all that good stuff that comes with it, I, at least, believe that Gurren Lagann is an anime for the ages.

 

That was very emotional now wasn’t it? :P I think I’ll go cool off by watching Aria.