音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

This year is definitely warmer, as there's no snow yet, and it's still above zero.
Although a good sign is it's getting colder recently, the stronger wind is also annoying.
While winter is coming, squirrels are preparing for the winter. During this week I've seen so many of them. But too bad I couldn't catch a single good snap. They run so quick and I'm never prepared with my camera for such swift little things.
-- And I must be the type who has a slow metabolic rate, as right now I'm still code cold.

↑ Can't stop agreeing with it, and this post made me want to read "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" again. I read it many years ago that I don't remember any details about it. But I do know it's of my interest.
Meanwhile, I tend to get confused between this and Frankenstein; I don't know why.

Last week I, after a long while (not less than 10 month), was making a castella. Not only that I don't remember anything regarding to the recipe, I even made a mistake while retrieving it from my quick recipe reference stock.
For some reason, I completely ignored the existence of milk. However, it turned out well as normal. And I didn't think there was any difference in terms of the taste as how I baked it before.
Actually, I even didn't realise the lack of milk until about 28 hours after; yet I was thinking that I could finally use up that box of milk and then to get some more fresh earlier on that day.
At least it didn't change the result, maybe I should take milk out of this recipe from now on?

Continued from my not-ended-yet Silent Hill Zero, I wanted to know more about "The Tempest". I don't deny that Silent Hill made me of more interest of reading his works. Similarly, I ever went through his comedies back to 2000, but I don't have a super brain so I barely remember any of even the main plot, except "The Merchant of Venice", which I read in a simple English version.
Off-topic: Silent Hill's riddles are much more serious than Biohazard. I love the headache 3 weeks fighting with the Shakespeare riddle with Heather in the bookstore! xD
This time, when I got his original "The Tempest", I was like in an endless hole. The old English was such a pain to me that I kept looking up the dictionary (fortunately it's easy on kindle), and quickly forget what they mean... orz But I indeed understood, that why English and German share the same ancestor. Modern English has evolved so much, but modern German still resembles the old English.
A "bad" metaphor, English is the influenza virus and German is the cyanobacteria.

1. Shimizu Takashi + Kawai Kenji will be involved in Biohazard's 2017 full-CG film!
They're so good at horror films, but I'm also a bit worried (or curious?) how the film will be like. Obviously Biohazard series is transforming from survival horror to action.
YET I NEVER MIND BIOHAZARD GO BACK TO THE PURE HORROR AGAIN!!

2. By a random search today, I found Murakami Haruki's new book is available on amazon.com! I was almost switching my region to Japan in order to buy the kindle edition there. Good thing that I haven't done so.
And, amazon.com's version is also cheaper than amazon.co.jp!
So please also get more of his novels in Japanese for kindle too! Japanese novels have to be read in Japanese! (I know the hope is weak as even amazon.co.jp doesn't have them.)

Moreover, Suga Shikao is releasing his new album in January next year. It may be unexpected that I love his music. In fact, after falling in love with "19-sai", I tried more of his music and thought, "even merely from the title, there's an Murakami Haruki-ish aura". Later on when I learned that he's also a Murakami fan, I was pleased. People who like the same thing will eventually connect somehow. (¯―¯”)

As I initialised it a month and half ago, I want to give it a conclusion.
Also, I should say this only include my physical purchases -- there's no fun to "photo" digital buys anyway.

No. 3.2
Silent Hill HOMECOMING.
-- used copy from ebay, remember to disinfect it with ethanol!

I insist that the HOMECOMING cover looks like Harry Potter, although I fell asleep during the first time watching its first film and never touched that series again.

No. 4 & 6
Alto x Soprano

I have trouble reaching the last hole with my 4th finger (of course on the alto)! (´Д⊂ヽ

No. 5
Shikata Akiko -- wokashi

ｒｙ…

No. 7
Japanese confection and other straps.

Cute is justice. (´・ω・`)
By the way, the Nyan-plug isn't for me, so I didn't unpack it.

No. 8
Just arrived yesterday, Corpse Party -BLOOD DRIVE-

Because lots of CP fans didn't give it a positive critique, I got the physical copy instead of the digital download, as I might want to sell it in future, although not that likely...

It's not the end yet, but will end soon!!

P.S. I was trying to make a record on last Monday but eventually I failed. As I was on gaming mode again.
The secret to play a RPG with a 200% enjoyment is to get a good walkthrough site for the gears and avoid being spoiled. Different from that I like to count my deaths in survival horror, I never want to die in a RPG battle. :3

Good to realise that tomorrow evening will be the actual Izayoi!

I began working on that earlier in the middle of August, with the cross-fade "wokashi" sample. I was deeply in the ambience of the vocal version of "otoshimono", and thus letting my mind drifting freely, while my hand then made the draft. Of course I did hear Akiko sings "Nii-sama", but I believed that two girls are a better choice. Although the characters were done quickly, I spent quite long to figure out what kind of background I should have. Apparently simple and repeated patterns wasn't fitting well. Initially I tried to refer to some shrine photos, but at some point, I changed my mind to fill the final work with all red.
Red sky, moon, and lycoris.

十六夜の夢隠し / Izayoi no Yumekakushi

The title was, as usual, given with a purposely imposed background. I myself say it is a mixture of concepts from various songs: Izayoi - mentioned in "otoshimono", (somehow) lycoris - mentioned in "wokashi", the houzuki lantern - like that of xxxHOLiC so that's for "hyakki yakou", lanterns on the river - mentioned in "tama no fune", the entire red makeup is similar to the "wokashi" album cover's colour, and it's also has a bit from "akakakushi" (which is where I derived the title from).
A side point, for drawing stars in the sky, I really found a star map first as a real reference -- although they probably have a different position to the moon compared to the reality.
Once I began to draw the background by myself, I can't stop doing it in future works as it's such a big fun!

Just finished SH0 this afternoon. Japanese PSP version so I don't have to struggle with the North America's reversed X and O button. After all these horror games, I've got a habit, that to keep pressing O in order to not miss any item.
-- and I can't stop putting Silent Hill and Biohazard together in the following part.

It's definitely not a good idea to do a no-save + no-map Silent Hill 0 run in a Sunday evening, especially that I've merely only cleared this game for one time. So I gave up for no-save, and will only focus on no-map + UFO end.
In the world of Biohazard, once you make to the end of the first time clear, maps are basically useless in following rounds, but it's completely not true in Silent Hill. First, it's just so dark that I can't see where the door is, which is really true in otherworlds; and second, the camera angle isn't fixed, making me -- who has no sense of direction -- get lost always. My first time clear record told me I opened the map for ~750 times during the ~5 hours of game play; this time, I'll see how many time I need without a map (right now already 1 hour yet I'm still wandering in the sanitarium orz).

Regardless being developed by the non-classic Silent Hill team, SH0 isn't that bad actually. While the worst to be the lack of radio-control, that confuses me every time when the camera angle changes, it's still Silent Hill, although not as scary as the main 1-4, plus it's a too short. Think about my other SH plays at the first time, none was cleared without spending over 13 hours! (But since it's on PSP, perhaps thus it's supposed not to be too long?).

There's no rank for how many monsters you kill, so in a sense it's much easier. With my experience in Biohazard, I'm now pretty good at passing by them to save my ammo. Besides, you can actually beat with your fist. So practical that I even feeling "it must hurt a lot" when I see Travis use his fists... Yet the "fragile" weapon system is indeed worth being poked in. I understand the glass bottles and such are easily to break, but why so do wrenches and hammers? Plus, due to my happy passing-by journey and my careful inspection of every corner of the map, by the end of game, even just pressing the "→" arrow to the end of the weapon list could take quite a long time. I know Travis is a tough guy, but without Doraemon's 4D pocket, how can he carry all of them? More often during the second half, as long as Travis picks up a new weapon, I said in my mind, "I know only you can take all of them, superman!" xD

The riddle dealing with the male seclusion and pills is interesting, and I don't get the meaning of those "reason of death" photos.
The Pyramid Head's SH0 cousin "the butcher", he's merely a mid-boss after all. I got rid of him quickly with a rifle and the same method as how Leon fights the Tyrant in the "golden gear" room in Biohazard 2. No tension, I was rather amused by how slow he moves.

I'm now in love with the hidden weapon moon gauntlet (reminds me Shadow Hearts this time). And you can now hear I laughing insanely when I get rid of a monster. "It's just way too strong! I'm invincible!" ← The reality is, I still can't avoid the monster attack.
Moreover, I also love the pumpkin flashlight available in bonus options. Silent Hill is getting more colours! A good match with Vincent's outfit as in SH3!

Final words, Alessa in SH0 looks so bad that I never have a desire to chase her if I were Travis..

Last evening when I walked downstairs, she was there sitting quietly, and I was startled by her staring!
Then I went to get my camera and when I was back, she was still there. That's how I could have a few nice shots including this~
↓

The clear blue of her eyes is so beautiful!

I CAN FINALLY TALK ABOUT "WOKASHI" AS MY COPY FINALLY ARRIVED!

To get a good cover image, I went to amazon.co.jp and hit on Akiko's newest release "wokashi". Then I happily noticed, it's out of stock already! I'm so glad I preordered it back to the end of July, so I got the even rarer animate limited edition.
As I said earlier, I did consider getting the wokashi special edition, but it doesn't include the bonus CD (and my other series of weird orders made my wallet rejected that plan).
Anyway, I'm happy, although I've stopped making my own rips and simply get others' rips instead long time ago.

↓ I still love to touch the real thing. What a colourful snap (and my cellphone straps fit well)! The only bad thing is the CD cover is made by paper, so I had to find another plastic bag in order to protect it.
The translucent spine-print (or whatever it's called) looks gorgeous. I usually use these spine-paper as bookmarks, but for this one, I decided to keep it together with the CD. <3

↓ with the limited bonus CD plus the B5 (or A5? I didn't measure) size folder. I'll be happier if that's in A4 though. B5 is useless for my stuff!

When I first saw this image from her official twitter posts, I was wondering why that's a guy. But now, after looping "otoshimono" for over 200 times, I'm wondering whether he's that "nii-sama" as from the lyrics although I believe "nee-sama" will be a better choice. (・ω・`)

↓ I can't help on the unbalanced amount of comments foreach song!

1. をかし / wokashi
Complainant first, why it has 5 sharps, which means I can't play its main melody (yet)!! (ﾟдﾟ#)
But the song itself has nothing to be complained. An excellent "opening" song -- I also like the cat jumping out in the promotion video.

2. オトシモノ / otoshimono
After 20-ish times of play, I eventually got used to the "normal" melody flow instead of the hybrid version with "wokashi". ^^;
The deep desired vocal version since this year's beginning. There's no reason for me not to loop it first. Not to mention that I've already looped its short sample endlessly before the release.
However, when I came to the second half of the lyrics, I suddenly realised, this is a horror song, really, with the integration of a strong aura of "brother-complex" but that "nii-sama" is merely a 10-year-old kid, not moe at all. At least to depict someone as ikemen as Leon! xDD. This song just made me want to play Zero series (especially 2) again. ><
As usual the emphasised cello near the end is erotic!

3. 百鬼夜行 / hyakki yakou
For sure "hyakki yakou" is a magical title! A very brisk song that made me laugh a lot. I even double checked whether she put her name in hiragana only. But not.
Toward the end there's a short part reminds me of Ar Tonelico 2's hymmnos. I really appreciate the lyrics got furigana or I'd took fairly a long while to figure out that page of the booklet (even though I still got lost at that part!).
In contrast, its orgel version from the bonus CD is so different. Quiet, sweet and even a bit sad. At first I didn't believe they're the same track. After quite much of listening, I did find out the main melody of orgel ver. is indeed present or hide in the rich arrangement.
By the way, I just love the sound of koto at the very last to death!

4. 輝夜 / kagaya (I suppose)
Koto here is delicious. But this song is so Akiko-standard that I'm not having any special comments on it.

5. 花鳥風月 / ka-chou-fuu-getsu
The hiragana Akiko's cute work! Sort of like the "library" song in Laylania but has less laugh (?). "Hyakki yakou" already stole my heart.

6. 風薫る / kaze kaoru
Nakagawa Ken?! Long time no see! (Short on words but I'm positive :3)

7. 籠の鳥 / kago no tori
The arrangement is the darkest among the whole album. I'm thinking whether Noriko would give even darker lyrics. >> Dark songs ftw!
Regardless, I also want to say, everyone loves kazoeuta!

ex. 1 青藍 / seiran
one line comment: I wish it can be longer!

Now, something that almost made me cry.
Believing in that not getting the unlimited rocket launcher means the game is unfinished, I challenged to do biohazard 1 within 3 hours with Chris. I've done the game for so many times (including Jill's side) so the flow itself wasn't a problem; it's still not easy either. Chris is weird, why such a big man can only carry 6 items?? But I had no other choice, Jill's HP is too low, I don't really dare to pass by the zombies with her. orz
I played while checking the time, and even saving the time to obtain ink ribbons and "extra" herbs (as I know I won't die). I even yelled during the movie scenes "why can't I skip? you don't know I'm doing a time attack?". xD
And the result was...

3 hours and 1 second!!! I was nervous before seeing this, and when I actually saw it, I didn't know I should laugh or cry. (｡>﹏<｡)
Only 1 second late made me extremely unsatisfied, so after my retry, fine, 2 hours 59 minutes and 47 seconds. Almost fail but I was safe!
And now I can finally say I graduated from biohazard 1.
(again, "yumede owarasenai" is always good, and radio control is much better in games with fixed camera angles).

Last thing,

Opera's new animated themes are awesome, now I can always enjoy the rain~ (npp windows was placed in the middle in order to hide my speed dials)