I watched all of Animatrix and so I am going to do a review of the Animatrix now. As you all know there are nine clips but only eight stories in the Animatrix. I can't say I like all of them, but some of them I think are worth watching. To tell you the truth, all of the stories in Animatrix seems like fanfictions. ^_^;

Final Flight of the Osiris

Created by the guys who created the Final Fantasy movie. So of course the graphic rocks and it's 3D CG grphics. The clip is animated like The Spirit Within (a very spiffy movie eye candy with horrible plot). They did a great job with the skin textures and the details in the hair, the eye, the clothes make everything look very realistic. I think it is an eye candy everyone should watch at one time or another.

It tells the story about the Osiris (another hovercraft ship like the Nebuchadnezzer). Believe it or not they actually mentioned Osiris in Matrix Reloaded but you will have to pay close attention to the movie to know what I am talking about. Plot wise I think it's not bad. The begining and the ending ties together pretty well.

This clip has one of the most spiffy beginings for animation I have ever ever seen (considering how many anime shows I have seen this is a pretty high compliment). In the beginning you get to see two main character using cool sword weapons and fight each other in the simulator and that resulted in... hehe I am not going to spoil this part for you. It's too good. =P Mwahahahaha!


The Second Renaissance Parts I and II

This story is a two clips story. It tells the story of how the machines dominates the Earth. It's a pretty interesting story. I like the plot very much. It reminds me much of recent history (and that my friend is pretty darn scary). This makes you think how the Matrix can become our reality if none of us learn from mistakes. The animation explains the event pretty well. It doesn't leave any plot holes. After listening to Morpheus talking to Neo about this, I am pretty sure this story would interest any Matrix fans.

This was animated by the people who did Blue Submarine 6 - which was a pretty nicely animated series. Gainax (the company behind Evangelion) also helped this clip, so you know the quality cannot be that bad. Good pacing, good designs and good animation in general. The animation is not the cute Shoujo anime tyle drawing, but since I am not a huge shoujo fan, I would not say that is a huge lost.

Kid's Story

Remember the kid that tags along with Neo in Zion in the Matrix Reloaded movie? Well, this is the same kid as the main character of Kid's story. This clip is about the kid escaping through the Matrix on his own, without any pills and without going through the whole Alice in Wonderland thing. Instead, Neo just walk him his way out of Matrix with a cell phone.

I personally like this clip a lot. I think the way it is animated is pretty cool. I especially like the beginning and the ending. Shinichiro Watanabe, the animatist who animated Cowboy Bebop animated this clip, if you like the Cowboy Bebop style, I think you would like this. It has some Cowboy Bebop feel in it at times.

It's pretty fast paced though so it's not boring by any means even if you don't like the animation style.

Program

From the creator of Ninja Scroll, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, brings you Program. This is animated in traditional 2D anime styel. Very pretty and highly spiffy. Character designs are pretty cool and so is the setting.

This tells the story of Cis in a fighting simulator. The whole clip is in federal shogunate setting, much like the setting of Ninja Scroll. Obviously the two characters in this clip are also very ninja like. Anyway, in the clip, Cis' loyalty was tested by her lover who wants to go back to the matrix bringing her along. Not sure if she actually has a lover, but in the simulator she does.

In conclusion: watch this it's spiffy.

World Record

I have to admit to you, I am not a huge fan of this clip. The animation focus a bit too much on the muscle for my likings. Actually the muscles sort of grossed me out. This is done by Takeshi Koike and I think this is his first famous work.

They way their tell the story in theis clip is pretty interesting. I like how they tell the tstory through flashbacks. Basically this story is about a sprinter trying to beat a current world record he set himself. He wanted to archieve a world record that he knows no one would beat. He actually became conscious of the real world through exceeding his own limits.

I didn't really like the beginning of the story but the ending makes up for everything. I am not going to tell you what the ending is about though, of course.

Beyond

A glitch in the matrix causes a certain abandoned house to become "haunted". That is the story behind this clip. Oh yes and this girl appearantly lost a cat. the cat ws why she found the "haunted" house with a bunch of children. I don't like the story. It's kind of... lame in my opinion. If you like the story line of Wispers in the Wind that you won't mind this I suppose.

The animation sort of makes up for that, but then again, since it's done by Koji Morimoto, the guy behind Akira, you know it won't be too bad. The pacing is a bit slow, but the it's not unbecoming. If you like Serial Experiment Lain, or .Hack//Sign you probably can stand therough teh whole clip.

Detective Story

Almost entirely in black and white. This is an evocation of classic 1940s films. Animated once again by Shinichiro Watanabe, the Cowboy Bebop guy, the animation looks pretty cool. I like the animation style. Spiffy.

The story is about a detective hired to investigate and go after Trinity (yeah, that's right, Trinity from the movies). They end up in the train at the end (joy!). Story... is like a fanfiction. The story is very atmospheric, which is good. The pacing is a bit slow but not slower than Beyond which was really relaly really slow. I like this more than Beyond. And even World Record because this is so... pretty.

Matriculated

From the people who made Aeon Flux, you know that animation they showed on YTV at night a long time ago, comes the story of humans trying to lure machines into their lair in the attempt to make them change their minds about the humans. They want to convince these machines to join the human side in the war against machines. Interesting but again, I thought it was like a fanfic gone bad.

The begining part is not bad... I mean this does not really look like anime... but it's not bad. The chase scene was well done. Then comes the part where they have to convince the machine.... I don't like it. They use these weird colours like in Soul Taker but then these weird colours are used in some weird tunnels instead of a cathedral. Some how, running around in these tunnels filled with weird people giggling and kissing convinces machines to switch allegiances.

Story line has some pretty big plot holes. The ending is pretty cool. I like the ending - everyone dies. Haha. Suckers.

As you can tell this is not one on my top list. I mean the animation I suppose is smooth but I don't like the story line at all.

Got my report card yesterday and was generally happy with my mark - not that I didn't know my marks before. I mean, after all, you have a pretty good idea what you are getting in any case.

My English teacher bumped my mark up for some strange reasons. I don't really get why, but I am happy about that, I suppose. I thought I was suppose to get 89% but I ended up getting 91%.

Bonnie came to my house yesterday. I played Diablo II while she watched. We had a great time. Some people just don't get why it is more enjoyable to watch people play games then actually playing. It was fun. I finally finished Act 1 and is half way onto Act 2. My dear character is now level 18. It was pretty fun.

Laina did not do so well in her report card. She is sick too, I feel bad for her. She is really sick it sounds like, her voice is all broken and stuff, but she still came to school to get report card and get her year book signed.

For some strange reasons, Miss Leaker had it on sheet that I also lost my math text book when I am pretty sure I didn't. I guess she was a bit tired by then and she didn't even check before signing a sheet saying I did not loose any books. Of course though I was fuming when I went and talked to her, so may be that took some effects. But since she saved me from paying a whooping $49 I forgive her making me walk around the school for the longest time without my report card and without my year book.

The trip turned out better than I imagined.

It was actually fun. Hehe.

And now I really want to block this certian someone from my MSN. Before I do that though, I think I will screw his mind a bit. I like the conversation. I will post that up tomorrow after some editting.... May that person never finds this. Anyway...

Going to Splash Down today.

I am not too excited. I just want to go to the slides, so I am going. The fact that I really don't like the swimming people (no offends to you all I just is never too close to you all, if you know what I mean). And that freaky guy does not really help. I hope Tiffany will be there, or else I will be dead.

School is over. Finally.

There are a few things I realized:

-I got a really bad mark on my English final. I am sad about that. Luckily I still got a pretty good mark inspite of everything.
-I did horrible in my Mandarin final, but that also turned out okay on my report card (or will turn out okay becuase report card is not out yet).
-I need more practice on my pinyin.
-I will have to look over pinyin in the summer.
-I did a very horrible job on the math finals. And when I say horrible, I mean real horrible. I did not finish my final. I did not finish the last page of the exam. I think I need more practices. You see, generally, I know how to do the math, I just take a long time, and you know how there are not always time. Of course, though, averaging 97% in math for the rest of the year, I really don't think the finals will affect my math marks too much.
-I have to look at math in the summer (yes have to, meaning there are no other choices).
-I am probably the only person in the world who is glad to go to math tutoring.
-I did really well in Social Studies test, inspite the fact that I only studied for two hours. I think that doing my homework and stressing out multiple times on Social Studies project (and generally being the only one who is actually writing and researching) really really help.
-I like writing Social Studies essays but I hate writing English essays.
-I really should stop procrasinating on things cause my rushed work look horrible.
-I really cannot rush an English essay.
-I need to study physics, I am good in biology, and need to review chemisty.
-I need to be more organize and stop loosing stuff. I should use my agenda more.

Gosh the last few days were pretty bad. I mean the begining of last few days were horrible. My mom is really mad at me becuaes i lost my retainer. I feel horrible about it but there is nothing I can actually do. I also lost my science textbook. My dad is sensible enough to not tell mom. If he does, my mom would serious have my head. We found a pretty good solution to my retainer problem. We decided to get another retainer, but this time, the retianer will be glued on my teeth - I cannot loose it! Generally, I am rather please about this decision because this mean I cannot actually loose it again. Finding the retainer has actually cost me a lot of time becuase I am rather forgetful when under stress.

I really hate how I forget stuff. That is why my goal for next year is to be more organize and stop loosing stuff. It would save me a lot of time, becuase right now I am spending like an hour a day just to try finding stuff in my mess.

I think I will clean up my room tomorrow. Ah I better go. Write more the next day.

Okay Basically, I have decided to reopen this page. I have realize how much easier Blogger sites are to update, and how much faster too... So I moved everthing from my diary page to this site instead. I keep my old layout from the Diary page. And you can also access my site through this. Isn't this great?

I can update anywhere with Blogger. ^_^

Oh yessssssss I love Blogger.

In any case, I am going to be finish with grade 10 very soon - that is tomorrow at three pm after I finish the Social Studies test. I think I will survive. This school year is pretty good I suppose. I mean I sort of slack of at the end of it but I bet you I will work three times as hard at the end of next schol year becuase IB sounds very hard.

I will talk more tomorrow when I am actually finished with school. For now I will sign off.

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I have been thinking. Then again I am always thinking. I just haven't written down anything that I thought about (oops I used 'everything' that is an evil word!! It is an imprecise pronoun)!

I have been observing people in my class for the last year. It's easy for me to do that becuase I sit at the back and I am generally invisible. You know, the kind of people who just don't catch any attention in class? Which... is probably due to the fact I hate my own voice and I am desperately trying to get rid of my stupid Chinese accent. Another reason would be the fact I am a great believer of the cause and effect.

As I was saying... I was observing my classmates everyday in class. While they are laughing their heads off and fooling around. Now, I will tell you first that I am not the person with the highest mark in class - however, I am also not the one who work the hardest in class. I just work hard enough so I can get the grades I want. I will also admit now that sometimes I do feel rather lonely when my classmates seem to be having so much fun, but I get use to that after so many years.

I will not bore you will particulars about my childhood as I know some of you have already heard it and was in shock at the information, in fact some of you did not believe me. In any case the past is not important.

I observed a few different types of people. There are the class fools. Every class has one. I would not say they are stupid, because in truth they are not, it takes wit to creates jokes that are funny. They are just rather rebellious. Their marks are usually not that wonderful, but they are exceptionally sociable people.

The next group would be the flamboyant girls who while they try just can't get themselves to concentrate totally on school works. They may excel anyway though because these are the people who would do a lot of volunteer works and these are the people who gets summer jobs and have many experiences.

Next group, in the area where I am living anyway, are the mathwiz. They are smart and they are usually Chinese. I don't know why but Chinese are generally good at math. I am not saying that Caucasians are not good at math, it's just that there are not that many Caucasians living in my area. Anyway, these people are usually the people who wants top marks. They fight for them. These are the people I want to focus on because there are just so many in my class.

Generally, you would have at least one person who is nice and good hearted and extremely hard working. He or she may not be extremely smart but their hard work generally makes up for everything. These are the people who would likely go and become some 3rd world countries' doctor... or not, but again that is not important.

Now there are people who are competitive, and want to win. That is all they want to do. They want to win and they do it by working their butt off toward that goal. These people are... usually really cool too but because they want to win so badly, sometimes they may push away some people would are nice and is willing to become their friends.

Next we have the smart people who don't work. Needless to say, even though they are smart, since they don't work, it means nothing.

Next there are the people who are moderately smart and moderately hard working. These people grow up like normal people.

And then there is the last and final and the most deadly group of all. The ambitious smart people. These are the people to watch out for, they are going to take over the world one day... you just wait. These people do everything for the resume. Everything. They are not loud but once in a while they would surprise you and bit you in the neck. They watches, they observes, they watch for weak points... then they strike. These people are very meticulous. But they do have a weak point. Once they strike you can pinpoint who that person is. And once that happens people stop liking them and they distant themselves from them. They may still have friends, but I don't think they can honestly say they have best friend. So as you can see, their one weakness is in their loneliness. Oh yes, one more thing, these people would probably betray
their friends if they see fit, so becareful.

Just to observe these species more closely I decided to change to another program where I will surely get a lot more of these ambitious horrible smart kids. Let's see if I will survive *evil laughter*.