You can read the article here: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/6850483/dying-drug-addict-refused-second-liver-transplant/
So the basic facts of the story are:
1. 24 year old, mother of 2 children (aged 5 and 4)
2. refused second liver transplant
3. was a drug addict, which resulted in her neededing the first liver transplant
4. continued to use drugs after the first liver transplant
Now there are some conflicting issues here. Firstly, since she has been refused the transplant (well, to be put on the waiting list).. she only has 6 months left to live. How can we just let a mother of 2 children die, if there's something we can do about it? But then you have to consider that livers don't exactly grow on trees, hence why there is a waiting list for them. Not only that, but she already received a transplant beforehand, yet she still continued her destructive habit of abusing drugs. To me, that first transplant is already wasted, yet there is a big deal about her being refused a second one?
There are many people out there who need a transplant to survive. As far as I know, it is highly unlikely that all of them will receive a transplant. So I think she was quite lucky to receive her first one... let alone trying to get another. I'm not saying she deserves to die or anything... it takes a lot to say someone truely deserves to die (like a murderer who has no remorse)... but this is what almost made me vomit:
(Quote from the father, in the article) "She now has three to six months to live," he said. "We're very aware that if Claire goes back on the list it doesn't mean she's going to get one and it's not necessarily going to save her life. But everyone deserves another chance."
I truely believe everyone deserves another chance, but it is up to that person to make up for their mistake. In this case, she already got her second chance. She got the liver transplant, and yet she continued to endanger her health again. How many livers replacements does someone need until they finally break their habit? What about all those people still waiting for a liver who will also die if they don't get one? To my knowledge, it's already very difficult for drug addicts to be accepted to receive a transplant... probably the main reason she was able to get her first one, was that she has young children.
He said 19 liver transplants were carried out in WA last year, and three people died waiting for a new liver.
What about those 3 people who died while waiting for a liver? It would not be surprising if there will be a similar number this year. Is she more deserving to receive a second implant than those other people? I don't have a definite answer to that, but it is my opinion that transplants can not be wasted because of stupid reasons like the patient is a drug addict and still doesn't break the habit. I'm not saying it is easy to break an addiction, but you would think they would try really hard considering how fortunate she was to receive the donor liver.
I guess there might be other circumstances that caused the liver to fail, but the only information provided was the continued drug use, and inadequate rehabilitation... but to me, continuing drug use is just plain stupid, whether it caused the liver to fail or not. You should have the decency to try to do anything you can to prevent the liver from failing... first step would be to get rid of any bad drugs like heroin, and having your family ensure you stay away from it (i.e. they keep an eye on you).
Seems like they are going to see a specialist to try to do a live donation, via a family member, so I hope that works out for them, because things that have a very limited supply... need to be very carefully distributed.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Anime Review: Bleach
Bleach is one of the most popular animes/mangas out at the moment, although the anime is probably losing its popularity now. The reason is because there are so many fillers, because the manga is being written too slowly. However, the manga has no fillers so its still very popular.
Bleach is a story about a teenager named Kurosaki Ichigo (Kurosaki being the last name... since in Japanese you saw last name first, but it sounds retarded if you convert it to a proper English way of saying a name), who is able to see spirits. One day an evil spirit called a hollow, attacks his family. A shinigami (death god) named Rukia, comes to save Ichigo and exterminate the hollow. However, the course of the battle forces Rukia to transfer almost all of her powers to Ichigo, who then becomes a shinigami himself.
The shinigami dwell in a place called Soul Society, and they are trained to exterminate hollow and also to help lost spirits move on to Soul Society (so in a sense, its like heaven). The hollow live in a separate plane of existence called Hueco Mundo, and they are created when a soul has died for too long without having gone to soul society. Hollow consume spirits or each other in order to live and evolve. Thus they enter the human world when possible to hunt for food.
The story is set up into major arcs. The first is the Soul Society arc, which starts off with a major intro to the story background, and also to show some of the history behind the major characters. It also introduces an incredibly large cast of characters both from the human world, and Soul Society. There are far too many characters to explain, so I'll just focus in the primary ones from the human world:
Kurosaki Ichigo - as explained earlier, he gained shinigami powers from Rukia. He is an extremely stubborn person, who does everything in his power to protect his comrades (so typical of every anime... I get tired of those sorts of characters to be honest). He is the type that is hard to approach, and early on you find out that it's because his mother died when he was very young, and he blames himself for it (you'll see why). After the death os his mother, he changed from a bright young kid, to a bit of a lone wolf. This changes once he gets his shinigami powers and gets closer to the other characters.
Hollow Ichigo - I don't think theres actually an official name for this personality, but that's what I refer to him as. Hollow Ichigo is the hollow version of Ichigo that resides inside Ichigo's soul. He occasionally tries to take over Ichigo, to fight his enemies. He is far superior to Ichigo in terms of fighting ability, but is also a bit crazy... especially in battle where he'll become quite bloodthirsty.
Kuchiki Rukia - she is part of the Kuchiki family, which is a noble house in Soul Society. She likes to draw a lot for whenever she explains something (abysmally) much to the dismay of Ichigo. She teaches Ichigo the ways of a shinigami early on in the show. As a shinigami, she is very gifted at 'kidou' which is a shinigami's magic powers, and she usually uses a spell that fires a blue fireball.
Inoue Orihime - she is a classmate of Ichigo, and appears to have a crush on him but is too shy to admit it to him. She has inhumanly large breasts, which prompts some jokes like 'the nutrients that were supposed to go to her brain, went to her breasts instead' being the most common one, because she's pretty dumb a lot of the time. However, she is a very caring person and wants to do whatever she can to help. She manifests special powers that are unique to her, that gives her the ability to heal, create a magic shield, and also to attack (though she seldom uses her attack).
Yasutora Sado - sometimes known as 'Chad' because Ichigo calls him that. He is another classmate of Ichigo's. He is part mexican, so sometimes you will hear him refer to his grandfather in mexican, rather than in Japanese. He is very tall and well built, yet he is a very gentle person and dislikes resorting to violence. Like Orihime, he also gains unique powers, where his arm will transform into a strange armour, and it enables him to punch much harder than normal, and he can also fire off some sort of spirit blast.
Ishida Uryu - he is a descent of the Quincy clan, who were a group of humans that were able to manipulate spirit particles to form bow weapons. They used their powers to fight off hollow, but were annihilated by the shinigami. For this reason, Ishida bears a grudge against Ichigo, yet he still ends up helping him and seeming to become friends.
Rating - 8/10. The actual storyline is fantastic, especially when you get to the end of the Soul Society arc, however the fillers have ruined it for me generally speaking. The first filler wasn't too bad, because it began after the Soul Society arc and seemed to fit into the timeline reasonably ok... and it had some nice fight scenes. But the more recent ones which have been occurring during the Hueco Mundo arc, make absolutely no sense because the filler will begin right in the middle of the storyline. So it will be like... at the end of the episode, they're still fighting someone in Hueco Mundo... and then the next ep will start a random filler back in the human world. So it loses points for that... but I really enjoy the main storyline. If it wasn't for the fillers, I probably would've rated it a 10.
Below is a pic of Orihime. I didn't really have time to find a better one, so this will have to do.
Bleach is a story about a teenager named Kurosaki Ichigo (Kurosaki being the last name... since in Japanese you saw last name first, but it sounds retarded if you convert it to a proper English way of saying a name), who is able to see spirits. One day an evil spirit called a hollow, attacks his family. A shinigami (death god) named Rukia, comes to save Ichigo and exterminate the hollow. However, the course of the battle forces Rukia to transfer almost all of her powers to Ichigo, who then becomes a shinigami himself.
The shinigami dwell in a place called Soul Society, and they are trained to exterminate hollow and also to help lost spirits move on to Soul Society (so in a sense, its like heaven). The hollow live in a separate plane of existence called Hueco Mundo, and they are created when a soul has died for too long without having gone to soul society. Hollow consume spirits or each other in order to live and evolve. Thus they enter the human world when possible to hunt for food.
The story is set up into major arcs. The first is the Soul Society arc, which starts off with a major intro to the story background, and also to show some of the history behind the major characters. It also introduces an incredibly large cast of characters both from the human world, and Soul Society. There are far too many characters to explain, so I'll just focus in the primary ones from the human world:
Kurosaki Ichigo - as explained earlier, he gained shinigami powers from Rukia. He is an extremely stubborn person, who does everything in his power to protect his comrades (so typical of every anime... I get tired of those sorts of characters to be honest). He is the type that is hard to approach, and early on you find out that it's because his mother died when he was very young, and he blames himself for it (you'll see why). After the death os his mother, he changed from a bright young kid, to a bit of a lone wolf. This changes once he gets his shinigami powers and gets closer to the other characters.
Hollow Ichigo - I don't think theres actually an official name for this personality, but that's what I refer to him as. Hollow Ichigo is the hollow version of Ichigo that resides inside Ichigo's soul. He occasionally tries to take over Ichigo, to fight his enemies. He is far superior to Ichigo in terms of fighting ability, but is also a bit crazy... especially in battle where he'll become quite bloodthirsty.
Kuchiki Rukia - she is part of the Kuchiki family, which is a noble house in Soul Society. She likes to draw a lot for whenever she explains something (abysmally) much to the dismay of Ichigo. She teaches Ichigo the ways of a shinigami early on in the show. As a shinigami, she is very gifted at 'kidou' which is a shinigami's magic powers, and she usually uses a spell that fires a blue fireball.
Inoue Orihime - she is a classmate of Ichigo, and appears to have a crush on him but is too shy to admit it to him. She has inhumanly large breasts, which prompts some jokes like 'the nutrients that were supposed to go to her brain, went to her breasts instead' being the most common one, because she's pretty dumb a lot of the time. However, she is a very caring person and wants to do whatever she can to help. She manifests special powers that are unique to her, that gives her the ability to heal, create a magic shield, and also to attack (though she seldom uses her attack).
Yasutora Sado - sometimes known as 'Chad' because Ichigo calls him that. He is another classmate of Ichigo's. He is part mexican, so sometimes you will hear him refer to his grandfather in mexican, rather than in Japanese. He is very tall and well built, yet he is a very gentle person and dislikes resorting to violence. Like Orihime, he also gains unique powers, where his arm will transform into a strange armour, and it enables him to punch much harder than normal, and he can also fire off some sort of spirit blast.
Ishida Uryu - he is a descent of the Quincy clan, who were a group of humans that were able to manipulate spirit particles to form bow weapons. They used their powers to fight off hollow, but were annihilated by the shinigami. For this reason, Ishida bears a grudge against Ichigo, yet he still ends up helping him and seeming to become friends.
Rating - 8/10. The actual storyline is fantastic, especially when you get to the end of the Soul Society arc, however the fillers have ruined it for me generally speaking. The first filler wasn't too bad, because it began after the Soul Society arc and seemed to fit into the timeline reasonably ok... and it had some nice fight scenes. But the more recent ones which have been occurring during the Hueco Mundo arc, make absolutely no sense because the filler will begin right in the middle of the storyline. So it will be like... at the end of the episode, they're still fighting someone in Hueco Mundo... and then the next ep will start a random filler back in the human world. So it loses points for that... but I really enjoy the main storyline. If it wasn't for the fillers, I probably would've rated it a 10.
Below is a pic of Orihime. I didn't really have time to find a better one, so this will have to do.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Random Findings: Arthur Kade
I was listening to the radio yesterday as I usually do on my way to work, and there was an interview with a man named Arthur Kade. I haven't heard of him before, but he was introduced as the world's most arrogant man... so i thought this would be something interesting to hear.
The following info is taken from both what I heard in the interview + whats on wikipedia: Arthur Kade is an ex-financial adviser, who stopped in 2009 to pursue his dream of becoming an actor and model. He is very self-promoting, and appears like he would do anything to become famous. As previously mentioned, he is very arrogant and self-absorbed, yet he is also very honest about what he wants. This eventually led to the topic of the 'Kade scale', which is his own grading system that he uses to rate women. If a woman scores below a '6', it means he won't have anything to do with them, and that they're not worth his time.
As you can imagine, many female listeners were infuriated by someone who would be so proud to be shallow, and that if he were to come to Australia, no women would want to hook up with him. I find the last to be a bit of a stretch... I find it a bit annoying that some listeners try to speak out for all Australian women, and this is the case for a lot of things.
Despite those negative comments, he did receive some positive responses saying that its good that he is being honest about what he wants, and I think thats very true. I find it strange that many women are angered when a guy judges a girl by their looks, and expect that it should be a social norm to only look at someone's personality. First off, its pretty hypocritical in my opinion because there are girls who judge guys by their looks as well... its not just the guys judging girls. I myself have been rejected in the past because the girl thought I'm not good looking enough for her (its true anyway). It's probably reasonable to say that the majority of guys will judge a girl on looks, and the majority of girls judge a guy on his personality... but thats the point; everyone is different, and thus everyone wants different things. Thus some guys are very careful that they don't make it seem like they primarily care about looks, in case they offend the girls, when they really shouldn't have to be ashamed of it. For this reason, I actually applaud Arthur Kade on his honesty, despite the criticism he receives for it.
That is not to say I like the guy or that I admire him or anything. I still think he's a bit of a douche for loving himself so much, but it's good that he doesn't hide anything. I'm sure many guys encounter the dilemma of their girlfriend/fiance/wife asking them "does this dress make me look fat?" If they answer "no, you look great" she'll think he's lying or just saying that because it's what she wants to hear, or if they answer "yes it does" then the girl will get offended and get angry at him. Either way, it's a lose lose situation, and I think it's good that a guy like Kade can just speak his mind and not care.
The following info is taken from both what I heard in the interview + whats on wikipedia: Arthur Kade is an ex-financial adviser, who stopped in 2009 to pursue his dream of becoming an actor and model. He is very self-promoting, and appears like he would do anything to become famous. As previously mentioned, he is very arrogant and self-absorbed, yet he is also very honest about what he wants. This eventually led to the topic of the 'Kade scale', which is his own grading system that he uses to rate women. If a woman scores below a '6', it means he won't have anything to do with them, and that they're not worth his time.
As you can imagine, many female listeners were infuriated by someone who would be so proud to be shallow, and that if he were to come to Australia, no women would want to hook up with him. I find the last to be a bit of a stretch... I find it a bit annoying that some listeners try to speak out for all Australian women, and this is the case for a lot of things.
Despite those negative comments, he did receive some positive responses saying that its good that he is being honest about what he wants, and I think thats very true. I find it strange that many women are angered when a guy judges a girl by their looks, and expect that it should be a social norm to only look at someone's personality. First off, its pretty hypocritical in my opinion because there are girls who judge guys by their looks as well... its not just the guys judging girls. I myself have been rejected in the past because the girl thought I'm not good looking enough for her (its true anyway). It's probably reasonable to say that the majority of guys will judge a girl on looks, and the majority of girls judge a guy on his personality... but thats the point; everyone is different, and thus everyone wants different things. Thus some guys are very careful that they don't make it seem like they primarily care about looks, in case they offend the girls, when they really shouldn't have to be ashamed of it. For this reason, I actually applaud Arthur Kade on his honesty, despite the criticism he receives for it.
That is not to say I like the guy or that I admire him or anything. I still think he's a bit of a douche for loving himself so much, but it's good that he doesn't hide anything. I'm sure many guys encounter the dilemma of their girlfriend/fiance/wife asking them "does this dress make me look fat?" If they answer "no, you look great" she'll think he's lying or just saying that because it's what she wants to hear, or if they answer "yes it does" then the girl will get offended and get angry at him. Either way, it's a lose lose situation, and I think it's good that a guy like Kade can just speak his mind and not care.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
TV Review: Lost
Lost has just returned for its final season (6). It has been a very long and epic story, and a lot has changed since it first began. It is the kind of story that creates questions, then answers it but only to create more questions. I like the way Lost reveals its story... it seems like they film whole sections, and then chop it up so that an episode will only reveal part of it... then a later episode will reveal the rest, and suddenly things make sense or you see things from a different perspective. It's a little hard to explain, but I think you will understand when you see it for yourself.
Lost begins with the main character Jack Shephard waking up in the middle of a jungle completely dazed. He finds that he has an open wound on his back, but can't stitch it up. As he makes his way through the jungle, he comes across a girl running past him. He gets her to stich him up, and then they hear screams for help. They follow the sounds to the beach, where the front half of a plane has crash landed and the survivors are struggling to get away to safety.
It turns out that the people on the beach are survivors of the Oceanic 815 plane crash, which was flying from Australia to L.A. The first season is mostly an introductory season, which tells the background stories of the main survivors. It also shows the basic survival stuff... like setting up a proper camp, salvaging things from the plane, hunting for food and water, etc. However, it's not as simple as just survive till rescue comes... there are no signs of any boats or rescue craft on the way, as normally they are able to track plane crashes. Also, on the first night... they encounter a mysterious 'monster' in the jungle, which make huge mechanical-like sounds. The monster makes an appearance throughout the seasons, but it's not until the later seasons that it becomes more prominent. The survivors also find out that they are not alone on the island, and they refer to them as 'the others'. Who the others are... is not certain until later on in the story, but it seems that they are kidnapping people for unknown reasons.
I'm going to briefly explain the backgrounds of the main characters. If you don't want anything spoilt at all, then feel free to skip it... but I don't think it really spoils anything, as you see all of this early on in season 1;
Jack Shephard - A gifted neurosurgeon, who becomes the leader and doctor of the survivors. He tends to everyone's health, and is quite a stubborn but caring person. He has issues with his father, who he felt pushed him very hard and never really acknowledged his abilities. His father had died prior to the flight, and he had gone to Australia to pick up his body to take it back to L.A for the funeral.
Kate Austen - She is a criminal, who was being escorted by a federal marshal back to L.A. She had killed her abusive stepfather and had been on the run. She is attracted to both Jack and Sawyer, which adds a love triangle into the story (what a naughty girl!)
John Locke - Normally referred to as 'Locke', he had previously been paralysed from the waist down, but miraculously healed when arriving on the island, and was able to walk again. He seems to be a man of faith, which was reinforced by the 'healing' of his paralysis. This causes him to clash with Jack, who is a man of science and is a bit of a realist. Locke had dreamed of being a hunter, but was unable to fulfill that due to his paralysis. On the island he is able to fulfill this dream, when he captured a wild pig.
Hugo Reyes - Commonly referred to as 'Hurley'. Prior to the flight, he was a lottery winner. He used a set of numbers that a man at a mental institution was constantly repeating. These are referred to as a special set of "numbers" which continues to be part of the storyline's mythology. After winning the lottery, Hurley started having constant bad luck, which started giving him paranoia. I guess crashing landing on a mysterious island didn't help him on that note either.
Jin-Soo Kwon - A Korean man, who doesn't speak English. He was from a family of fisherman, but he had ambitions to become more than that. He moves to the city and falls in love with Sun-Hwa, and they get married. However Sun's father allowed the marriage on the condition that Jin worked for him, and Jin soon finds out that the line of work Sun's father wanted him to do was that of a mob enforcer. On the island, his fisherman background comes into play and he becomes the primary fisherman for the survivors.
Sun-Hwa Kwon - Sun is the rich daughter of a hotel owner/automobile manufacturer. She had an affair prior to the flight, because Jin was growing distant due to the work that her father made him do. She had learnt English because she had planned to leave Jin by escaping to America. On the island, she pretends to not understand English because she is scared of Jin. They soon reconcile their marriage while on the island.
Sayid Jarrah - A former military communications office, and an interrogator for the Iraqi Republican Guard. He is haunted by his dark past and wants to get away from it. Despite doing so many terrible things, he is actually a good person, and he is filled with regret. He is very gifted with electronics, and he tries to establish radio communication to get rescue.
James "Sawyer" Ford - Usually just referred to as Sawyer. He was a confidance man (con-artist) prior to the crash. He was orphaned as a child, when his father killed his mother, and then committed suicide. The reason was because another man named Sawyer had conned his mother into giving him all his money after having an affair with him. James' father found out, which resulted in the killings. James then took on the name Sawyer, and goes on to con women into giving him their money. The routine is he will have an affair with them, then arrange for the women to run away with him. After the women withdraw all the money ready to run away, he takes it and promises to meet them somewhere, but obviously never does. He had travelled to Australia to kill the original Sawyer and avenge his parents. He kills a man that he thought was Sawyer, but it turns out that it was just an innocent man. On the island, he is a bit of a lone wolf, as he appears to be self-centred and antisocial, but he is actually a good person on the inside despite his rough behaviour.
There is a ridiculously huge cast, but these are probably the most prominent characters throughout the show. While it may seem that the descriptions might spoil their storylines... it actually doesn't. It is just the beginning of the storyline, and it keeps developing further as the seasons go on, so don't feel like anything is ruined.
A lot of people don't like Lost because they think the story is too long, but I prefer long series... as I hate it when shows end. Also I think the storyline is really well thought out, and shown in such a way that there's always suspense, and keeps you wanting to know what the full story is. For this reason, I give the show a 9/10, and I recommend it for those who love epic storylines like I do. It's really quite amazing to see huge storylines come together bit by bit.
Lost begins with the main character Jack Shephard waking up in the middle of a jungle completely dazed. He finds that he has an open wound on his back, but can't stitch it up. As he makes his way through the jungle, he comes across a girl running past him. He gets her to stich him up, and then they hear screams for help. They follow the sounds to the beach, where the front half of a plane has crash landed and the survivors are struggling to get away to safety.
It turns out that the people on the beach are survivors of the Oceanic 815 plane crash, which was flying from Australia to L.A. The first season is mostly an introductory season, which tells the background stories of the main survivors. It also shows the basic survival stuff... like setting up a proper camp, salvaging things from the plane, hunting for food and water, etc. However, it's not as simple as just survive till rescue comes... there are no signs of any boats or rescue craft on the way, as normally they are able to track plane crashes. Also, on the first night... they encounter a mysterious 'monster' in the jungle, which make huge mechanical-like sounds. The monster makes an appearance throughout the seasons, but it's not until the later seasons that it becomes more prominent. The survivors also find out that they are not alone on the island, and they refer to them as 'the others'. Who the others are... is not certain until later on in the story, but it seems that they are kidnapping people for unknown reasons.
I'm going to briefly explain the backgrounds of the main characters. If you don't want anything spoilt at all, then feel free to skip it... but I don't think it really spoils anything, as you see all of this early on in season 1;
Jack Shephard - A gifted neurosurgeon, who becomes the leader and doctor of the survivors. He tends to everyone's health, and is quite a stubborn but caring person. He has issues with his father, who he felt pushed him very hard and never really acknowledged his abilities. His father had died prior to the flight, and he had gone to Australia to pick up his body to take it back to L.A for the funeral.
Kate Austen - She is a criminal, who was being escorted by a federal marshal back to L.A. She had killed her abusive stepfather and had been on the run. She is attracted to both Jack and Sawyer, which adds a love triangle into the story (what a naughty girl!)
John Locke - Normally referred to as 'Locke', he had previously been paralysed from the waist down, but miraculously healed when arriving on the island, and was able to walk again. He seems to be a man of faith, which was reinforced by the 'healing' of his paralysis. This causes him to clash with Jack, who is a man of science and is a bit of a realist. Locke had dreamed of being a hunter, but was unable to fulfill that due to his paralysis. On the island he is able to fulfill this dream, when he captured a wild pig.
Hugo Reyes - Commonly referred to as 'Hurley'. Prior to the flight, he was a lottery winner. He used a set of numbers that a man at a mental institution was constantly repeating. These are referred to as a special set of "numbers" which continues to be part of the storyline's mythology. After winning the lottery, Hurley started having constant bad luck, which started giving him paranoia. I guess crashing landing on a mysterious island didn't help him on that note either.
Jin-Soo Kwon - A Korean man, who doesn't speak English. He was from a family of fisherman, but he had ambitions to become more than that. He moves to the city and falls in love with Sun-Hwa, and they get married. However Sun's father allowed the marriage on the condition that Jin worked for him, and Jin soon finds out that the line of work Sun's father wanted him to do was that of a mob enforcer. On the island, his fisherman background comes into play and he becomes the primary fisherman for the survivors.
Sun-Hwa Kwon - Sun is the rich daughter of a hotel owner/automobile manufacturer. She had an affair prior to the flight, because Jin was growing distant due to the work that her father made him do. She had learnt English because she had planned to leave Jin by escaping to America. On the island, she pretends to not understand English because she is scared of Jin. They soon reconcile their marriage while on the island.
Sayid Jarrah - A former military communications office, and an interrogator for the Iraqi Republican Guard. He is haunted by his dark past and wants to get away from it. Despite doing so many terrible things, he is actually a good person, and he is filled with regret. He is very gifted with electronics, and he tries to establish radio communication to get rescue.
James "Sawyer" Ford - Usually just referred to as Sawyer. He was a confidance man (con-artist) prior to the crash. He was orphaned as a child, when his father killed his mother, and then committed suicide. The reason was because another man named Sawyer had conned his mother into giving him all his money after having an affair with him. James' father found out, which resulted in the killings. James then took on the name Sawyer, and goes on to con women into giving him their money. The routine is he will have an affair with them, then arrange for the women to run away with him. After the women withdraw all the money ready to run away, he takes it and promises to meet them somewhere, but obviously never does. He had travelled to Australia to kill the original Sawyer and avenge his parents. He kills a man that he thought was Sawyer, but it turns out that it was just an innocent man. On the island, he is a bit of a lone wolf, as he appears to be self-centred and antisocial, but he is actually a good person on the inside despite his rough behaviour.
There is a ridiculously huge cast, but these are probably the most prominent characters throughout the show. While it may seem that the descriptions might spoil their storylines... it actually doesn't. It is just the beginning of the storyline, and it keeps developing further as the seasons go on, so don't feel like anything is ruined.
A lot of people don't like Lost because they think the story is too long, but I prefer long series... as I hate it when shows end. Also I think the storyline is really well thought out, and shown in such a way that there's always suspense, and keeps you wanting to know what the full story is. For this reason, I give the show a 9/10, and I recommend it for those who love epic storylines like I do. It's really quite amazing to see huge storylines come together bit by bit.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Anime/Manga Review: Soul Eater
The Soul Eater manga is still ongoing, though only released once a month... so it's a bit slow. The anime on the other hand, has finished... and since it ended while the manga was still going on, it means that the anime story diverted at the end. I actually didn't know this until I decided to look into the manga, and I do find it frustrating when animes do that, especially because the stuff that's in the manga but not in the anime... is actually quite good.
The story revolves around 'Shibusen' which is an academy started by 'Shinigami' (direct translation is Death God... which is what he is, but his actual name is just Shinigami). Shibusen is basically a school for 'technicians' and 'weapons'. Each student is either one of these, and work together in pairs, i.e each technician wields a weapon. The weapons have both a human form and a weapon form, which they can switch between. The final aim for each technician is to turn their weapon into a 'Death Scythe'. To do this, the weapon must consume 99 evil souls, and 1 soul of a witch. A Death Scythe is the ultimate form of a weapon, and have a very high status in Shibusen.
The main enemy in the story is known as 'Kishin', and he is a demon god that spreads insanity. He has been imprisoned in the past by Shinigami, but there is a witch named Medusa, who is trying to revive the demon god.
The main characters are;
Maka Albarn - The main character of the story. She is a scythe technician, and her partner is Soul. She is a very dedicated student, and is consistently at the top of her class. She specialises in 'soul perception', which is an ability that allows her to see the souls of others, and to detect the presence of them. She has a bad relationship with her father, because he keeps flirting with women, which was the cause of his divorce with Maka's mother. This is one of the ongoing jokes throughout the anime, as Maka's father is very obsessive with Maka.
Soul Eater - Maka's weapon partner. He is a scythe weapon. He is very laid back, and has a strange obsession with the word 'cool', and seems to apply it to a lot of stuff... although thats mainly just in the beginning, he doesn't seem to talk about it as much later on. He is very protective of Maka, and is willing to sacrifice his life for her.
Black Star - A descendent from a ninja clan. His partner is Tsubaki, who is a shadow weapon. Tsubaki can change into an assortment of weapons, making Black Star a very versatile fighter. Black Star is a very arrogant person, although he is still the strongest technician (aside from Death the Kid, since he's a death god). He is obsessed with being 'big', which coincides with his arrogant quality. Out of all the characters, he undergoes the most character development, so he's one of my favoured characters in the aspect.
Tsubaki - Black Star's weapon partner. She is a very quiet, kind and patient person. She seems to be the only person able to put up with Black Star's behaviour.
Death the Kid (normally referred to as Kid) - He is Shinigami's son. He insists on becoming a Shibusen student, despite his father telling him he doesn't need to. He is a dual-wield gun technician, and his partners are Liz and Patty Thompson. He has a major obsession with 'symmetry' (very far beyond Black Star's 'big' obsession), and is his major weakness. He needs everything to be in symmetry, or he'll become extremely depressed, or he will go out of his way to fix it. Sometimes he will forget whether he left something in his room perfectly aligned, and he will head back just to check on it, despite being in the middle of a mission. Along with Shinigami, they are my favourite characters in terms of humour.
Thompson Sisters - Kid's weapons. They are sisters of course, with Liz being the older one. Liz is a bit of a coward and finds Kid's obsession very annoying. Patty is very childlike, and finds just about everything amusing. Patty also has larger breasts than Liz, which Liz finds annoying when Kid points it out (because of symmetry reasons).
Dr Franken Stein - He is a teacher at Shibusen, and is also considered the best technician to ever graduate at Shibusen. He is very obsessive with disecting things, and wants to experience on basically everything. He has a great understanding of soul wavelengths, and can adapt his soul wavelength accordingly, in order to nullify someone's attack against him, or to be able to wield any weapon.
Spirit aka Death Scythe - Maka's father, and is sometimes known as Death Scythe, since he is a Death Scythe, but mainly because he is a scythe weapon. He is Shinigami's main Death Scythe, and he resides in Shibusen. He is obsessed with his daughter, and tries everything to get her to like him again. Yet he is a womaniser, and is commonly seen in seedy places.
Shinigami - Probably my favourite character, although Kid is very close as well. He is the headmaster of Shibusen. He has a very comical voice, and generally talks quite funnily. My favourite parts are when he uses his 'Shinigami Chop' to silence people, or to punish them.
Blair - a cat with exceptionally strong magic powers. She is not actually a witch, but she can transform into a human-form. In her human form, she is a very busty young woman. She is very shameless, and likes to flirt with Soul, which angers Maka. I actually like her a lot better in the manga, because I think she's a lot better drawn in the manga, than in the anime. The way she's drawn in the manga suits her personality a lot more... in that she looks a lot more seductive.
Rating - 10/10. Soul Eater has a good combination of both humour and action (leans more on humour though), and the storyline is pretty reasonable, though not on par to other animes like Code Geass. But despite that, I think it's still well deserving of a 10 because of the comedy in it. It is suitable to all audiences, and I'd probably recommend watching the anime first, since the manga is still ongoing (there will be more manga chapters waiting for you by the time you finish watching the anime).
Below is a picture of Maka Albarn, wielding Soul in his weapon form.
The story revolves around 'Shibusen' which is an academy started by 'Shinigami' (direct translation is Death God... which is what he is, but his actual name is just Shinigami). Shibusen is basically a school for 'technicians' and 'weapons'. Each student is either one of these, and work together in pairs, i.e each technician wields a weapon. The weapons have both a human form and a weapon form, which they can switch between. The final aim for each technician is to turn their weapon into a 'Death Scythe'. To do this, the weapon must consume 99 evil souls, and 1 soul of a witch. A Death Scythe is the ultimate form of a weapon, and have a very high status in Shibusen.
The main enemy in the story is known as 'Kishin', and he is a demon god that spreads insanity. He has been imprisoned in the past by Shinigami, but there is a witch named Medusa, who is trying to revive the demon god.
The main characters are;
Maka Albarn - The main character of the story. She is a scythe technician, and her partner is Soul. She is a very dedicated student, and is consistently at the top of her class. She specialises in 'soul perception', which is an ability that allows her to see the souls of others, and to detect the presence of them. She has a bad relationship with her father, because he keeps flirting with women, which was the cause of his divorce with Maka's mother. This is one of the ongoing jokes throughout the anime, as Maka's father is very obsessive with Maka.
Soul Eater - Maka's weapon partner. He is a scythe weapon. He is very laid back, and has a strange obsession with the word 'cool', and seems to apply it to a lot of stuff... although thats mainly just in the beginning, he doesn't seem to talk about it as much later on. He is very protective of Maka, and is willing to sacrifice his life for her.
Black Star - A descendent from a ninja clan. His partner is Tsubaki, who is a shadow weapon. Tsubaki can change into an assortment of weapons, making Black Star a very versatile fighter. Black Star is a very arrogant person, although he is still the strongest technician (aside from Death the Kid, since he's a death god). He is obsessed with being 'big', which coincides with his arrogant quality. Out of all the characters, he undergoes the most character development, so he's one of my favoured characters in the aspect.
Tsubaki - Black Star's weapon partner. She is a very quiet, kind and patient person. She seems to be the only person able to put up with Black Star's behaviour.
Death the Kid (normally referred to as Kid) - He is Shinigami's son. He insists on becoming a Shibusen student, despite his father telling him he doesn't need to. He is a dual-wield gun technician, and his partners are Liz and Patty Thompson. He has a major obsession with 'symmetry' (very far beyond Black Star's 'big' obsession), and is his major weakness. He needs everything to be in symmetry, or he'll become extremely depressed, or he will go out of his way to fix it. Sometimes he will forget whether he left something in his room perfectly aligned, and he will head back just to check on it, despite being in the middle of a mission. Along with Shinigami, they are my favourite characters in terms of humour.
Thompson Sisters - Kid's weapons. They are sisters of course, with Liz being the older one. Liz is a bit of a coward and finds Kid's obsession very annoying. Patty is very childlike, and finds just about everything amusing. Patty also has larger breasts than Liz, which Liz finds annoying when Kid points it out (because of symmetry reasons).
Dr Franken Stein - He is a teacher at Shibusen, and is also considered the best technician to ever graduate at Shibusen. He is very obsessive with disecting things, and wants to experience on basically everything. He has a great understanding of soul wavelengths, and can adapt his soul wavelength accordingly, in order to nullify someone's attack against him, or to be able to wield any weapon.
Spirit aka Death Scythe - Maka's father, and is sometimes known as Death Scythe, since he is a Death Scythe, but mainly because he is a scythe weapon. He is Shinigami's main Death Scythe, and he resides in Shibusen. He is obsessed with his daughter, and tries everything to get her to like him again. Yet he is a womaniser, and is commonly seen in seedy places.
Shinigami - Probably my favourite character, although Kid is very close as well. He is the headmaster of Shibusen. He has a very comical voice, and generally talks quite funnily. My favourite parts are when he uses his 'Shinigami Chop' to silence people, or to punish them.
Blair - a cat with exceptionally strong magic powers. She is not actually a witch, but she can transform into a human-form. In her human form, she is a very busty young woman. She is very shameless, and likes to flirt with Soul, which angers Maka. I actually like her a lot better in the manga, because I think she's a lot better drawn in the manga, than in the anime. The way she's drawn in the manga suits her personality a lot more... in that she looks a lot more seductive.
Rating - 10/10. Soul Eater has a good combination of both humour and action (leans more on humour though), and the storyline is pretty reasonable, though not on par to other animes like Code Geass. But despite that, I think it's still well deserving of a 10 because of the comedy in it. It is suitable to all audiences, and I'd probably recommend watching the anime first, since the manga is still ongoing (there will be more manga chapters waiting for you by the time you finish watching the anime).
Below is a picture of Maka Albarn, wielding Soul in his weapon form.
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