Broken Bridge

Repost  from my tumblr account:

Once upon a time, there was a boy and a girl in a faraway village, where elephants were trumpeting, birds were chirping endlessly and when fantasy was like mirad of colors scheming to paint everything in bursting palettes. Where fairies roam the earth and interact with human beings, dancing, flying like dust surrounding a hazy moon. The tinkling of their wings was like a lullaby. The golden dust that they produce were like stars in the night sky, or like falling stars on a dark night, showering the earth with it’s beauty. They met at the cursed partition surrounded by gigantic rocks and bushy trees, connected by a good old bridge. The sound of the rocks underneath as the current glides on them was just one of the things that made this fateful encounter special. It seemed that the rush of the current was singing a love song that only they could hear.

Crossing to the other side was unacceptable, bad things will happen they say, in that cursed partition, but then no curse could keep them away from each other. You could say that it was love at first sight, but then again the feeling of attraction that they had could never have been as simple as that. The feeling that dates back to primordial beginnings, that you feel that you’ve found what you’re looking for or identifying something that has been a part of you all along, that kind of feeling. Yet they were cursed to not meet again, the bridge with its which was cursed to break, couldn’t keep up to both of their longing for each other. She was doomed to stay on her side of the partition, and he was doomed to quietly do nothing as the bridge starts to fall apart falter.

But then, sometimes he would cross it and then land on her arms talking for hours and hours on end. She tried crossing the bridge, but whenever she did, its destruction hastens. This was the last day of their meeting, the day the bridge would completely crumble and fall apart, with the snapping of it’s old rubber and vines, and the creaking sound as it is slowly devoured by the stream below.

The pitter-patter of her toes were like music to his ears. The only sound that he waits for everyday. His laugh was like music to her ears. The only thing that could get her to him. Her eyes were like diamonds in the sky. His smile was ineffable. Once there was a boy and a girl, who both wondered why distance cut them apart.

Monochrome Factor

I just finished reading this manga yesterday and the anime two days before, I was intrigued by this series so I decided to read the manga. Honestly, I only watched this because of the fanservice but then when I finally got to watch, the fanservice is really there but I like the humor more. I can’t seem to ship anyone in the anime yeah and it kinda bug me. But when I started reading the manga I thought that Lulu and Aya would make a good ship, as well as Kengo and Akira since Akira seems to be all tsundere for Kengo, but I guess my main pair would be Shisui and Homurabi. Yeah, even when I didn’t see them interact my fangirl senses tells me to ship them. Okay, I will stop yapping about ships and proceed to the true purpose of this post that is to comment about Monochrome Factor.

Anime:

I see no point although the plot twist was kinda interesting. Their killing of kokuchis kinda reminds me of hollows from bleach. Their fight with those creatures of darkness is only focused inside their circle and not to other people they don’t interact with so I think in this aspect it kinda lacks the scope element because you don’t feel that the world is indeed in danger because bad happenings only happen to people who are close to the main characters.

I think that the fanservice doesn’t bring that much feels. And that I hate the fact that they always pick on Kengo being stupid and all but I think he’s a lovable character (so much lovable not Akira).

It’s too different from the manga but I understand the part where they chose to postpone Homurabi’s cameo (since he is the antagonist and all).

I like discrete gays, those kind of gays that are the exact opposite of Shirogane in the anime, I like his voice and his true self but whenever he teases Akira it kinda irks me off.

Manga:

The manga is very different from the anime. The plot has loopholes and is not well established unlike most of the mangas I’ve read. Furthermore, I think it is all over the place and like most of the reviews, I think that the later chapters of the series is very confusing and can’t be reconciled. -.- Like for example, Homurabi at first acts like wants to become the tyrant of the shadow and the light realms which they—kings keep in tune with each other and then the next thing we know he also wants to keep the shadow realm from expanding into the light realm to the point of sealing some of the shadows in his own body. Another is his attitude towards Shisui, first he becomes so angry at him and probably one could contemplate about how he would continue hating Shisui for being irresponsible but then the next thing he does is to stop Shirogane and Ryuuko from replacing Shisui as his counterpart. I don’t even understand how we was able to be so attached to Shisui (I agree that the guy is so lovable and all) but to think that he was angry at the guy and I think he was the first guy who made Homurabi snap. If it was love at fist sight or something, then probably Homurabi planned it all along. The fast pace of him garnering children which resulted to the imbalance and making Shisui lecture him. I guess, he didn’t expect Shirogane and Ryuuko to think about replacing Shisui because of his slow pace in choosing his children.

I thought about Homurabi’s action and I can’t help thinking that his reason was so stupid and so immature. He’s a king, he should think rationally. I think Ryuuko’s death was in vain, he was killed for no reason so as the case of Kengo which really pissed me off.

I really think Homurabi is hopelessly in love with Shisui. But I can’t comprehend why the mangaka came up with such a lame reason for trying to plunge the earth into darkness. But come to think of it, -.- I think Homurabi never thought of something like that, I think he was misunderstood from the very beginning, BUT I don’t understand why he had to kill Ryuuko and Kengo. I don’t understand why he wanted the shadow factor for himself as well as Ryuuko’s inshi. What’s he going to do with it, it’s not like he could make Shisui his queen or something.

As for Shisui, he is too kind/stupid for accepting that kind of response from Homurabi. So far, the most rational character is Shirogane, he always uses his common sense to deal with things. He thinks about the right thing to do, but I guess I thought he was an asshole when he was trying to force Akira on giving him the inshi that could’ve saved kengo!

Now as for Kengo, I Love him, he’s my favorite character. He’s kind and understanding but he’s not appreciated well enough, he’s always the underdog, and he’s never risen from the position. Like other sentiments I’ve read on the net, I hated the part when Kengo died. From the beginning, Sorano presented how much potential Kengo has which makes you think that he doesn’t deserve all the bullying and stuff, he’s even supposed to be the next direct king of shin right?

What I really hated about that part was when it was as though they didn’t care about Kengo’s life. I hated all of them for that, they don’t deserve to live! -.- To think Nanaya and the others were spared but Kengo wasn’t, isn’t unfair? My sister and I were very angry about this.

To those who liked Kengo, I think they were lamenting about his death and then got their hearts broken by the fact that the characters in the manga didn’t care for their friend as well as the mangaka. It was as though everything was against Kengo. Somehow I felt happy when he was with Ryuuko. I think the people who cared for him was only Sawaki, Mayu, and Ryuuko.

When I saw Kengo’s face when he was going away with Ryuuko, I think somehow he felt relieved. If you’re in his place, always being treated that way, you’ll end up miserable and your self confidence probably would diminish and a lot of bad things will follow. That’s why I hate that part! Tsk. Earlier, when I was riding the bus, I thought about buying the manga and burning it into a crisp. I know it’s a waste of money, but if every I could by one, I think I’m going to do it, for the sake of Kengo. He deserves a good way of dying. -.-

I tried so hard trying to sew through the loopholes of the plot and justify them. In the end, I still end up with “the manga is screwed up”.

The only good thing about this manga is Sawaki X Kou, tsundere Akira, Homurabi X Shisui. Especially the last pair. -.- I was so intrigued by Ryuuko so I’ll add too. I’ll probably delete my copy of this manga later. As for the fanfic I was planning, I still don’t know If I’ll pursue it.

The Time Keeper

*cough* Okay I’m here again to make another novel review. It’s rare for me nowadays to make a decent review because I seem to get all lazy when I’m about to start one so in the end I can’t make any. So first off, I’m giving this five stars. It was really good and heart warming, nothing less from Mitch Albom.

The story is about the significance of time and how it all began from kids running on a hilltop. A boy counting his every step to sticks and stones for measuring the moments he had with his sweet heart and bowls for the very first water clock until he was banished from the land because of his refusal to take part in building the highest tower in “human history” the Tower of Babel.

They endured scarcity of food and water but then Dor (the name of the boy) still continued on doing his work which is trying to measure the passing sun and moon to days and later months. Of course, he didn’t call it like that. Because of the situation he and his wife Alli endures, Alli was very happy when they were visitors who passed by their humble abode in the outskirts of the town they were banished from. Those people had blots on their skin, so Dor advised Alli not to touch them. In the end she got too emotional with the old woman because they shared the feeling of not fitting in the world and ended up being sick with the same disease. Dor was angry. And when his wife didn’t wake up the next day he ran towards the Tower of Babel and tried to Stop Alli’s suffering by trying to confront the Gods, and that where he became Father time who will be cursed (although according to the wise old man it was a blessing) for eternity to hear the pleas of the people on earth to stop, fast forward and bring back time. He tried escaping but he couldn’t.

After what felt like forever, the wise old man again appeared before him and gave him a task, he would learn about the purpose of his existence as father time through the existence of two people on earth.

The truth is, I couldn’t understand why I felt my eyes moisten in the later parts of this novel, this is not about the two people who were chosen but it was about Dor’s desire to go back in time and erase his regrets of not being able to enjoy every passing moment he had with his wife. The only thing that made sense in his world was Alli, she made him feel things that he couldn’t feel with any other person on earth.

Time is precious, we should live each moment appreciating the things that we usually ignore. We tend to always overlook what’s important because we are too conscious of our time, too conscious of our work, too conscious of making ourselves better off that we can’t afford giving ourselves the luxury to let time pass, spend time with our parents, observe the night sky, wake up to see the sunrise those kinds of things. People who are too absorbed of those things that are immaterial are empty.

In that part where Dor made Victor see the future that awaits him, he showed us that the earth has become so different from the world we live in now, too advanced too convenient to live in but what they lack is a very fundamental element of human existence, feelings. I won’t state here anymore what they were doing but that was it. For them, what they were seeing through Victor was a very rare experience they know they will ever experience in their entire lives. They may live longer than our generation due to medical advances (but I doubt it, Albom stated this) but they lack what’s important. Ah, this reminds me of Psycho-pass. Shogo said that he was tired of the empty society that they were living in.

I’m scared, because I guess no matter how we try to make things easier for us, we really can’t escape despair, those kinds of things and the complex our society becomes the more miserable are it’s people.