Novinha’s Headquarters

The concert ‘Beginning of Fantasy’, featuring soundtracks from the Final Fantasy series, was held on Senayan Indoor tennis court on Friday, July 28th 2006. The queue line snaking for hundreds of meters outside to the parking lot and the fact that the court was jam-packed inside were enough signs that this concert was long overdue for us Indonesian gamers, who had never been able to listen to the glory of Nobuo Uematsu’s masterpieces live before. Most of them were kids and teenages (a lot were still escorted by their parents), but quite a number were adults who probably have been playing since the first Final Fantasy installment hits the Nintendo console (that’s a LONG time ago). One thing for sure - all were lured in by the promise of Final Fantasy scores performed live by a symphony orchestra and choir. This is also the first orchestra concert in Indonesia (and probably in the world) featuring a STANDING festival class… a brilliant idea that probably had doubled the number of audience AND organizer’s profit (and pain in my legs! Oh my poor legs…).

Despite the usual organizer antics that delayed the concert for half an hour, Adhie M.S. and the Twilite Orchestra didn’t intend to disappoint - the opening piece, none other than FF8’s infamous Liberi Fatali, blasted through the audience with the full force orchestra and choir, bringing lively applause at the end. Not only the wonderful FF soundtracks and performance of the orchestra itself, the selection of (most of) the featured performers could only add to the excellence of the concert - Arina (vocalist of Mocca) with her beautiful voice and impeccable spoken English sang FF English songs like the hit Eyes on Me perfectly, Sherina’s performance was simply stunning (The way she sang 1000 no Kotoba is so unspeakably wonderful - IMO she’s done it better than the original singer!), and the two pianists Jessica and Kevin successfully introduced the audience to the wonders of piano solo (FFVII Battle Theme rocks!). FF fans present were in heaven and they let their appreciation show - every piece ended with spirited applause!

However, this near-perfection was tainted by one guest performer - J-rock band Wasabi that was supposed to blend rock into the classical flavor. Until now I don’t know whether it was their fault or their sound engineer’s, but their drum and bass guitars virtually drowned everything else whenever they sounded, including their own excellent lead guitar and even at times the entire Twilite Orchestra! Even worse, their vocalist stuttered on stage, missed quite a few tones, and visibly forgot some of his lyrics, making him probably the most miserable man on stage that night ^_^;

That and a bloody concert howling loudly nearby were the only faults I could find that night - with the enthusiasm for a blend of classical and game music this concert generated, I almost couldn’t wait for the next game music concert

Only weeks before Shina goes to print, I stumbled upon a great joy and disappointment: Shinigami no Ballad a.k.a Momo the god girl of death.

Momo is a scythe-toting Shinigami, ID number 100100 (what? Shinigami comes with ID card nowadays?), complete with a bat-winged cat named Daniel for companion - except this one is a kind-hearted, crybaby, and nosy white-haired little girl who would go to great length to address the issues and grievances of the souls she carries to the afterworld. These particular natures of her brought the episodes to life as again and again she and the people she comes into contact with weave stories of how death should be coped with - not by endless grieving and remorse, but by forgiveness, love, and willingness to let go.

In short, SnB is one of those rare gems of anime that manages to entertain AND impress without the slightest sign of excessive violence, nudity, or bad language (among the other few are Kokoro Library, Haibane Renmei, and Figure 17). Six episodes of pure blissful anime experience that would leave you pondering about the true meaning of life and death… I wish there is more, but there are only six of the novel series this anime is based on

The other disappointment? If only this already came out when I was butting my head against the wall trying to think of Shina’s story….

There is already a lot of anime featuring capital ship space combat, ranging from the hilarious Muzekinin Kanchou Tylor to the deadly serious Seikai no Senki. However, methinks the latest series in this flavor, Starship Operators, deserves its own mention.

First off, SO ships adhere to real physics comprehensible in 21st century technology level (well, mostly). No capital ship in this series can turn like a dime - with the enormous mass of the battleships, limited structural strength and human ability to sustain excessive G forces, and the relatively small power side vernier thrusters generate it takes an awful lot of time to make a full turn. Inertia combined with high speeds makes SO combats one-pass affairs - miss your approach and you’ll have to turn in thousand-kilometers radius to have your enemy back in sight. Shields? What shields? Thick and heat-dissipating armor technology are what’s keeping SO warships from their demise, not some fancy force fields without even the slightest basis in real physics. Even the fictional warping has its Einsteinian physics limitation in place - warping in too near to a gravity well and you’ll risk warping out somewhere you don’t want to be (like the core of the nearest star).

Also, SO combatants are already exchanging fire from a LONG distance away from each other - like THOUSANDS of kilometers - as they should be considering the long range and power of their weapons. Star Trek warships, for example, seems to prefer to have the enemy in front of their noses first before they shoot. Seeing ST starship battles, I can’t help thinking that all Federation officers are either blind or near-sighted ^_^;

But enough dissing ST - even without the intricate political intrigues, captivating personal relations, tragedies, and romance, as well as the finely woven storyline, the excellent capital ship battles alone are more than enough to make Starship Operators a must-watch for any sci-fi afficionados out there. All hail Shinon!