Funimation SAVE releases

Driving me pretty much to the poor house are Funimation's budget 'SAVE' line in anime dvd's which came out a few months ago.
In essence they are reprints of older titles often keeping the packaging from the previous edition all at a cheap price generally under USD $30 even for a complete series which may have up to 26 episodes.
The one above "The Galaxy railways" is an adventure series set in as the would suggest on the Galaxy Railways with a team of crack railway security people, the SDF, and is really good.
Surprisingly this title has never been issued in the UK.

This one - Aquarion - has and was last out in the UK late in 2009 but the US Funimation box set is cheaper and a good deal neater. As I was a bit short of funds at the time I missed out on getting it but as a Mecha series goes this is great and it is really well drawn.

Keep Fit & Time To Swing

As a child like most we had PE (Physical Exercise) which was never the most popular thing on the subject list. 

Most of time it would involve things such as doing press ups and generally strengthening our muscles and improving the range of movements we could do using our joints

Sometimes I just miss that PE master or Miss pushing me on!

This said I do exercise a bit even now having back problems and issues with posture generally to help my condition

Getting back into the swing of outdoor exercise such as walking and bit of basic mat PE style exercise indoors like press ups to keep my muscles working something like that with my disabilities it's very good idea to do - and we have rain for much of the week!

So guess what it does? yes, buckets down. Grrr!

Never mind I have a new pair of exercise shorts to wear ready for when the downpours and strong winds stop.

This was my life, a life I loved as much as disliked the difficulties and prejudice of I endured in my youth.

To me the park was this magical place, a place that had things but you added to that from what was within you, your imagination, and boy did I have an imagination!

We created and played games there carefully observing the rules and for the most part at least always looked out in case someone felt uncomfortable in the game we were playing.

If I was feeling a bit low, then another would swing me having talked me on to getting on that swing and it wasn't too long before my face was dressed with a smile as I just loved that rocking back and forth motion. 

To be honest I'd just love to be swung right now if the truth be known.

There was a slide probably made from aluminum or steel that you had to climb several steps to place yourself with your bottom on the edge and start that gushing great sliding motion down to the very end. Whee! I just loved it!!!

New Skirt

It's been just over four years and three months since I started this blog talking about a load of things such as myself, my interests such as music and likes in a way I had not anticipated nor perhaps you might of been expecting.

There aren't many age regressed or still a child feminine boys blogs out there.

Going forward, this new skirt is increasingly more where I'm headed at least in so far as more formalish presentations go with a nod toward office or even more college/school style as I like easy to look after on or just above the knee skirts with tights, not being given to baring huge amounts of skin.
Generally I prefer flat shoes as I can't easily walk and so need all the stability and grip I can get.

The Adventurous Four

I don't know about you but adventure stories have always had an appeal and two wonderful books in the series The Adventurous Four set off the Scottish West coast where four children with the oldest Andy aged 14 who's acquired already a good knowledge of the sea, islands and sea life is  helping his Dad,  encounter Nazi's thieves and gunrunners.

The series is very much set in Wartime arguably more so than any other of Enid Blyton's work and sees them taken prisoner by the Nazi's resolving to show them what Scots are made of.

These are my copies in the Deans Rewards series from 1973 where as with a few other series such as the Famous Five, the skirts and shorts worn by the children in the original  covers are replaced with Jeans although we all know children during the War never had Jeans!

Computing in 2010

It's July so I tend to spend as much time as I can outside rather than being chained to this big Tower PC trying to type out an entry over a flaky internet connection.

I've had this computer a bit, since around October of 2006 actually when the old one which was running Windows 98SE died and this runs the stable but cartoonish XP to which I now have a pink Hello Kitty keyboard, mouse and mouse mat.

This is my current computer wallpaper which is very cute and that I have that visible as my family come in the room this computer lives frequently shows just how much a feminine boy I truly am and the extent that difference is acknowledged.

Lucky Star and Air

Well this is a provision entry title as I'm feeling a little tired this afternoon and I had an entry to prep up although as I say it'll take it's final form in a couple of days time so be sure to return!

I've been watching between work, reading blogs, websites and listening to more music the following two animes:-

I'll be finished watching this one by Saturday.

Issued by Bandai in the States in their budget Anime Legends series, it hasn't seen a R2 issue although Beez have expressed a bit of interest in putting it out.

It's in part a examination of high school recollections that must of us can easily identify with coupled with a great parody of the whole otaku take on life, that never ending dash to be be first with the new manga, collecting points at the store, cosplay, obsessing over RPG's that you play overnight when you're meant to be sleeping.

Much of that is shown through Konata the anime and video game obsessed character who is older than the other three schoolgirls who can put so much into that devising grand plans to get around the comic cons and yet completely mess up with exam revision and homework. 

On the other hand Kagami is the shy, more seriously mined who has a younger sister Tsukasa who is very much the sweet but ultimately air headed one. 

For moe appeal it's Miyuki, the cute bespectacled friend with an almost encyclopaedic memory for the key facts of all subjects

Heck every episode ends with the Lucky Channel segments of hyper presenters and the shows characters doing karaoke style singing to songs from tv shows and animes, all of which served with loads of side-splitting humour and uber-cuteness.

Here's Lucky Star's very own otaku herself, Konata.

I mean they even reference Haruhi for crying out loud!!!

Now this is the opposite and strongly recommended for Kanon and Clannad fans and is issued in Funimations S.A.V.E budget series.The story arcs revolve around Yukito Kunisaki and three girls all of whom are connected.

Air is the sad tale of Misuzu a child who is ill, desperately lonely and abandoned by her real Mum, She takes a shine to Yukito,a travelling children's entertainer with only the clothes on his back as possessions who lifts her spirits and we witness her aunt Haruko who in the end quite movingly makes that step from being an Aunt to being her Mum just as sadly she has only a couple of days left to live.

The day after being taken in by Misuzu and Haruko, Yukito meets a girl named Kano Kirishima and a stray dog named Potato; Kano and Misuzu go to the same high school. 

Later that day, Yukito meets a third girl named Minagi Tohno, Misuzu's classmate, and her friend Michiru.Kano and Minagi like Misuzu, both have strange personalities connected with mysterious pasts. 

Before long, a legend of "one thousand summers" begins to unfold where the mysteries of the past are framed primarily by the relationship between Yukito and Misuzu.

Misuzu's offer of food and shelter to the destitute and close to starving Yukito causes the lifes of both to change as they grow ever closer sharing dreams of a life lived beyond the clouds. 

It is obviously that what drives Yukito chasing the story of "The Girl in the Sky". Not knowing when or if he will find her he clings on for hope. His need to find her is so strong and the answers floating in the breeze unfold as the story progresses.

The story arc comes in three parts; Dream (episodes one through seven), Summer (episodes eight and nine), and Air (episodes ten through twelve), with the recap episode (episode thirteen) following. 

As ADV didn't licence the recap episode for North America originally this dvd misses it off but it's no great loss.

We see hope in the face of adversity, trust even when badly let down and preparedness to do your very best even if it may not be enough.

The dvd adds the Air in summer OVA's issued separately in Japan on disc three.

Updates in Classical Music

Recently I've gotten some more classical music cds that I've been slowly working my way through and I hope to complete this entry about them in a few days time.

First off, I kind of got off on a lopsided approach to Beethoven, missing out on his Violin and Piano Sonatas completely plowing through the Symphonies and then  Piano Concertos  2 and 5.
In the early 1960's DG had a stereophonic remake of Wilhelm Kempff's series of the complete piano concertos made again featuring the Belin Philharmonic Orchestra but this time featuring Ferdinand Leitner conducting.
They had been issued  previously on cd in the DG Galleria series in 1987/8 but were remastered to good effect a few years back and issued in 2 cd sets.

This one has the first four piano concertos.
The fifth known as the Emperor was issued in a second pack with the Triple Concerto performed by Wilhelm Geza Anda on piano, Wolfgang Schneiderhan on violin and Founier on the cello coupled ith a second disc with Schniederhan's masterful 1961 account of the Opus 61  Violin Concerto.

Well, I got the first two discs in series of Wilhelm Kempff's masterful Piano Sonatas cycle from the mid 1960's that as recordings weren't unfamiliar to me as I'd borrowed tapes from the public library of them before. I think there was a big box with all thirty two of them but I kinda thought it would be overkill and have picked up a 2 cd set with the late Sonatas, numbers 27 through 32.
I eventually got the cd in the same series yesterday of Menuhin and Kempff's account of the Sonatas for Piano and Violin numbers Five and Nine from 1970 that remains one of the finest ever recorded. I also picked up used the Violinist Anne Sophie-Mutter's recording with Herbert von Karajan of the Triple Concerto from 1980 which was a full price disc issued 1985 with three overtures tacked on to fill up the disc.

Dvorák: Well I always had a soft spot from his work but outside of the odd Piano Sonata plus recordings of his Cello and Violin Concertos, hadn't gone beyond his famous Ninth symphony (the New World).
I bought a re-issue of a 1991 cd set packaged in a cardboard box and card sleeves of Rafael Kubelik's complete cycle of nine symphonies recorded 1968 thru'1973 for DG, something I'd always dreamt of getting as a kid which were amongst the strongest interpretations ever and anyway I've always loved theses performances having the Ninth on lp.

Finally to Brahms. Poor thing I kinda neglected him beyond the cat gut works and a recording of his Second and Third symphonies I inexplicably picked up in the early 1990's. I've finally added his First and Fourth symphonies as performed by Herbert von Karajan (1978 and 1988 respectively).

Soccer's World Cup 2010

Well the World Cup in South Africa is over for England as this girl clearly shows blowing the final note!