The Artist of the Dai! Changin' My Life

Changin' My Life consists of Myco, Tanabe Shintarou, and Henmi Noritaka. The group debuted in 2001 and disbanded in 2003. Changin' My Life is widely known for the efforts they displayed in the soundtract to the anime Full Moon wo Sagashite (満月をさがして) .

My favorite songs for the band include:
Eternal Snow, Myself,
Focus, New Future, Confidence, Smile,
Love Chronicle, Sayanora, Nostalgia, Embraced Love,
from the albums:
[Caravan]
[Changin' My Life]
[満月をさがして フルムーン・ファイナル・ライヴ].

I also suggest you to check the acoustic versions of the songs Myself, Eternal Snow, and New Future.

Music Update - Anime - Major

After talking about the Major series, it would be unfair to not mention about the songs related to the series. The intro songs for both the season 1 and the season 2 have been done by Road of Major: Kokoroe for Season 1, and Saraba Aoki Omokage for Season 2. If you are interested in Road of Major, I strongly suggest you to check their first album - that shares the band's name, Road of Major [1] [2], which includes very good songs(春雨, レールの行方, 足跡, 日付けのない日記, 大切なもの).

The last ending song for the Major series is also a good one: Shoboikaosunnayo Baby by The Loose Dogs.

Anime Update - Major Episode 45

Finally, episode 45 is subbed.

Episode summary: Goro starts pitching after they are down by 10 points. In the next inning, they score first 4 points, mainly thanks to Toshi's hit. Around that time, the varsity level pitchers appear, which include Goro's rival at this point, Mayumura.

Goro asks Mayumura to start playing but he tells him to make him so. In the last episode, the goal was to show the strength of the dream island survivors. Now, the goal has become to thrash the junior varsity team to make them bring out their best pitcher, Mayumura.

After the appearance of Mayumura and Goro's intelligent play, the Dream Island survivors score two more points and reduce the gap to 4 points. After that, the bitch, sorry, the female coach announces a player change: change of the pitcher and they bring out one of the varsity-level pitchers - Akutsu -, whose specialty is throwing Knuckle balls (ball thrown by the fingers). Akutsu's non-Knuckle ball was hit and Goro's run earns one more point for the Dream Island team. After that Akutsu starts throwing Knuckle balls, which results in consecutive outs.

The episode ends with Toshi's attempt to break the Knuckle ball, by exploiting its biggest weakness - the danger of throwing consecutive Knuckle balls which applies too much pressure on the fingers. Toshi tries to hit fouls to each Knuckle ball and render Akutsu's main weapon useless.

Harry Potter

Interesting stuff related to the story, movie and book mixed:

- An animagus that turns back to animal by getting rid of his clothes, but when change form again, it retains the clothes. I guess the transformation recalls the clothes?

- The insects and bugs related to the magical world is assumed to not exist in the non-magic world. Maybe this was mentioned in the earlier books. After I read and see some explanation related to that, I will change this part. Until then, it is really not logical to keep them confined within magic-folk's houses only.

- The surname-firstname stuff. This reminds me the japanese culture. Although I don't know about the Brit culture, that doesn't seem right to call people with surnames in a culture that still keeps royal-families.

- The time-travel clock: How come none of Death Eaters (Snape for instance) thought of using it the night Voldemort was killed to prevent his death? For instance, by killing the children in question before Voldemort does. Maybe in the early books, it talks about that, we'll see...

- The room of requirement: Why didn't Harry just say "I want to meet or talk to Malfoy" when he made sure he was inside the room?

Harry Potter Book 7 continued.

Kreacher and Dobby, will they play a significant part in the last book?

Griffindor sword, is there any use for it, in the future since it is a magical item that is highly related to Harry?

Did Dumbledore leave a will that is related to Harry?

The paintings of previous headmasters, will they help Harry in his quest?

The last word of the book scar, will it be erased after Voldemort's death?

Will Harry continue to make use of Snape's book? Will there be any signs in the book related to Snape's past? For instance, since there is a speculation about that, will there be anything related to Lily?

The locked room in the Ministry of Magic. Will Harry try to enter there?

Lily, what is the significant truth about her? Is it about the locker room, some unbreakable vow, some promise, some kind of will?

Draco Malfoy and the vow his mother made? If Malfoy changes sides, will the vow still be effective?

Snape and Harry's meeting? What will be Snape's choice? Will he protect Harry from Voldemort?

JKRowling has mentioned that Snape has been loved by someone before. Who is that person?His family or someone he has admired although not showed outside. Why Lily comes up to a person's mind?

Godric's Hollow? Who else was there when Voldermort attacked Lily? If Dumbledore was aware of that, then was Hagrid there? Since Snape mentioned about the prophecy to Voldermort, was there a relationship between Voldermort's giving Lily a choice and Snape's possible request? If Voldermort puts Snape into high place, which is the case, did Snape beg for Lily's life?

The other member(s) of the Order of Phoenix that we haven't met yet, which was again mentioned by JKRowling?Aberforth, for instance.

Since Aberforth will enter the picture in the last book in more details, will we observe a strong a wizard like his brother?

The 6th book seems to have clues about the Horcrux, maybe specifically. Any guess on that?

RAB? Is that person Sirius's brother? If that is the case, Kreacher, do you know the place to one of the Horcrux?

If Sirius was killed for the sake of the development in the 7th book, what was the reason other than making the hero go alone?

Harry Potter Book 7

I don't know why I hadn't felt a desire to read Harry Potter books, until a few days ago. I was highly mistaken. Although I skipped the first 4 due to movies, the last 2 were a fantastic ride for me. I guess everybody wonders what might happen in the 7th one, which will unfortunately wrap the series for good.

The following can be considered as the most interesting question about the 7th one.

1- Severus Snape - What will he choose at the end? Is he good or evil? What did Dumbeldore mean by the "please" at the end of book 6?
I guess we need to first choose the most powerful wizard in Legimency, Voldermort or Dumbeldore? The most powerful one can be able to see the deepest thoughts of Snape. Even though Snape can be considered to be skilled in Occlumency, I don't think it is near perfect. Harry could be able to tap into Snape's memories with luck or ease. So, keeping the actual thoughts hidden seem to be not very likely. So, a good question comes regarding Snape, can Snape's memories regarding one side can be temporarily modified? We know that Voldermort is a very powerful wizard in modifying people's memories. Can Dumbeldore do the same? Possibly. We also know that Snape's loyalty towards Voldermort was not hidden when he was in Hogwarts. It would be risky to keep that loyalty not-hidden. If Dumbeldore is not good in Legimency, it is possible, but I don't think that is the case. In that case, Dumbeldore should be able to see the real Snape. And, considering Snape's options as a two-sided player, the most logical option is to hide his real feelings regarding Dumbeldore when he is near Voldermort.

Another interesting theory is related to the unbreakable vow that Snape made with Malfoy's mother. That took place before Snape did return to Hogwarts. Dumbeldore was aware of the situation Malfoy was in. And I assume Dumbeldore was also aware of the mission that Malfoy was assigned to. If Dumbeldore was also aware of the vow, then Snape's loyalty should have required a re-evaluation. But, Dumbeldore still insisted on Snape's loyalty. That can only mean Dumbeldore was completely aware of Snape's double-play. If you are not sure about his loyalty, why insist on it?

Now that I read the last part of book 4, I came across Snape's going to Voldemort on Dumbeldore's orders. If Dumbeldore was sure of Snape's loyalty, why send to him to Voldemort who can easily detect where his loyalty lies? Again some memory charm or unbreakable vow come to my mind. What can be the unbreakable vow - e.g., one that is made to Dumbeldore to ask Snape to help the chosen one in his final quest to kill Voldemort - meaning a last second help to Harry to finish Voldemort.

Here, I will post interesting semi-anonymous "politically-incorrect" comments from the daily-articles of Melih Asik in Milliyet. They might be semi-accurate translations, so beware!!!

- German Internal Investigation (...) (whatever it is, just fill in the blanks) officer Fromm has said, "Milli Gorus (a Islamic-Turkish religious group in Germany) does not acknowledge constitution!". Just bring in Iran constitution, and see whether they do or they do not. (HE)

- What does the subsistence of politicians point out?
No one dies from lieing. (AK)

- The Municipality of Eyup distributed a brochure that has the title of "Not covering yourself (for females) makes you a sinful person!".
They have solved the scenery problems in the city(!!!), now the only thing has been left is the bodily view...(HE)

- US Secretary of State Condoleeze Rice is going to come to Turkey on the 26th of April.
So it seems that the attack plans to Iran have reached the final phase...(HE)

- The President of US, Bush, has plans to make changes in the administration.
So it seems that the ones who have supported the bloodshed in Iraq is going to leave, the ones who are going to want to bloodshed in Iran is going to come.(HE)

- The Turkish companies will be exempt from the commercial bids (put the definition here) in EU...
No problem. It was already difficult to become the winner in such bids, since bribery and influence are not very common in Europe.(HE)

- Prime Minister of Turkey, Erdogan has recently said: "Religious people also have the right to do politics!".
Until now, have the Ateist people been governing the country?

More coming soon...

Anime/Manga forums

Beck - beckfan
Bleach - bleachforums
Death Note - townl
Gantz - stoptazmo - shocwave
Hunter x Hunter - nexgear
Naruto - animesuki - narutofan - mangahelpers
One Piece - arlong park forums
Prince of Tennis - animechains - fet

Let's get back to the anime business.

A beginning to the new list that I plan on compiling: the most capturing melodies in anime OSTs.

Thanks to hack/Sign OST for giving me such an idea.

Let me start by naming a few, so that both the process will become clear to anyone who reads this. Again from .hack/SIGN (although there are many, I will give the most distinctive ones):

- Useless chatting (both the melody and the ring-type of musical instrument create that feeling)
- Suspense and mystery (beginning)
- Where the sky is high
- Magic and sword

Here is a nice image combo from a Japanese artist (name currently forgotten!).