Well, this episode was certainly very interesting what with everyone magically being able to recollect what happened in a past loop. It’s not clear exactly as to what this all really means since they all seem to be under the assumption that it was just a weird dream. I mean, Rika certainly seemed quite excited about the fact that they all remembered something although it all seems a little unfounded if you ask me. Aside from what happened in “綿流し編” and “目明し編”, not having Shion go crazy really doesn’t prevent Rika’s death in any way.

It’s a mystery to me as to what those “construction workers” are doing protecting Rika. In the past, (I think?) they’ve always been portrayed as being the bad guys. Given that Rika is aware of the time loop thing, doesn’t this fact bother her? Or do both the good guys and the bad guys just happen to wear the same clothes?

I didn’t bother to catch the previews so I don’t know what’s coming in episode 8 but I sure hope that something cool is revealed next round. The gang’s got a couple of days before Watanagashi so there’s definitely time, but I guess the question here is whether anything could be done. If Tomitake and Takano’s deaths are the (in)direct triggers for Rika’s death, will the enemy attempt to make any moves prior to the fact? If they do, how will Rika’s bodyguards intervene? And also, how will Rika’s friends help her on her quest?

So, “皆殺し編” is on. With so many episodes left to finish this arc and “祭囃し編”, I think we’re going to be in for quite a few cliffhangers. Case in point, we’re presented with some information about the time loop and Hanyuu in this episode but neither is really elaborated on. I’m not sure as to which of the two I’m more interested in, although I guess they’re probably interrelated at the end of the day. I guess I’m more intrigued by Hanyuu since I’m curious as to what purpose does she and Rika actually serve. Surely some higher power must be involved if they’re constantly getting resurrected with the complete knowledge of the fact that they’re reliving their lives again.

On the topic of Hanyuu, I have to say that Studio DEEN made the right choice in asking Yui Horie to voice her. Her Kanon Ayu voice really works well in this role. It’s hard for me to believe that she was actually voicing Eri Sawachika in School Rumble. She seems to be rather useless (like Ayu) because you would think that having another person to float around through walls would be useful…but that clearly isn’t the case if Rika has managed to die during every single loop.

This arc’s conclusion could be a real eye-opener since this arc’s name translates to “massacre”. With the twists of “fate” that have been triggered in this episode, there are probably going to be a lot of revelations and I’m confident that this arc is likely going to be a completely “new” one despite the hinted ties that it seems to have with “綿流し編” and “目明し編”.

Well, I’ve got most of the hardware on my T61 to work. X is running with the NVIDIA drivers and my wireless setup seems to be working just fine. The computer hung twice today but hasn’t for the last seven hours or so so I’m guessing (and hoping) that it was just a minor glitch.

Now that Linux is running fine, the only times I’ll need to boot Vista is probably when my wireless doesn’t work and when I need to develop eRCP applications.

Well, as you can imagine, I’m typing this up from my T61 ThinkPad notebook. I’m in Vista at the moment because XP refused to pick up the fact that I had a hard drive in this notebook (so I couldn’t install XP) and I’m not in Gentoo because I’m having some NVIDIA driver issues which is preventing me from using X (I can use X with vesa, but who wants to do that when you have an NVIDIA card). I don’t know when I’ll get those driver issues resolved, but I hope I can get it done before I meet up with Sam since he’s probably going to want me to walk him through the installation process when I move in to Waterloo.

So before I begin I’d like to say that I’m currently watching yesy’s subs and not DamagedGoodz’s as they are now on hiatus. It’s unknown as to when this’ll end, but that’s that. I hadn’t blogged a single episode from this series since work started as we are not to use peer-to-peer applications on our notebooks and since DamagedGoodz doesn’t have bots, I had no way to get my hands on the episodes. yesy does have bots so I was able to pick episode five up and here we are.

I know I shouldn’t keep complaining about the art quality with StrikerS when you consider the first two seasons, but when you’ve just completed a series like sola that really had little issues, it does irk you a little. I’d say that it’s generally acceptable but there are some places that just makes you wonder how they managed to approve the shot.

Art aside, I think the small bits of fighting that we had in this episode were handled quite well. It’s still a little hard for me to get used to the fact that they’re fighting machines instead of, let’s say, regular humanoid objects. I know it’s probably all part of some grand plot and everything, but I can’t help but think that they brought in machines instead of “real” enemies because there are just way too many protagonists in StrikerS and that it is not realistic to create an antagonist counterpart for each one of them.

I’d say that this has been a good episode amidst the “nothingness” that occurred in the last three episodes. The preview seemed to imply that there’s supposedly more training next episode, which isn’t horrid as that translates into action. I’d be happy if we could get just a slice of the awesomeness that we had in episode 1 but that probably isn’t going to happen.

Okay, so I was pretty off in my episode count prediction for this arc since this episode was the last one when I was expecting there to be another one or two after this one. In a way, I guess I’m glad I’m wrong since I really wanted to get going onto the last two answer arcs. This arc has shown us quite a few things but a lot is still left in the dark. It is a little frustrating since it seems as though every episode is a little teaser but I think it’s worked out quite well. I mean, it’s certainly kept my attention and I do feel that it’s a good series.

So we get to see Rika get murdered by the bad guys in this episode. If we tie it back to the disaster that killed everyone, I guess her death was supposed to be a message to the villagers that Oyashiro-sama was angry. They then would’ve released some toxins into the air to make some people go crazy to make themselves seem more credible and hopefully take control of the village again. One thing I don’t get is what Tomitake and Takano’s death has to do with anything. I guess Takano’s death makes sense if you factor in the events of “罪滅し編” but it seems weird for Tomitake to die. I guess they may have, amidst the chaos, revealed that the two of them had entered the locked chamber and that they got what they deserved as God’s punishment. I’m curious as to how their deaths triggered anything though since Rika was saying how nothing had changed after her conversation with Tomitake, hm.

Anyway, it’s going to be fun finding out how the protagonists are going to avert disaster in the last two arcs. The act will likely put the bad guys behind the bars but of course, it’s the “how” that we’re all intrigued about. Where are they going to get the evidence and how? Takano’s notebooks are nice and all but I don’t know how well that’s going to stand in court against a bunch of skilled lawyers.

I was going down the aisles towards the express lanes at Loblaws today when I spotted an issue of ELLE Canada sporting the lovely Cate Blanchett. Those of you that have known me for a while know that I’m absolutely crazy about her. So after gazing in awe for about five seconds or so, I picked one up and proceeded to the cash register.

Incidentally, it was a female serving the register which probably made her giggle on the inside but I guess at the end of the day, whether that person was male or female, seeing a guy pick up a copy of ELLE probably is a little strange, if not downright disturbing. I think my public image here in Kanata, Ottawa has probably been ruined as a result. However, since I’m leaving on Saturday, I guess it’s not really that big of a deal. Today was probably my last trip to the grocery store here anyway so I shouldn’t have to worry about getting strange looks from anyone. ;)

It seems that this thinpak box set is going to be released on September 4th. I’m not sure when I’m going to pick this up, but mark my words, I shall in good time.

Well, it seems like people are going to start dropping left and right if this episode is any indication of the future episodes of this arc. Irie goes down and a cop gets shot in cold blood. Things are really starting to shape up here. I’m curious as to whether they’ll explain Irie’s death or not as I’m interested in knowing how he died. He didn’t die from clawing at his neck with his fingernails like Tomitake did and the cop said that there didn’t seem to be any signs of struggling and such, so how did they get him? Then again, I guess it’s possible that the poison just makes you commit suicide and the means are just whatever’s at hand. Rika did end up stabbing herself in “目明し編” after all.

It’s a mystery as to how exactly are Satoko and Rika going to get out of the mess they’re currently in. I doubt that Rika will “transform” into her other self (or whatever the story behind that other person is) although I guess it would be kind of cool to see her kick some ass. After all, why didn’t she just go do that from the get go if she could? One possibility is that the folks outside their house aren’t actually the bad guys. For all we know, it could’ve just been Keiichi that had set off the alarm.

Looking ahead, I really can’t predict the number of episodes that we’re going to get for this arc. I don’t think that the arc’s going to end any time soon, but at the same time, they really can’t waste too much time because then you’re not giving the last two arcs enough screen time. I’m going to guess that it’ll last seven episodes even if seven’s an odd number. I think there’s still quite a bit of information that could be revealed that goes beyond two more episodes. I don’t think anything major’s really going to happen in the next episode but I anticipate that something will start drumming in the sixth episode with a ridiculous cliffhanger and then it’ll get wrapped up in the seventh.

The hacks I made back in April have been committed to DSDP’s CVS repository. The three CVS modules you’ll need are o.e.ercp.sudoku.core, o.e.ercp.sudoku.solver.backtracking, and o.e.ercp.sudoku.ui. I talked to Mark today and the ECF bridge code is not in as that’s an ECF thing and it should be in our CVS repository.

If you’re interested in when that code’s going to go in, please see bug 184491. I’ll get to hacking once we’ve got that settled.