While there aren't all that much to keep track of (ok, so there is, but so far I'm only working on full hours) it's a bit of a pain to remember how to tell time in Japanese.

Most of the pain comes from not memorizing the numbers 1 through 10 in a good way. Yesterday my brothers girlfriend mentioned making a memory-game out of stuff you're trying to memorize, so that's what I'll do.

I also found a little game that not only test your knowledge in hours, but also your hearing -- some of what they say is a little hard to hear, at least for me. It's a bit childish looking (quite a lot so, in fact) but gets the job done. :-]

Ten years ago, a bizarre phenomenon appeared in Tokyo. Three days later, two types of humans with supernatural abilities appeared: emotionless 'dolls' that only do what they're 'programmed' to and wield the ability of surveillance, and powerful 'contractors', feared and hated by the humans that know of their existence. Rationally self-preserving and without the feeling of guilt, it's not long before contractors are used as ideal assassins and weapons of war.

Unable to analyze the phenomenon that created these beings safely, it's decided that a huge wall be built around it, called "Hell's Gate." PANDORA, an international research group, protects this wall and analyzes what little they can, while the government struggles to suppress dangerous contractors and the publics' knowledge of them.

In all the police force's efforts and doll-assisted surveillance of the city, one contractor continues to evade them. 'BK201', as the police force knows him, stands out as an exceptional killer, while those in the syndicate who know him as 'Hei' see him as a powerful, yet strangely irrational contractor...
- Shamelessly copied from anidb.com.

For the longest, the mask that Hei is wearing put me off wanting to see this serie. Dunno why, but it looked kind of.......silly, I guess. In the end I gave in to the plot though, and I'm glad I did - DtB is an awesome show, and I had heaps of fun watching it.

DtB is devided up into two-episode blocks, putting the focus on one of the characters in each block. The last three episodes plus an OVA is the exception, where they try to wrap it all up and (halfarsedly) tie up the loose ends.

- I'll add more here, I just had to get this written or I'd stall forever. -

Or actually, an addon is helping me with kanji. While browsing for some Firefox addons I stumbled upon Kanju-lish which replaces the first letter of a word with the corresponding kanji (with a few limitations). Pretty cool, and pretty straight forward. Read becomes 読ead etc.

The only drawback I have come across so far is that the text is too small to properly display the kanji. Some of them look cluttered, lines that go close to each other mix together making it hard to read.

But still, a pretty nifty addon, none the less. I'm not currently practising kanji, but I'll run it now and then, just for the heck of it. :-]

Tales from Earthsea is loosely based on a series of novels about the world Earthsea; hundreds of islands surrounded by a vast, uncharted ocean.

I can't think of a good way to sum up the plot of this movie, one'd almost have to know about the Earthsea universe to fully understand -- a few things that happen seems to be taken out of context. The story feels really short, almost to the point where I wonder why they even bothered making this movie.

The king is murdered. The killer - none other than the kings own son, prince Arren - flees the palace by horse, bringing his fathers sword along. Shortly thereafter Arren find himself surrounded by a pack of wolves. Trying to defend himself, Arren realise he can not unsheathe the sword, and thus prepares to die. Instead he's suddenly resqued by a magician; Sparrowhawk. Accompanying Sparrowhawk, they set of towards the city of Hort where Arren runs into Therru, a girl chased by slavers. Arren fends the slavers of, but Therru runs away without saying a word. Later that night, the slavers return in greater number and capture Arren.

Yeah, I'll stop with the plot there. I could tell more, but it'd basically be giving away the entire movie, the plot is pretty...thin, to say the least.

Animationwise however, Tales of Earthsea is really beautiful, everything seems to be alive and every movement is really smooth. I especially like the architecture of Hort, a magnificent looking city, even though it's really run down. The voice acting is also pretty good, no complaints there. There's a song somewhere halfway through, sung by Therru, that's pretty nice.

If you're a fan of Studio Ghibli movies, I suppose this one's a must see (not really), but if you're just looking for a movie to waste some time on, I'd suggest one that ain't so bland. I'm sorry. This movie was bland, and you'd really be -wasting- your time..