Orange Marmalade Review

Udah budug kali ini blog, kita buka kembali dengan yang asam-manis. Tak terasa sudah lama saya nggak ngereview, mudah-mudahan tidak kehilangan skillnya.

Whoa m8, what the hell.. Korean drama?

Don't get me wrong m8, I only watch something that have similiar vibe with Japanese drama.
Ok, tbh this is my first time watch korean drama beside that I have my own reasons why I watching this.

Ok, let's get started
Ni drama berjudul Selai Jeruk (Indonesian); 오렌지 마말레이드 (Hangul); Orange Marmalade (English); Orenji Mamalleideu (Romaji); although it sounds funny but there's implied deep meaning on that.
If you familiar with LINE Webtoon this Manhwa series is really hit.


Here's some reaction while watching this
-me during the first season
>Oyeaa, the softcore version of "Tokyo Ghoul"
>Seolhyuuunnn <3 

-me in the middle-end of the season
>AHAHA, NAON IEU MAH EUY PLOTNYA KEBACA
And slowly I entered a pit of ngakakness cuz I already know the ending. Let me tell you why.

This drama is almost typical, predictable, and drags on.

Honestly, I have a love-hate relationship with this drama. Orange Marmalade has an interesting take on an amalgamation of cliches - you have high school romance, Joseon era romance, love triangles, love squares, vampires falling for humans and vice versa, accident-followed-by-amnesia - anything and everything cliched is here. And yet, it's got an impressive take on things. Issues like discrimination, friendship, acceptance and maturity show up frequently here. 

Story 7/10
There's 3 part of this series : Modern era -> Joseon era -> Modern era part.2

Set in a fantasy world where humans and vampires coexist, the latter have evolved and no longer rely on human blood as food. Still, they are feared and discriminated against by society, causing many of them to hide their true nature and live as "normal" citizens, or else become outcasts.
Baek Ma Ri is a socially withdrawn teenage girl hiding her vampire identity. Driven away from several neighborhoods, she is eager to settle down in her new city and live quietly. But things change when she falls in love with Jung Jae Min, the most popular boy at her high school. -wikipedia

I don't want to spoil the surprise so I copied the synopsys from wiki.

One of the best part in this drama..
When you eat orange you don't eat the peels but trash them. But when you make Orange Marmalade, you put the peels in too. Then it adds a nice texture and tangy taste. Even the orange peels destined to trash, are something you need to make a good orange marmalade. 

"We won't throw you away because you're different."
- Baek Ma Ri

Acting/Cast 6/10
Unfortunately, the show really takes hits here. It is barely above average to me. Yeo Jingoo does well in his role, however his restraint comes through as bland, which is definitely a problem. Still, I think it was good and he did well. Unfortunately, Seolhyun was really weak in her role and it really takes much away from the drama when the lead is not on a good level. Her visuals were perfect but her acting left much to be desired.

But there's better things! Jonghyun really did almost meet my expectations. He wasn't spectacular but he did well in portraying traits which I felt defined Shihoo - the delinquent bad boy brashness and aloofness which later translates to a reticence and maybe even awkwardness? Seriously, the supporting cast really made me watch on!

Music 8/10
Cute but not memorable. The main song that Orange Marmalade performs sounds very much like an anime OST and honestly, I don't remember much else about the drama's music. Connecting Human and Vampire through Music is really good.
Though, special mention to the flute piece that played in the Joseon Era part, I loved that!

Rewatch Value 6.5/10
Easy to enjoy, twice is still good.

Overall 6.5/10
While it wasn't utterly disappointing, it wasn't quite the best, either. The reason the rating went down was because of a lack of character development, easy to predict what is next and partially due to weak acting and of course the manhwa version is better.

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If you are new to K-Drama things, this is suitable for you.
and if you're a weaboos and want to start, this show is similiar with Tokyo Ghoul and Parasyte.

Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryuu no Rondo Review

This is possibly one of the most underrated animes from the fall season.

Cross Ange is unique. The show about tragedy, harsh reality, and overcoming obstacles await the main character. It's absurd, illogical trainwreck of a show with also absurd production values that relies almost entirely on covers to the lowest forms of human life and waving shallow moments of shock value all over the screen. The series has a narcissistic sense of self-awareness, and in each episode you can nearly hear a narration by the director and other Sunrise execs laughing at how much of a stupid people like you are for watching this garbage that they've put in front of you, haha.

That said, it's one of the best things I've seen out of this studio in years.
Absolutely unexpected, shit..

Because of this absurd trainwreck, each of episode you'll scream and blaming the director or even the studio, like..

"FUKUDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"PERSETAN SUNRISEEE, ANJEEENG!!"

Cross Ange is a lot of different things. Cross Ange is a magical princess show about knights and dragons, cliche isn't? Cross Ange is a prison drama. Cross Ange is Mean Girls. Cross Ange is borderline yuri ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) hentai. Cross Ange is Gundam Seed. Cross Ange is like you let the Princess Peach on Mario rebel against Bowser . Cross Ange is proof that not only will Mizuki Nana play any role, but that she is also good at it.

Dragons, Yuri ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) and Kills.

The actual premise of the story is that a sporty princess named Angelise, a thoroughly awful person, is thrown out of her castle and put in an all-ladies jail when it's found out that she's a norma (which are like unwanted humans due to their inability to use "mana"). She's then forced to pilot a Gundam and fight dragons, because. And then she's bullied, molested or beaten up a lot, until she finally becomes "Ange", the greatest main character to ever appear in a Sunrise mecha show. Then the story becomes about rebellion and have the power of geass, alternate timelines and dimensions, fighting god, virtual realities, and uhhhhh... Yeah. The story progresses through a flurry of ridiculous plot twists, comically evil villainous acts, and lesbian sex scenes ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). It's certainly not boring, but you will hate yourself for watching it. 9/10

My other favorite thing is that there are dragons in this show. But they're not dragons, they're DRAGONs, and they're called that because they're DRAGONs (Dimensional Rift Attuned Gargantuan Organic Neototype) and not because they're dragons.

But really, the nice thing you're watching this for is Ange. Ange is amazing. She's logical, pessimistic, she cheats, she'll insult you and everything you stand for, disarm you and then shoot you through the face, twice. She's so out of the norm for an anime protagonist I can barely deal. She doesn't want harmony, she wants destruction. She wants to demolish everything that's wronged her. She's not a victim. The show is called "Cross Ange" because she's cross about 90% of the time. She is the one who knocks.

You can also saw plenty of dead lolis ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) killed by dragons

The rest of the cast is surprisingly good too. Cross Ange does a competent job at giving you multifaceted, developing characters to feel things about, even if those feelings are mostly hatred and/or pity. The other central females are almost all emotionally damaged in some way or another, and are in contrast to Ange, very fragile people. I thought this was very interesting, because not only is Ange a strong, domineering, unbreakable character on her own, but those qualities shine even more when you slowly see the deep problems with everyone around her.

This series only has like two male characters. The one is Kira Yamato from Gundam Seed, except that he's completely useless. If you're ever worried about Ange being overshadowed or saved by her boyfriend, don't worry, he's the bottom in the relationship. This was also refreshing. Except for near the end where he actually starts doing things, that was lame and subverted a lot of the good things about his character, haha.

The other major male character is the central villain, Fetus-kun, who is also the most self-aware jab at otaku or weaboos I've ever seen. The whole premise of his character is the struggle being god, and is looking for the perfect waifu. It's insulting and hilarious at the same time, just like the rest of the series. 9/10

The Animation, Ange looks pretty okay at its best, and pretty bad at its worst. The mechs, background, and the other stuff is good. Unfortunately Sunrise can't keep the quality of the show, you can spot the miss drawing, budget slipping in some of the episode, mainly on episode 15 above. 7/10

The audio's good. Nothing to write home about. You get a bunch of Mizuki Nana and stuff. I can't recall much of the BGM at all even though I watch this series week by week, it's really fits with the atmosphere and The recurring insert song sung by Ange is pretty memorable. 8.5/10

Cross Ange is absolutely one of the best female leads in any anime. It's ridiculous and stupid, but this is not recommended for all people, and recommended for mechs.....yuri ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), and dragons lover..

Overall
8.5/10

April Update

I don't know what I'm doing, to improve my English skill I decided to turn this blog into bilingual. Even though my skill is bad...

Nyoba-nyoba ngebilingual biar readernya worldwide, haha.
Sekalian ngetest skill sih.. gak terlalu advance, saya cuma nyoba.. setelah post sebelum saya juga bahasa inggris.

Welcome April, the month where everyday is my friends birthday, eh?
I'm still beginner at English so will start with something basic.

Congratulations to me for passing 800 hours in April :')

***

Even I've always spent my time procrastinating and doing useless stuff, 

I'm a member of Student Mountaineering Club at my school #filthyintrovertsoproudabout

Cinta Alam Irsyad (CAI) mudah-mudahan bisa setara dengan Jantera!

I hiked Mt. Burangrang which is tiring— the heavy rain make this hiking so exciting and thrilling.

I know there'll always way to learn something new, before we hike I felt something missing like solidarity and unity, but the moment when we hiked together I believe is the opportunities for us to learn together, have a faith to one another and it seems like a tacit acknowledgement of what nature give to us can be — a place for people to relate to one another over this.

My superior has told me to make a Certificate for our club member who hike together in happiness, so I made some thing like this which is common.

I really hate the usual certificate which is sucks even this deviated from the formal rules, haha.

Unfortunately I don't take much picture(s) on my phone when in Mt. Burangrang, because hell of the heavy rain will destroy my phone..

The bloody rains will not stop us!

***

I actually move again to Windows this year with an excuse for gaming and doing the usual stuff like Desktop Rising/Mod.

This is something I do to erase my boredom..

4/04/15

"1901"

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Dota 2

"IN ABOUT 9 MONTHS, I'VE SPENT
602 HOURS IN DOTA 2"

In the past, i have no idea what RTS/MOBA is. Also I'm not interested in Dota that time, but one day one of my friend insist me to play Dota 2 and he said it would be fun. To be honest I'm not a hardcore gamer who take a single game so serious since i was little, i used to play RPG games like "Pokemon, or Final Fantasy" but this one is different.

According to Steam, as of December 17 of 2014, I've spent 602 hours in Dota 2. My job, and Dota 2. Dota 2 has served me as the most unexpected of life preservers this year. My duty as student somehow interrupted by Dota and It's like I can't life without Dota for serious.

It is without a doubt the most time I've spent in any multiplayer game that I can remember, the most consistently I've played a multiplayer game since Getamped 2 in 2012 until 2013. And I've spent that time largely because of the people I play with and also with my brother and yet I still can balance the school and gaming time.

I've turned to Dota 2 over and over across a year filled with horrifying actions, which is ironic, I admit. Some of Dota 2's community is truly the worst of what video games have to offer, of course, with sexist, racist, homophobic and transphobic language and slurs thrown around, with poor sportsmanship on display often enough not to be surprising. Especially on SE Asia Server I don't know about the other server, but this is irritating.

But this has the side effect of making civility something that stands out even more. When 10 people together agree to pause a game for minutes at a time because real life intrudes for one of them, when everybody wishes everyone else good luck, it seems like a tacit acknowledgement of what gaming can be — a place for people to relate to one another over this thing. Where people are good to each other.

"I HAD A LIFE, BUT EVERYTHING CHANGED WHEN DOTA COME"

This has been a year in desperate need of those moments, of opportunities for people to be good and decent towards one another.

I don't play games for an escape. I'm not good at forgetting the other stuff. But I do find some games meditative. It's good to be able to focus on one thing. Dota 2 is a mentally demanding game due to the laundry list of things that can be considered at all times, and I find the most success when I let it have the bulk of my bandwidth (and when I pick Bounty Hunter). It's a luxury that I try to allow myself there.

I don't know how I would review Dota 2. But If I comparing Dota 2 to another MOBA/RTS games, Dota 2 sure really hard. I don't know that I really even get it, though I spend a lot of time trying to understand parts of it. But I know that it is a medium, a court where I gather with friends to work toward small moments of victory, even when we lose. We don't always work well together. When break time at school we argue about strategy, and we argue over blown plays, and sometimes each of us needs to take a break for a few days to get a grip and refocus.

Dota 2 is a fun game. I like playing it. I like the tactical and strategic depth, the constantly evolving meta-game, and feeling like there's always something new to learn. But it's everything that's grown around it that's been something I've sorely needed this year, and the reason that I've spent so much time there.