Back in June of 2009 I did a post about a 59-feet tall life-size Gundam replica to be unveiled at Tokyo’s artificial Odaiba island. That attraction was epically shown to the public, and I speculated on how all these monumental statues across the world will come to life and destroy the planet in the same post. That’s right. World War III will be fought with controlled giants resembling popular Anime franchises and religious figures like Buddhas. To quote myself (self-indulging):

It’s only a matter of time before they build life-size EVA units to take over the world, colonize the moon while harvesting minerals from Mars and refurbishing Pluto as a gigantic nuclear explosive to repel Angels from invading. AH! [TBT - 59-Feet Tall Life-Size Gundam to unveil in July]

That was almost a year ago. Lone and behold, they went and built a life-size Evangelion Unit 01 replica from the bust up, to be unveiled at Fuji-Q HighLand amusement park at a new pavilion called “Evangelion: World – Life-Size EVA-01 Construction Project“. They asked the fans which Eva unit should be built, and to no surprise, of course Unit 01 was chosen and built. [Source - AnimeNewsNetwork]

No matter how anti-Anime you are, you have to admit that it’d be pretty amazing to stand in front of this monolith… and maybe wonder if it was a waste of resources. Look! There are people walking in front of it! Just like the screen-shot of the Anime shown above! Fuji-Q HighLand was also home to the aforementioned 59-feet tall Gundam but it would be lying down this time. The giant will stand again at Bandai’s main Gundam plastic model factory later on this year.

-phibz.

How nerdy are you when you recognize melodic similarities in theme songs from different Anime series? Otaku alert!

So when the fifth ending theme song, Ray Of Light by Shoko Nakagawa, premiered on episode 51 of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, I couldn’t help but notice a similar tune in a much earlier Anime, Yuu Yuu Hakusho, and one of its ending themes. Keep in mind that I find far-fetched resemblances in many things. Such as my post about Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock Holmes looking like Alucard who also resembles Carmen Sandiego.

First up, Ray Of Light in FMA: Brotherhood. Pay attention to the background strings from the beginning of the video to about the 0:32 point:

Now onto Yuu Yuu Hakusho’s Anbaransu na Kiss o Shite (Kissing the Unbalanced) by Takahashi Hiro. The similar background melody starts at the 1:12 mark:

Is it just me? Or do you catch the similarities as well?

-phibz.

PS: Click the links on the song titles to check out the full version of the songs.

Another Heroic Melon Random Antic! Lent is a Christian tradition where one gives up something  for 40 days to represent the 40 days Jesus wandered the desert resisting Satan’s temptation. This year’s lent began on February 17th and ended on April 3rd. As I am not a Christian, that is the extent of my knowledge on this religious practice. Three out of five of the HMC members took on Lent regardless of religion. Lester tried giving up drinking and caved after the first two days. Kevin and myself were more successful. I gave up eating chips, and Kevin decided to give up swearing and McDonalds.

Kevin was not entirely successful because sometimes swearing just comes naturally. For every time he accidentally cusses, he granted me the pleasure of slapping him across the face. We didn’t spend every waking minute together, contrary to popular belief, so Kevin informs me of his slip ups and I follow through by slapping him the next time I saw him. And thus, spawned this awesome Random Antic:

Heroic Melon Collective presents,
Random Antics Volume 18: Slapping Kevin

I will honestly never get sick of this episode (: This will be the third Random Antic that The Banana Times has edited for the HMC, but don’t worry, there will be many more to come! Especially if it involves inflicting slapstick pain on another HMC member (see what I did there?). I’ll leave you with this:

The day lent ended, I wanted to seal myself in my room with a wall of chips. But unfortunately, I ate the wall. Mmmm…

-phibz.