Nooks & Crannies #1 · 4:40pm Jan 26th, 2016
Hi there! 
Welcome to Nooks & Crannies, a little segment that I had started just to have a little roundup of the week. This is going to be a weekly blog post that pretty much includes prominent global stories (which won't take up too much time), a showcase of some artistic material that I fancy which I would elaborate with my thoughts, updates for my own stories and, to end it all, a small music recommendation to leave you for the week.
Alright, now that we've got the program, let's start with:
The Pick of the News
This week has been cold on both fronts. In the USA, major snowstorms struck the East Coast, burying all the major cities in deep layers of snow. Some lives had been lost to the cold, so to all those living in the affected places, please stay safe and stay warm.
On the other side, an unusual cold snap is sweeping across all of Eastern Asia, breaking all previous records of low temperature and snowfall. Deaths in China, Japan and Taiwan, stranded tourists on the South Korean island of Jeju in the thousands, even reports of low temperatures in Thailand and Vietnam, which both lie on the Equator! It's a really cold week for everyone everywhere (except in Malaysia, where my air-conditioner is on full blast. What the hell, Malaysia).
Once again, stay safe and stay warm everybody!
In other news, a remote community in Canada was shaken by a school shooting, killing four and injuring seven. In Sweden, a worker for an asylum center was stabbed to death by a violent asylum seeker; the latest in a string of the rising number of cases of violent refugees. Also, to end on a lighthearted note, a video of American presidential candidate Ted Cruz as a teenager had surfaced in which he references aspirations as 'sweat on his butt' and lays out a plan on world domination. Though it might sound cool, prepare to be disappointed.
My Little Study
SUBJECT of STUDY
新世界より / Shinsekai Yori / From the New World
Anime • 2012 - 2013 • A-1 Pictures • Adapted from an award-winning novel by Yusuke Kishi ( kanji: 貴志 祐介)
Drama, Thriller, Horror Supernatural, Science-Fiction, Mystery
Seeing as this is the first of the first, I'll start with something I'm especially familiar with.
Shinsekai Yori is an anime that focuses around the life of Watanabe Saki (kanji: 渡辺 早季) and is set in the distant future in an utopian village. In this universe, humanity has acquired psychokinesis, commonly known in the world as Cantus which allows them to use their mind to do a variety of things, such as levitation, smoothing surfaces to make mirrors, conjuring fire and such. Of course, as utopias always are, strange rumors begin to circulate as Saki, along with her friends, discovers the darkness of the world they're living with and how they arrived at where they are right now.
This anime was, to me, has one of the best stories in anime I've ever seen, still standing at a strong number one on my list. It has a really slow buildup, mostly introducing the setting and the characters, but all of it will come to play by the second half of this anime. It is also an anime where we see Saki, the protagonist, age, from being a young girl to a teenager to a woman at the end, so there is a sense of progress right there. I won't mention anything else, in case I might spoil something, but a little advice: all of the dialogue in this anime is important, so play close attention to it.
The animation is sub-par, sometimes dipping in quality. It's to be expected, since this anime came out at the same time as another A-1 Pictures anime did: Sword Art Online. To me, however, it gave the anime a distinct style, making the scenes more picturesque and representing the idyllic scenery well. The soundtrack is compelling and the ending songs (this anime does not have any openings) are pleasant to the ear.
Some gripes that I know some people have, aside from the animation, was with Episode 8. That episode was notorious for many of the viewers to drop it without a second notice, even though there is a perfectly good explanation for the circumstances to be had in that episode. Seriously, though, just pull through that and you'll be rewarded with an anime that will pull a little at your heartstrings and leave you with a sense of completion. I guarantee that.
Updates
Just to let you guys know, the big four: Diprosopus, Perhaps Death, Lovely Days and Worlds, are currently on hold to make way for my latest story. For those of you who missed it, the story was Mamihlapinatapai and is a story that I'm using to explore certain emotional and character dynamics amid heavy subject matters that include, but are not limited to: failure, media deception, corruption and about staying in a broken relationship.
This story was, according to the ratings, perhaps my most polarizing work so far. I'm certain most of it was because of me using Flash Sentry as the narrator of the story and yes, this is a Flash Sentry x Twilight Sparkle story, though with a different approach. In the story, Flash Sentry was now the most hated pony in all of Equestria after he allegedly 'murdered' Twilight. Just to be clear, Twilight isn't dead. I don't plan on killing the princess in the story.
I find the polarization pretty hilarious, mostly because it shows the most hated canon MLP character of our universe being hated by almost everyone else in the MLP universe. Perhaps what reinforced it was also the fact that I left Twilight's fate ambiguous in the first chapter. I don't mind, since I'm also doing this story as an emotional therapy for myself, but I do want secondary opinions on it. If you happened to read it and thumbs it up or down, please, please leave a comment! It would certainly help out in the future!
It would be similar in length to And He Silently Painted A Rainbow, so I'm sure it would be done by the end of February. After that, I shall resume with the remaining few stories.
Finally, for the last portion...
Music Of The Week
Black Messiah
D'Angelo & The Vanguard
Album, released on December 15th, 2014R&B, Soul, Funk, Jazz
Much like how Kendrick Lamar did hip-hop with To Pimp A Butterfly, D'Angelo did R&B and soul music with Black Messiah, an album that highlights the social issues faced by blacks in the US of A. Even though I may not relate to those issues, the raw instruments, multiple complex harmonies and general funkiness made it an absolutely delightful experience to sit through, leaving me hopelessly dazzled. I highly recommend listening to it from start to finish as I did. If you did had a listen, do let me know! I'd love to hear what you think of it!
Stand-out tracks: The Charade, Really Love, Back To The Future Pt. I And II, Betray My Heart
Alright, that settles the very first segment of Nooks & Crannies.
If you have an opinion on anything about the things I've mentioned, please don't hesitate to comment about it below. I would love to have a chat about it. Who knows? Maybe it could strike up an interesting discussion between us?
See you next Tuesday!!
