Artemis Fowl Book Two: The Arctic Incident ~ review

Title: Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident

Author: Eoin Colfer
ISBN: ISBN 0-7868-0855-1

As usual, this review will contain spoilers. If you haven't read the book and would not like your story spoiled, please leave this post right away.

The Arctic Incident is the second book in the Artemis Fowl book series, preceded by the hilarious and entertaining first book, Artemis Fowl. In this second book, criminal mastermind Artemis is back with his manservant / bodyguard / friend, Butler, but this time they are not looking to make more fortune. Instead, they are on a mission to save Artemis's father who had been missing for almost 2 years, believed to be dead by many, and had even been declared legally dead by the courts. At the same time, trouble is brewing underground, in the fairy settlement of Haven City, where an uprising will cause major trouble to Captain Holly Short, Commander Julius Root and the centaur genius, Foaly. Furthermore, Artemis will be unexpectedly involved in the mix in the hope to get some help from the fairy folk in saving his father.

YuYu Hakusho Volume 15 ~ review

Continuing on with my review for YuYu Hakusho manga series, here is the review for Volume 15. This review will contain spoilers, so if somehow you haven't read the manga and would not like your story spoiled, please leave this post now.

For Volume 15, the story continues with the former detective of the Underworld, Sensui, getting closer to open the hole that connects the human world with the demon world. He and his team have also kidnaps Kuwabara, who has the ability to use an aura sword that can cut through dimensions, an ability that Sensui surely needs to complete his mission. Along the way to rescue Kuwabara and stop Sensui from opening the hole, Yuusuke and his friends have to fight Sensui's followers'; Makihara (code name: Gobbler), Kaname Hagiri (Sniper) and Amanuma (Game Master). One of them however, Kiyoshi Mitarai (Seaman) decided to join team Yuusuke and help show them the way to the hole site (where Itsuki the Gate Keeper is performing a ritual to open the hole). With time running out, could Yuusuke, Kurama, Hiei and the others stop Sensui before it is too late?

This volume definitely has a lot of great moments; Kuwabara kidnapping, Yuusuke's fight with Hagiri, Amanuma sad ending, and Kurama's fight with Elder Toguro, who by the way made a special appearance in the final chapter of this volume. I am personally in love with scenes where Yuusuke and his friends have to fight against Amanuma. The scenes have a different vibe or rather a sad tone compared to the other fights which are more fast-paced and action-packed. There are some gory drawings too in the last chapter in the manga (the one involving Elder Toguro) but since the story involves demons, I guess it's kind of normal. But for those who are concerned, then you better keep this volume away from your minors. This volume, although slightly more serious compared to the previous volumes, still has jokes here and there (usually in regards to Yuusuke) which I think in line with what YuYu Hakusho is quite popularly known for; its humorous jokes. Overall, I personally think this is one of the best volumes in the series so far when it comes to the story.

What will happen next? Stay tune for my review of Volume 16 coming soon. Thank you for reading.

Image source from Amazon.

2013 Summer movies ~ What to watch? (Part 2)

I already covered movies that caught my interest and will be released between May and June 2013 in Part 1 of the post. Now in Part 2, I will cover a few other movies that will be released in July and August 2013. Let's start!

July

1) Pacific Rim

I love watching Ultraman TV series when I was a kid so it's little wonders why Pacific Rim caught my attention so much. Starred Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi and Charlie Hunnam, this movie is about the world in the near future where monsters started coming out from beneath the sea and bring chaos worldwide. In order to fight these giant monsters, humans had created giant robots to fight them. In between the struggle, two unlikely heroes need to team up and fight these monsters to save the world from total destruction. It may be a bit too much for a non-fan of such genre to take but I really hope this movie will do well at the box-office because if it does, then I'm pretty sure a sequel would definitely be made.

2) The Conjuring

The Conjuring is a supernatural horror film directed by James Wan who had previously directed Saw and Insidious. Starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, this movie will tell the story of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the paranormal investigators who were famously involved in the investigation of the Amityville Horror case. But in this movie, it will focus on the disturbing events in the Perron family's Rhode Island farmhouse. Originally planned to be released in early 2013, it was then postponed to open in July due to positive responses it got during test screening. I love a good horror movie, so hopefully this will be one of them as suggested by the test audiences.

Asia's Next Top Model Cycle 1 winner!

Congratulations to Jessica Amornkuldilok from Thailand for winning the first season of Asia's Next Top Model. Congratulations too to both runner-ups; Kate Ma from Taiwan and Stephanie Retuya from the Philippines for making it into the Top 3.

Asia's Next Top Model is hosted by Nadya Hutagalung (also served as head judge) with model mentor Joey Mead King, fashion photographer Todd Anthony Tyler and fashion director Daniel Boey took on the role of secondary judges. The show featured 14 women from all over Asia such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Nepal, Taiwan, Japan and India compete to win the title of Asia's Next Top Model (and some awesome prizes as well).

Personally, I think the show was a bit slow in the first two episodes most probably because I was still trying to get used to the whole new contestants and environment, but the show did get better and more interesting after that, and the photoshoots were great as well. Hopefully season 2 would be green-light for production as I feel this show has a lot of potential to become big and influential in Asia. And if they do, hopefully they will keep the current line of judges as I feel they had done a great job in this first cycle.

Again, congratulations Jessica! Hopefully this will be the start of an amazing career for you. By the way, my favourite contestant was Aastha Pokharel from Nepal who finished 5th in the competition. What about you? Who was your favourite contestant?

Image from Youtube screencap.

K-pop group ~ Introducing CHI CHI

K-pop groups (that's South Korean groups or bands for those who are not familiar with the term) keep popping up like mushrooms these past few years and it seems like the industry is kind of saturated with them right now. Personally, I find it hard to keep tracks of these new groups. They are too many of them with almost similar style and sound that sometimes they made me confused which is which. So instead of focusing on their sexy outfits and fancy choreography, I would concentrate first on their music to decide which one would I like to know and follow in their journey to superstardom. But of course, unique choreography and dressing style help as well to stand-out from the rest. One of the group that caught my interest is CHI CHI.

Originally a 7-member group, CHI CHI is now consists of Boreum, A-zi, Sui, Semi and Shine. They have an electronic sound to their music which is logical since their group's acronym stands for Creative electronic House Idols. The girl group debut with Jangnanchijima (meaning Don't Play Around in Korean) in 2011. Then they came out with a powerful somewhat ballad song (which is currently still one of my favourite K-pop song) called Longer.

After that in 2012, they came out with Love is Energy, a great pop track with a unique dance move called the hand blender, handcopter or mirrorball. This is also the song that made me first noticed them. They also remake their first single Jangnanchijima for Japanese market called Karakawanaide!! (Jangnanchijima). As of now, I have no news yet about their comeback in 2013. Although they are still considered 'green' in the industry, I think they have a chance to stand-out from the rest of the groups because of their electronic-sound pop music. I hope they will work hard and I pray that they will become successful in their career. All the best CHI CHI!

Click here for Longer MV.
Click here for Love is Energy MV.

Image from CHI CHI Japanese website.

*UPDATE ~ October 2013*

On my new search for the group's possible comeback, I sadly found out that the group had officially disbanded this year. What an awful news! I like the group and I honestly think that they got a lot of potential. But it looks like its not working out for them (or maybe the company who manage them). I wish all the best to the former members of the group and hopefully they will have success in their next venture in life.