Gatchaman--Opinion

Sosai X, Berg Katse, and their organization known as Galactor are bent on dominating the world. Fortunately, Dr. Nambu and the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman have something to say about it.

Gatchaman is a brainchild of Tatsuo Yoshida, who is probably more well-known for Macha Go Go (known in the States as Speed Racer). Like its Tatsunoko predecessor, Gatchaman was known by other titles, and was dubbed no less than THREE times into English. The first was Battle of the Planets; while the dub acting itself was decent and the original music is preserved, the story was more or less butchered beyond recognition in order to bear a resemblance to Star Wars. In fact, for BotP, the more violent scenes were edited out and new Hanna-Barbera animation were put in, usually of stock spaceflight footage and of 7-Zark-7, a robot that was pretty clearly an amalgamation of C-3PO and R2-D2 from Star Wars.

I was first introduced to Gatchaman in its second dub, G-Force: Guardians of Space. Relatively speaking, the story was closer to the Japanese version, though the names are still changed. However, the voice-acting was pretty laughably bad and for some reason Ted Turner felt the need to make the majority of the soundtrack this really annoying disco music. I felt Barbara Goodson's (Agatha and PeeWee, G-Force equivalents of Jun and Jinpei respectively) acting was what made this dub so embarrassing (well, besides how a lot of male characters sounded a little too similar to one another and the pathetic dialogue). She tended to pronounce "robot" like "robutt". Also, she utterly failed to instill any sort of personality in either of her characters.

Finally, ADV released a dub that maintained the story and names of the original. The acting was generally pretty good, particularly that of Ken, Joe, and Ryu. Personally, I felt the actress who voiced Jun sounded far too old to be voicing a 16-year-old girl. Also, I felt Jinpei's actress was just a tad annoying.

Still, I'd have to say the Japanese is the way to go. What I do like is how Jinpei, a 10-year-old boy at the beginning of the series, is voiced by an actual 10-year-old boy (Yoku Shioya), and not a grown woman instead. Also, Jinpei, like his voice actor, clearly ages as is shown in his voice breaking and sounding more and more like a young adult. My favorite performance though, is definitely that of Isao Sasaki, who provided Condor Joe with his epically deep voice.

So what about the anime itself? Well, to put it bluntly, it is the epitome of campiness. The series is generally told in a "Monster of the Week" way of storytelling where Berg Katse (foolishly) delegates the conquest of Earth and the destruction of the Science Ninja Team to one his gaudily-dressed generals and the green-clad troops (think stormtroopers from Star Wars, only decked out in green and wearing bell-bottoms) under their command.

Also, the Science Ninja Team itself is your standard 5-man team. Ken the Eagle is very much the leader of the group, and is rarely proven wrong (even if he actually is wrong) who is pretty fond of using excessive force while still toeing the line with what Dr. Nambu finds ok. Condor Joe is not as ready to do what Nambu tells him and is pretty clearly out for some Galactor blood and often openly defies what Ken or Nambu tell him to do (i.e. not firing a bird missile, and he LOVES firing bird missiles). Jun the Swan is more or less The Chick of the group. Her job seems to be primarily looking pretty (and oh man is she pretty ;)), look to Ken for answers, and take care of Jinpei. Jinpei the Swallow is basically the typical Kid, who often manages to get himself captured by Galactor only to somehow make it back out (with or without the help of the rest of the team). Finally, Ryu is the Big Guy, whose job is to pilot the team's aircraft, the God Phoenix.

The animation is more than a little crude. Tatsunoko clearly meant for the series to be long, so consequently the per-episode budget wasn't too high. The quality of the animation is generally on par with that of Speed Racer. Also, I just saw episode 19: Speed Race from Hell. The animation was like a typical episode of Speed Racer because it does surround an auto race. Also, I couldn't help but notice some of the sound effects were reused.

So the story is campy and the animation is crude. My opinion? This anime is a definite must-see. A lot of it has to do with its significance in the history of anime. Also, I think Gatchaman is just plain fun to watch. If you liked Speed Racer (and really, who doesn't?), then I wholeheartedly recommend Gatchaman.



Score: 3/4

Undefeatable--Review and Reaction

Undefeatable is a creation of the infamous Hong Kong director Godfrey Ho, though he goes under the pseudonym of Godfrey Hall in this one. Undefeatable is fairly unique in that it is a brand new movie instead of one constructed of older footage edited together in a different way to attempt to form a new narrative, a trademark of Godfrey Ho. However, that does not make Undefeatable, you know, a good movie.

Stingray (Don Niam) is a professional fighter and an abusive husband. When his wife takes her psychiatrist's advice and leaves him, Stingray essentially goes berserk and starts killing just about every woman that has a resemblance to his wife. Things get personal when one of the victims is Kristi Jones' (Cynthia Rothrock) sister. It is up to Kristi Jones and Sgt. Nick DiMarco (John Miller) to put an end to Stingray's rampage.

Undefeatable has just about every symptom of an old low-budget Hong Kong martial arts film, which includes, but is not limited to, a feeble story where every event serves as a weak excuse for people to start fighting, clumsy direction, weak special effects, and universally inept acting. Kristi is a part of a street gang that engages in organized fights in order to help pay for her sister's college education. Apparently everyone has learned martial arts and no one has heard of financial assistance in this movie.

The movie seems to allude to an Oedipal complex on the part of Stingray, but even then, that, like many other things, seems to have nothing to do with anything else in the movie. All you do know is that he married his wife because of her resemblance to his mother, who may or may not have left him as a child for a boyfriend; you see them argue over leaving young Stingray in a flashback, but you never know how it actually turned out. It does give an excuse for Don Niam to start his hilariously over the top acting when he calls the random women he murders his wife's name or "mommy" and for him to dramatically spray his mullet before going on his murder spree. I have to confirm an observation a user on the Internet Movie Database made in that Niam's mullet does seem to increase in size as the movie progresses.

Stingray's murders involve torturing and raping his victims in some odd ritual before breaking their necks and tearing their eyes out. Why does he do that? Yet another thing the movie never bothers explaining. I think it was the only plot device Ho could figure out in order for the police to determine that the murders were carried out by the same person.

The acting was really bad all-around. John Miller's character seemed to have exactly one emotion throughout; at least Don Niam made his character interesting to watch. Even the guy who was Nick DiMarco's partner cannot evein die convincingly; he gets shot in the throat, to which he says "Nick" in a melodramatic voice. The problem was that despite getting shot in the neck, his vocal chords are pretty clearly intact. By the way, the movie makes it pretty clear it doesn't honestly give a damn about its own characters such as this one; you never find out if he survived his wound or not. B-movie actress Cynthia Rothrock was the best actress in the film, and I think that really says something.

So this is a martial arts film, so I'm sure you're wondering how the fight scenes are. Well, they're about as good as everything else in the film. You'll get used to seeing people get socked in the face and shrug it off like it was nothing. Also, I found it hilariously obvious when actors clearly do not make contact with the other actors when they allegedly hit one another.

The climactic fight scene between DiMarco and Stingray is one that deserves a paragraph all to itself. It begins with a brief knife fight, after which DiMarco and Stingray remove their shirts for no apparent reason; Godfrey Ho probably foresaw New Moon. Then DiMarco and Stingray awkwardly grab each other and continue fighting, and that culminates in Stingray getting lifted by a crane hook that got lodged into his eye. I'm sure Ho intended this to be some sort of irony, but I think you'll be too lost in the moment saying, "Woah. This Jerry Seinfeld lookalike got lifted by the eye!" in utter bewilderment. Oh by the way, this last scene took place in a hospital. Yeah, that hospital has warehouses with cranes with hooks on them for whatever reason.

In the end, I have to give the movie a score of a 1 instead of a 0 because it is a functional movie, which classics like Fantasy Mission Force are not. However, I think a movie where the dialogue includes lines like "You have the right to remain silent, so do me a favor and shut up." says something. If that doesn't, then you should know that after the climactic eye-lifting Cynthia Rothrock says, "We'll keep an EYE out for you, Stingray." to which John Miller follows up with, "Yeah, SEE ya around!"

Score: 1/4.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth--Review and Reaction

Death and Rebirth is the first Neon Genesis Evangelion movie having been released before End of Evangelion. If you want to know a basic plot synopsis, just scroll down and read the first paragraph of both my review of the series and End of Evangelion.

That is exactly what Death and Rebirth is: a stripped-down NGE series plus End of Evangelion put into one movie. Like End of Evangelion, Death and Rebirth is a sort of two-part movie with Death being a crash course of the television series and Rebirth being part of End of Evangelion.

For the most part, the Death sequence was key scenes of the television series edited together to give the viewer a basic run-down as to what went on up to episode 24. Occasionally, there were a couple new scenes put in here and there in order to help explain certain character relationships and things like the Second Impact. Otherwise, Death was just a SparkNotes version of Neon Genesis Evangelion that would only make sense to people who have already seen the series. The way the scenes were edited together in a manner resembling what probably goes on in someone with ADD clearly shows that Death and Rebirth is not supposed to stand alone as any sort of Evangelion-related narrative. Also, I was not entirely sure I got the scenes showing Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and Toji rehearsing for a string concert; I know they served to introduce the characters that the movie wanted to focus on, but I was not really sure what the meaning of a string concert was; I guess it is at least partly because of director Anno Hideaki's tendency to intentionally leave things unclear so as to force viewers to try to interpret things.

The Rebirth segment of Death and Rebirth showed some of End of Evangelion up until about a quarter of the way through that movie, ultimately ending with the deployment of the Mass-Produced Evangelion units; it appears to be a hanger to those who have not seen End of Evangelion. This movie was released before End of Evangelion, so clearly the Rebirth portion of the movie was to entice fans to see what would eventually become End of Evangelion.

So what did I ultimately think of Death and Rebirth? For me at least, having seen this after End of Evangelion, this movie was rather redundant. Death and Rebirth really was just a thinly-disguised nearly two-hour-long trailer for End of Evangelion. This movie was really only worth seeing in the time between the end of the series and the release of End of Evangelion. Granted, if you are one who had a little trouble following the series (which, let's face it, was a little confusing), then I would recommend seeing Death and Rebirth for the Death portion of the movie alone. Otherwise, you might as well just see the series and End of Evangelion.

Overall: 2/4.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion--Review and Reaction

The Angels have finally been defeated. SEELE tries hacking into the NERV's MAGI computer system in order to facilitate a peaceful takeover. When that fails, SEELE tries more drastic measures, and summons the Japanese Self-Defense Force to use more violent means. In the meantime, Asuka is still in a coma, Rei is nowhere to be found, and Shinji is still recovering from the shock of the incident with Kaoru and his own feeling of helplessness with Asuka's present state.

The reason End of EVA exists in the first place is because of the general outcry at the ending of the NGE series ending. End of EVA is a "remake" of sorts of the last two episodes of the series; the movie even sort of treats itself as a two-part OVA as alternate episodes 25 and 26. Was this a "better" ending? I'm really not entirely sure.

Aside from one fairly sweet sequence, there was no classic mecha action in End of EVA whatsoever. The Episode 25 half of the movie was more one orgy of disturbing violence after another with soldiers gunning down NERV personnel in fairly graphic detail. And to top it off, it began with one of the most disgusting moments I have ever seen in an anime. Without spoiling anything, let us just say that it involved Shinji letting go of some built-up sexual tension.

The Episode 26 half at least revealed a lot of the explanations I was looking for in the series, but ultimately never got. Even then, I felt this ending wound up raising more questions than what got answered. As one of my friends pointed out, "That is because Anno Hideaki hates you."

Fans were dissatisfied with the ending of the series to the point where they were even sending director Anno death threats. Ultimately, you can see that End of EVA was Anno's way of thumbing his nose at them; some of said threatening letters and graffiti painted on studio GAINAX's building are even shown in the feature.

Ok, so the storytelling once again is nothing particularly satisfying, but the production values were once again pretty high, although still not great considering this was a feature released in theaters. The animation was pretty sweet (and helping add to the rather unsettling atmosphere). Also, the voice acting once again proved to be one of the anime's strong points, especially with Ogata Megumi's portrayal of Shinji, who has almost completely lost it by the time this movie takes place. So what do I have a problem with? I felt this was a movie that was made on the budget of an OVA. The animation was good, but still nothing compared to other anime movies made around that time, particularly Ghibli productions or the likes of Ghost in the Shell. Furthermore, aside from the end credits tune, the music was largely recycled from the series.

In the end, I would not go so far as to say that the ending of the series was better, but I did not feel End of EVA to be an improvement either. Ultimately, I think fans will have to wait for Rebuild of Evangelion before getting a satisfying ending to the Neon Genesis Evangelion saga.

Score: 2/4

On another note: Manga Entertainment, for the life of them, CANNOT make anime DVDs. I noticed the same problem I did with Read or Die, another Manga release, where I set the language preferences in the menu to Japanese with English subtitles, and then play it only to find the DVD set the language back to English with no subtitles. The only way it seems to listen to language preferences is when you change it using the appropriate buttons on your remote rather than using the menu.

Inglorious Basterds--Review and Reaction

SS Colonel Landa got the nickname "the Jew Hunter" due to his ability to hunt down Jews for the Nazis during the Second World War. After witnessing the massacre of her family at the hands of Landa, Shosanna Dreyfus vows revenge against the Nazis.

Meanwhile, Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) assembled a squad of eight Jewish-American soldiers with the sole purpose of killing Nazis and spreading terror.

Years pass, and the Germans created a propaganda film that will be showcased to high Nazi party officials. Little do they know that Shosanna owns that theater and has concocted a plan for revenge. At the same time, the Basterds are notified by their high command of their own plan to assassinate the same members of the Nazi party at the same movie event. Of course, neither Shosanna nor the Allies have any knowledge of each others' plans.

Inglorious Basterds is a very typical Tarantino film and a very atypical World War 2 feature, though, as expected, both these aspects go hand-in-hand. The first thing that you will probably notice is how long the movie is. A lot of it is due to the slow speed at the beginning. Many of the earlier scenes were pretty dialogue heavy in order to set the viewer up with what is to come later on, particularly both plots involving the movie event.

Also, the movie's violent scenes are....pretty violent as Inglorious Basterds does have a pretty high body count. However, there aren't very many of those scenes. Again, with the exception of the massacre towards the beginning and an introduction to the Basterds' methods of warfare, the first half of the movie was generally pretty light with action sequences and focused more on character development and setting up for the climax. Thus, I think this movie does require some patience as many things, such as Donny's introduction, get really drawn out.

By the way, this IS a Tarantino movie, so the violent parts can get pretty graphic (Aldo requires his men to scalp Nazis they kill). In addition, like other Tarantino movies, the characters' dialogue is pretty laced with profanity and there was also a pretty raunchy scene involving Joseph Goebbels. So for the record, kids should not be seeing this movie. I'm very sincere when I say that. Like many of Tarantino's other famous movies, Inglorious Basterds very well deserved its R rating.

Inglorious Basterds started off with a serious enough tone, yet the movie began to take itself less and less seriously as it progressed. That can be measured by the significance Aldo has on-screen as he provides a very significant portion of the movie's very black humor. I really have to take my hat off to Brad Pitt in his portrayal of Aldo as he very much was the spirit of the movie.

Inglorious Basterds as a whole was pretty well-acted. Diane Kruger essentially plays herself as a major German film star. Also, Christoph Waltz was nearly perfect as Landa. Martin Wuttke was no Bruno Ganz, but he got the job done as Hitler.

Throughout, there was a highly anachronistic, yet very fitting soundtrack. A pretty good chunk of the music in Inglorious Basterds was made of hard rock music. Again, Inglorious Basterds set out to be a Tarantino movie first, World War 2 feature.....I don't know where as this was pretty low on its priorities.

On the whole, if you are looking for some black comedy with some pretty sweet acting and clever dialogue and are mature enough to handle some of the content and have the patience for the somewhat heavy-handed story, then I have to wholeheartedly recommend Inglorious Basterds. Also, if you really want proof as to how this is an atypical World War 2 film, all you have to do is bear witness to how the movie ends.

Score: 3.5/4

Comrade Ash

Pokemon's society. People unleash pets on one another. Boys take 10 years to age 3. Giovanni aims to use Pokemon for profit, and is therefore a bad guy. How is this possible? Pokemon takes place in a communist society.

According to US laws, cockfighting is illegal. However, it is, if anything, actively encouraged to unleash pets (the Pokemon) on each other, like gladiators almost. People not only do not find this morally reprehensible, but in fact obsess over how to dominate over the other guy's Pokemon. In fact, people don't seem to have any other problems to concern them, such as food or housing or even getting a big-screen TV. The only way this is possible is if their society either completely takes care of their everyday needs, or Pokemon battles, like gladiator fights, serve as a convenient distraction from society's real problems.

Also, the need for law and order appears to be more or less nonexistent. Officer Jenny's (and that of her relatives) job seems to be little more than enforcing traffic laws and keeping people from stealing Pokemon (because that would be unfair in a battle, would it not?). Either society takes it for granted that either violent crimes like murder, rape, or robbery won't happen, or the government probably had some serious oversight.

On the subject of clones, Nurse Joy (and all her relatives) seems to be all people need for medical needs, which is more often for a Pokemon than for a human. Do people not get sick or seriously injured very often? Are there not any doctors? Nurses is all they need?

Also, Jenny and Joy appear to have been born out of cloning vats a la clone troopers from Star Wars where two women appear to fill Jango Fett's role as genetic templates. Like Jango Fett clones serve as soldiers (for which there appears to be no need in Pokemon society), Jennys and Joys serve as law enforcement and health care professionals respectively. So I guess that's also why Jenny never rises above the rank of Officer and Joy never goes full MD (or veterinarian, or Pokemon Doctor even): they all get identical training, which makes none of them special, and they all have identical intelligence and work ethic parameters, so they are naturally unable to rise above each other.

We also know Giovanni (and his organization Team Rocket) and Lawrence III (the antagonist from Pokemon: the Movie 2000) are bad guys. Why is that? Well, Giovanni intends to take over the world, but to do that he must capitalize on Pokemon, and he must have his agents take them for him. Meanwhile, Lawrence III is a self-billed collector. So how is stealing or collecting Pokemon somehow morally less ok than having them fight each other? To put it simply, they both represent capitalist ideals. Think about it: the whole concept of wanting to make a profit using Pokemon, or to simply hoard them. Those would not be concepts that sit well with a communist society.

Of course every communist society needs a communist dictator. And who is that? That is none other than Professor Oak. Everyone seems to have respect for him and they always turn to him for advice, and more often than not, his word is absolute. He is called Professor Oak, yet he does not appear to be working for any university which would require him to profess his knowledge to eager young minds (you get awarded a cookie if you get this reference). Therefore, "professor" serves purely as a title for him, much like "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-Il or "Our Beloved Eternal President Comrade" Kim Il-Sung.

Of course, as mentioned before, what Oak clearly forgot was a strong police force, otherwise, Team Rocket and Lawrence III would all have wound up in a gulag a long time ago never to be heard from again.

P.S. Brock is usually labeled as the horny member of the protagonists. However, sometimes, I could not help but feel that Professor Oak was interested in Delia Ketchum (Ash's mom, who's surprisingly sexy considering her age) . Do we know what goes on behind the scenes? ("Now we know raising a 10-year-old boy by yourself must be hard. Oh, and now that Ash is now gallivanting off in search of Pokemon, let's do something.....") Also, finally, Ash himself is one horny SOB, as shown in this screencap of the episode when he meets Professor Ivy.




I don't care what you say. Ash is pretty clearly staring at Ivy's chest. I guess that's no surprise considering it took him 10 seasons of the anime to age 3 years that he finally hit puberty at the end of Season 1.

Neon Genesis Evangelion--Review and Reaction

After somehow NOT seeing it for this long, I finally finished Neon Genesis Evangelion. What did I think of the series? Well, I'd have to say my feelings are pretty mixed overall.

Earth, 2015, fifteen years after the Second Impact. The Earth is getting bombarded by mysterious alien beings known as the Angels. Fortunately for humankind, NERV has something to say about this, and their response are the mecha known collectively as Evangelion, humanlike robots piloted by 14-year-old children. However, the Third Child, Ikari Shinji, has his own demons, such as his own father, to deal with in addition to protecting mankind in EVA Unit 01.

What I have to credit GAINAX with in this production is the very high production values. For an anime series made in the mid-1990s, the visuals are pretty lush. The mecha designs are very original, I'd have to say and the action scenes are generally very well-done. Of course, since I'm a guy (^_^) I'd also have to credit GAINAX for designing some of the most gorgeous female characters to ever grace an anime series.

Also, I'd have to say the voice-acting in general was pretty good, particularly Ogata Megumi (lead character Shinji) and Hayashibara Megumi (Ayanami Rei). However, I'd have to say the music was a mixed bag of either really good or really average tunes, though thankfully nothing is bad. Both "Cruel Angel's Thesis" and "Fly Me to the Moon" were very good opening and end themes. However, I felt some of the tunes (i.e. the drum tune every time an angel appears) get overused quite a bit.

Now we get to the story. Sadly enough, I feel this is the part of NGE I simply have to criticize. I think I can sort of divide the series into three "phases". The first phase served primarily to get Shinji and co. together into one setting and give introductions to all the major players of the story. The second phase felt more like filler with "Monster of the Week"-type episodes where Angels appear and NERV figuring out ways to defeat them; very little in the way of character development goes on at this point. The last segment of the series, particularly the last two episodes, launches into what seems to be ravings of a manic-depressive. Director Anno Hideaki was apparently on antidepressants while making NGE, and it sure shows towards the end.

In addition to that, I feel half of everything pertaining to NERV was not explained. A lot of this had to do with the ending, which served to be a pretty amazing letdown. I was watching until the end primarily so I could get some sort of closure which I ultimately never got. I simply failed to see how the rest of the series led up to the last two episodes. A pretty good chunk of the major characters had no explanations for their motives, and I felt that I honestly only really knew Shinji, Misato, and Asuka by the end of the series, partly because the ending served as character studies for them; I'm not exactly spoiling anything since the ending is such that it is pretty much impossible to spoil (or even explain).

The ending may at least be partly the result of NGE, like many other anime series, going overbudget before the end. Already, you can see an increase in the use of still cels in lieu of animated motion and other animation shortcuts. Thus, Anno and GAINAX were probably just looking for a way to end the series quickly and economically while letting Anno still have a say in the storytelling.

In conclusion, would I say Neon Genesis Evangelion is a bad anime? No, but I definitely have seen better. Nonetheless, NGE is a classic that should be seen by nearly every otaku primarily for its importance in the history of anime, but (at least in my opinion) certainly not for those expecting solid storytelling or anything else that generally does not resemble ravings of a depressed lunatic.

Overall: 2.5/4

More Updates

Say hello to the champions of BRITE! After defeating (but nearly losing to) South Brunswick in the semis, we went onto the finals. That match was against Hunterdon Central, and that actually took place in Madeline's on Vosseler rather than the usual Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School.

A very funny thing occured before the actual game started. Both teams arrived only to find that somehow there was no reservation made in this restaurant. Mrs. Ferreri first went in, but admitted that she was a little afraid to go and explore the somewhat desolate-looking place; admittedly, I wouldn't feel too safe doing that either. Fortunately, the higher-ups of BRITE managed to sort it all out.

Anyway, this time, one of the higher-ups of BREA read the questions this time rather than our advisors alternating. Also, they even had an official timekeeper and judges.

The game ultimately ended with our victory after maintaining a very comfortable lead throughout. When I accepted the plaque, I actually felt a little faint because I simply could not belive that this was happening. We won $2000 for our school's scholarship fund and secured our place at the National Academic Championship.

I hope that goes well at least because I actually read some weird things about NAC, especially about Chip Beall's antics. Anyway, I guess all we can do is practice the new format in hope for the best.

Updates

On Tuesday, March 17, we faced High Tech 1 in BRITE. There was an issue where Alex responded to a question at the same time when time was called. That was resolved with the higher-ups at BRITE just giving a new question as if the situation never arised. I can see the High Tech people were pretty disappointed considering this was their best team; however, JP has officially advanced the furthest that it ever did in BRITE: we are now officially semifinalists, and we will be facing South Brunswick next Tuesday.

Last Wednesday, we went back on the Challenge. First, we played Jewish Ed. Center. I have to admit that they were a lot better than I expected because we were actually behind on points for a while; however, we managed to pull through at the end. A very similar issue arouse when a question in Complete 180 was asking for Tyra Banks' reality show, to which they replied "America's Top Model" only to try to retract it and say "America's Next Top Model" (the correct answer). Taping was temporarily halted, and once again, the question was thrown out, but this time the new one was bounced to us, and we did not appear to know the answer. Still, we managed to win against them, which led us to our game against Bergen County.

We actually almost won against BCA. The MC round ended with a score of about 150 BCA to 135 JP. Then, after Lightning Round, the score was 185 BCA to 180 JP. Then, after the third round, we actually managed to pull ahead with a score of JP 280 to BCA 245. However, BCA pulled a 180 in Complete 180, and the final score was BCA 335 to JP 325. I would have liked it better if we won, but I guess I can take comfort in that JP has probably come the closest that any NJ team ever did in actually beating Bergen.

My Life is Turning Up

Last Tuesday, we beat Summit High School in BRITE. Thus, we are now advancing to the quarterfinals. I have to say that I was quite impressed with their sportsmanship, especially that of their coach. I could tell that he was not terribly impressed with the performance of his own team, but still he moderated with as much fairness as he possibly could, quite unlike CBA's coach.

My French teacher finally responded to my e-mail day before yesterday about my predicament with the girl who told me that she does not appear to be interested in me. Today, I talked with my teacher after school for a pretty solid half an hour. If anything, my teacher convinced me that I'm not quite as unloved as I thought for the longest time. Even though I feel better than I did that night, I still feel that I'm not going to be over this for a while though. The trouble is that I've never really been this much in love with anyone besides this girl. Yes, she is the second girl I've been infatuated with, but I was over the first rejection with hardly any trouble at all. Somehow, I don't really feel any sort of emotional attraction to anyone else at all.

Anyway, at this point, I think I've officially earned the right to feel good about myself for a change. My motto (for now) is, "I may lack a girlfriend, but that doesn't change the fact that I kick ass at everything I do." Because it's true.

BRITE--Day 3 and Back to Round 1

We faced Christian Brothers Academy today. Once again, we (JP Team 1) managed to garner a respectable score of 1170 to 840. Much like 2 years ago, CBA's advisor needed to try to exploit us on a technicality of our answers.

The question asked for a scientific novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, to which Alex replied "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". Naturally, that advisor's panties got tied in a not and she insisted that the correct answer is "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". At the end of the game, Mrs. Vitvitsky merely explained our case to the higher-ups at the tournament. I'll bet that CBA's advisor just started arguing with the authorities as to why she is right and Mrs. Vitvitsky is wrong. Tonight, we will ultimately find out if we actually get those points that were up for grabs or not.

Anyway, I'm actually quite glad that we have an advisor as strong as Mrs. V. I'm almost tempted to think that any other advisor would've just consented to what CBA's advisor wanted. While Mrs. V. is tough, she is also fair in that she does believe in playing fairly and with dignity, and not trying to just screw the other team out of a few points. CBA's team members actually seemed to be pretty nice people too, but it was their advisor that was a problem. I almost feel sorry for those suckers having to deal with her every week. I'll bet she preeches, "Remember guys! This is not for CBA! This is not for you guys! Our participation in quiz games is for ME and for ME to demonstrate MY ego! And it is YOUR job to help ME screw the other teams for points so I look good!" at every one of their weekly practices.

Anyway, I'm nonetheless happy with the performance that we gave for this and only hope that we can continue it next week when we return for the NJ Challenge!

First Post+BRITE News

Ok, I got a new computer today, and I'm creating this blog from it.

Before I get started, you people should know that I am the one and only Neil A. Sen, and I am a member of the JP Stevens High School quiz team, aka the STARS.

Right now, we have two teams taking part in BRITE, or the Bridgewater-Raritan Invitational Tournament of Excellence. We have gotten through Rounds 2 and 3 and will take part in 1 this coming Tuesday, which is incidentally my birthday. The reason 1 is last is because the start of this tournament was delayed twice due to the kind of heavy amount of snow that was coming down those days.

Anyway, things have been going well so far. JPS Team 1 (made up of me, David Zhao, Alex Silady, Andy Zhu, Kunal Bailoor, and Jessica Cui) is currently the #1 team! We actually faced 2 of Sayreville's 3 teams. The first team was a bit of a breeze to beat; that was the game in which we scored the points that really boosted us up to the #1 spot. The other Sayreville team, however, actually was pretty good. That round started with us winning the first game with a wide margin, then winning the second with a smaller margin, then actually losing the third by a 10 point one. The good news is that overall we managed to gain 1180 points over their 720, and we're still maintaining our spot with that added to the 1480 from the first round we played.

The other team does not appear to be faring so well. Although they managed to win both games they played (they too were facing Sayreville teams), their point totals really were not terribly impressive with about 800 the first and 1080 the second. I suspect the reason is because that team is half-full of underclassmen that, from what I hear from the older players, generally just get in the way. We need 4 players to constitute a panel, and we can have 2 alternates. The thing is that they have to let everyone play at least once in each game. More often than not, those underclassmen do not appear to know the answer to any question, leaving it to the one junior and two seniors they have to figure it out.

This leads me to my next point: I am actually pretty worried about the future of our team, particularly after the Class of 2010 graduates. The underclassmen we are getting in order to replace the guys that graduate seem to be mostly jerks that are there just so they can get Mrs. Vitvitsky's signature on their activity sheets when the time comes for them to submit college applications. More evidence for this theory of mine came on the first day of BRITE. One of those underclassmen I mentioned appeared to be well enough to take the American Math Competition test that was that day (I was there and I saw her), yet she was apparently not well enough to come with us to Bridgewater. That's the typical thinking of a more pragmatic high schooler: screw your teammates, it's your college admission that ultimately counts.

I know I place an abnormal amount of importance on a quiz team, yet as a person who was not even on that team, I felt just a tad bit ticked off at what I still see as an abandonment of her team. I still wonder what our two advisors feel about this.

Anyway, I am looking forward to my 18th birthday this Tuesday and our triumph in BRITE that same day. Furthermore, we are going back on the NJ Challenge the following Monday, March 2nd! Peace out.