Individual Eleven – The World's Cyberbrain

There were a lot of fans from all over the country to see this performance, and some cosplayers too! Seeing Sephiroth at The Royal Albert Hall was quite strange at first. There were also other fans dressed as SeeD from Final Fantasy VIII amongst other characters. I cannot tell you how excited I was about this concert; I bought the tickets in January this year and they were sold out in weeks. Ten months later the day finally arrives!




It’s all about the music

After an introduction to the composer Nobuo Uematsu and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the night kicks off with Liberi Fatali. Final Fantasy VIII is one of my favourites in the series and hearing it live for the first time was simply amazing. The strong choral sections were performed by London Voices which penetrated every part of the hall. Each instrument and note was heard with crystal clarity even though I was sitting in the Grand Tier section of the hall which is fairly high. When the piece finished, I just knew we were going to be in for something very special indeed.

During each piece, a video montage is displayed on two gigantic screens to give you a full multimedia experience. The great thing was seeing actual game footage being played out which synchronised with the orchestra absolutely perfectly. An example of this was the opening sequence and Bombing Mission song from Final Fantasy VII. You know the one; the camera zooms to Aerith walking out onto the streets of Midgar. The camera zooms out and pans onto the train where your character Cloud starts off and then straight into the bombing mission itself. The graphics back then was thought to be groundbreaking at the time, of course now they look very dated but I lost part of my youth in that game and I never stopped loving it. Seeing it there before me made me want to play it all over again.

Fond memories

If you think VII was dated, we have much older ones. The concert’s aim was to play at least one piece of music from every Final Fantasy game ever made to date. Everyone will know the Prelude song, a solo harp plays with London Voices completing the piece. My favourites from the bygone era include Terra’s Theme from VI and Theme of Love from IV. To be brutally honest, it is very very difficult to pick any favourites at all, I loved each and every one of them. Nobuo Uematsu is a musical genius.

Fast forward to some of the more recent titles, and we have Zanarkand from X; everyone loves Yuna. Some of the theme songs were also performed such as Eyes On Me from VIII and Kiss Me Goodbye from XII. Both were performed so beautifully by singer Susan Calloway, flown all the way from America to perform for us. The open space of the Royal Albert Hall was no match for her voice, and I would not be surprised if it could be heard all the way into Kensington. There was some fun to be had with a Chocobo Medley, which was put together in 2010. The screens displayed some of the best Chocobo highlights from all the games.

Some of the staff at Squeenix also attended the performance; I was two sections away from them!







Wishing it would never end

The entire performance was finished in about two hours including the interval. I could have sat there all night listening but the night drew to a close, with scrolling credits of everyone that made Final Fantasy happen. Many worthy mentions include Uematsu of course and Yoshitaka Amano, who drew many Final Fantasy illustrations for the games and were displayed on the screens for some of the pieces. Of course a big big thank you also goes to Arnie Roth who conducted all the pieces and is the music director for the Distant Worlds concert tour. He apologised for taking so long to get to the UK, but he and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra more than made up for it by bringing us one of the most spectacular concerts I have ever witnessed.

However, the night did not end until the ultimate encore, One-Winged Angel – Sephiroth’s Theme. Oh My God. If you think it sounds amazing at home you have no idea the magnitude of amazingness when you hear this with a live orchestra. A truly fitting way to end. Coupled with the choral London Voices singing in perfect unison, this piece is something else. And yes, I did watch Final Fantasy: Advent Children as soon as I got home.

Mark in your calendar!!

The next Final Fantasy: Distant Worlds concert will be back at the Royal Albert Hall on 17th November 2012. In December of that year, it will be the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy so we can expect a very special performance this time around. Tickets will go live around December this year, visit http://ffdistantworlds.com/ to keep up to date on tour dates. I for one will definitely be there next year, if the world doesn’t go boom that is. If you cannot be there yourself, then I highly recommend the Distant Worlds CD One and CD Two.


“My last night here for you. Same old songs just once more…”

Gundam and Gunpla

Gundam is an anime mecha series dating back to 1979; the first ever was aired and named Mobile Suit Gundam. Picture action-packed robots piloted by people, battling other giant robots with insane weaponry. Since then, the series spawned an ever growing franchise and ultimately the art of Gunpla was born. Gunpla is the building of Gundam models produced by Bandai, from small basic ones to giant monstrosities with electronics inside for lights or sounds. There have been some amazing models in the past, but the more detailed and elaborate they are, the more expensive it gets. As an example, the Launcher/Sword Strike Gundam I will start building today cost £70 and they can go all the way up to £300 or more.

Each model kit are scaled and graded, which indicates the size and level of detail of the model. This ranges from 1:144 scale with no grades all the way up to 1:35 although these are rare. The high end models will generally be 1:100 Master Grades or 1:100 and 1:60 Perfect Grades. The Perfect Grades have an exceptional level of detail, which I hope to obtain in October when I visit the Robot4Less store in L.A.

On top of all these, the level of skill required is also banded:

• Skill level 1 – Beginners who have never built a Gundam before
• Skill level 2 – Beginners with some experience of Gunpla
• Skill level 3 – Advanced skills and understanding of build with a set of tools (sanding paper or filers, knife, tweezers, clippers etc.).
• Skill level 4 – Very complex model kit, not for beginners.

Tools of the trade

Parts. Always check that the parts are all there before you buy a Gundam from a shop. If you buy it online, then I highly suggest buying it from HLJ.com as a trusted source. There’s nothing like bringing it home and find you are missing all the articulation pieces!


Manual. The kit will come with a manual to show you how to build your Gundam. Yes, the entire booklet is in Japanese. But fear not, once you start building you begin to understand the diagrams presented on how to build. The order of build generally starts with the body, then the arms and legs, finally the weapons and attachments. It does vary however, and with experience you will understand how the designers came up with the kits. Certain build elements are repeated in with slight variations and you will see this with more Gundams you build.


Tools. My wooden Gunpla box is the main toolkit comprising of a precision screwdriver and plier set, paints and brushes, knives, 12 piece Draper needle file set and spare Gundam parts. You normally have leftover spares from each model, and I keep hold of them… just in case! My other case has odds bits such as isopropyl and sponges to remove paint residue and a hammer! Some parts are extremely stubborn and will not click together. By the way, no glue is needed for Gundam kits which help a lot.


Swing arm magnifying lamp. I love this lamp, I bought it from Machine Mart and the built in magnifying glass is a God send for zooming in on snapping difficult pieces together. One thing to note is, once it is snapped shut it is a nightmare to unsnap again. The reason it takes so long to build is because you HAVE to be sure what you are doing is correct. Double and triple check the diagrams if you are not sure.










Easel. Last but not least, my easel. I have spent many hours in my build area hunched over a build manual and it’s not good for one’s back. You can pick up one of these and many of the things I have listed above at Hobbycraft. With this and everything else, you also need a big desk. I specifically ordered a conference table from an online office furniture store because of this. IKEA desks just doesn’t cut it!










Now that everything is in place, I shall start with part 1, the body unit…

My timeline below illustrates the frustration and anger many of us experienced on our so called fantastic public transport system.

Thursday 9th June

7pm – I arrive at London Waterloo train station to catch my train home to Basingstoke on my daily commute. Immediately I can see across the board that all trains in and out of this station are delayed. I send a tweet to Sarah @girlygeekdom warning her of potential problems, as we regularly take the same trains.

7.15pm – I board the late 6.39pm train that had been delayed like all the others. Slowly but sure we moved forward… until we hit Clapham Junction. The guard informs us that there is a signal failure at this station and potentially other ones along the line. At this point I start tweeting the current situation to warn others. The backlog of trains on this track is starting to build up to 5,6,7 as time ticks by.

8pm – We are inching along past the smaller stations such as Weybridge. We stopped for half an hour before arriving at Byfleet and New Haw. A new update from the guard tells us that there are signal failures at Farnborough. The power of social media starts to kick in, as I’m tweeting these updates Steve @Actionlamb sees them and warns other people he knows that take a similiar route. I later tell Benjamin @BenjaminEllis and Sarah not to take any trains from Waterloo and to stay well away. Paddington to Reading and then a connecting train from there is the best bet.

9pm – An hour has past and we are still at Byfleet. The guard has no communication to Control, our driver is also in the dark. Passengers are enquiring if South West Trains will compensate them for taxi fares to go home. The guard is in a difficult position and cannot make this kind of decision. Frustration creeps in as everyone tries to contact their loved ones. What was more frustrating was seeing trains on the track next to us flow freely. We are stuck and cannot access the platform; we are in the middle of tracks on either side.

The guard promised us that if we ever do get moving, we will stop at West Byfleet for passengers who wish to make travel arrangements from this station. I decide this is the action I will take and take my chances on alternative transport. I call my fiance to let him know he may need to pick me up and drive from Basingstoke should Actioncabs run into difficulties. He starts to Google Map the route to West Byfleet.

9.30pm – The free flowing track is now also stuck. A lot of people are standing on our train and are getting very tired, each carriage is rammed to the ceiling with people. The message from the guard is the same: “We have no new information for you at the moment.” He tells us that he has been using his mobile phone to contact other drivers caught in front and behind us to see what is happening. However his battery is running low and has asked other passengers to lend their phones to him. The backlog of trains is now at 13. On average, a train will have 8 to 10 carriages. Hundreds of passengers are affected here, some with medical conditions and need to get home.

Meanwhile, Sarah and Benjamin meet up at the ICA in London to seek refuge, avoiding trains completely. Steve (now henceforth known as Actioncabs) heads to the ICA to pick them up, with the plan of grabbing me on the way back if I managed to escape.

10.00pm – My phone is dead and I slap in another battery. Phones are dying all over and it has dawned on many people that we could be cut off completely. Information is scarce, but the guard has new information and that the power has been turned off at Woking. No explanation is given at this point, but later I find out that passengers were pulling the emergency cord or prying doors open  to jump off and access the platform. Power has been shut off to prevent electrocution from escaping passengers. The guard on our train refuses to open the door for us to jump onto the standstill train next to us to get to the other side.

A wheelchair passenger is worried about getting home, but a fellow passenger has offered to assist if they manage to get to Woking. I am sticking with my plan of getting off at West Byfleet; no one knows the state of the line between there and Woking.

10.30pm – Over 3 hours has passed and the guard has good news; the train will be moving shortly however more passengers are jumping onto the track. It needs to be made clear before we can proceed. A loud cheer echoes around our carriage as we are finally underway. However, passengers wonder how they get to their final destination from West Byfleet with some needing to go all the way to Poole.

Meanwhile, the motley crew at ICA are waiting for Actioncabs to come rescue them. Our hero Steve continues on his journey, dodging traffic cones. I however, am still staring at the carriage ceiling. By this time I am absolutely starving, I contemplate eating nearby seats.

11pm – I arrive at West Byfleet, with just enough battery life to make one more call to Sarah. Actioncabs et al are on their way, I just have to hang tight and find somewhere warm to wait. I stumble upon a pub called Catherine of Aragorn just outside the train station. The pub owner kindly lets me stay there even after closing time. I bump into a fellow passenger on another train who is waiting for her boyfriend. It seems her guard did not convey any information to her train, such as the Woking and Farnborough incidents. Neither did she know that people were jumping onto the track which caused further delays. South West Trains have failed miserably with comms tonight.

About 50% of the passengers stayed on the train and risked going to Woking to get connecting trains. Everyone said their farewells and wished each other luck… for some their journey is far from over.

Friday 10th June

12.30am – Thankfully my phone is now fully charged at the pub, and I am in constant communication with Sarah via Twitter. The welcomed sight of Actioncabs headlights illuminates the darkness, I have been rescued!!

1am – In the Actioncabs car is our hero Steve as driver, Sarah, myself, Benjamin and… Andy @andypiper. Andy was caught in a similiar situation, and he also hooked up with the ICA crew once he knew about our plans via Twitter. Apparently we went to the same FireFox 4 launch party I went to about a month or so ago, small world.

The end is not yet in sight however, as our car gets pulled over by the local police while going through Farnborough. There were some burglaries in the area and they were doing a routine check to make sure we weren’t car stealing. They were quite pleasant about it, Sarah and Steve talked to them while Benjamin, Andy and I sat quietly in the back. We are innocent, honest. I sat in the middle, a bit of a tight squeeze but Benjamin and Andy make good safety side airbags.

1.40am – After dropping off Benjamin and Andy at Farnborough train station and dodging more traffic cones, I got back to Basingstoke and finally got home safely. The first thing I did was make a bowl of instant ramen I was that hungry. I cannot describe to you how good it feels to a) have something to eat and b) to go to the toilet. My thanks goes to Steve Actioncabs for saving all of us from this hellish journey, but my heart goes out to all the other passengers that were still trying to make their way home.

To say that I will be making a complaint is an understatement. Poor communication, lack of information being relayed to drivers on the ground and not to mention the lack of ventilation on a lot of carriages. Throughout the ENTIRE journey, not once could the guard or the driver get through to Control. How can they justify the increase in rail travel, when people are being treated like this? I urge everyone who experienced this torment to bombard South West Trains with complaints and ask for compensation. Sarah posted the complaint form here.

The great thing about Portal 2 is the co-op levels. It truly is a work of genius; not a single level can be completed without your trusted partner in crime and they get devilishly more difficult… especially once you pass the halfway mark. I actually think the co-op is better than the single player part of the game, and we had endless fun with it as we both try to solve more and more complex puzzles. Admittedly, we did get each other killed inadvertently a few times, such is the hazard of testing.

I created a montage video of some of the later co-op levels. I must warn you that it will give away solutions to some of them. Enjoy!

Before I get to the anime themselves, there are a few things you need for any Sci-Fi London all-nighter event.

Sleep. Keep your Saturday as free as possible to conserve energy. Sleep, a lot, and try to take a nap before you head out. By 11.30pm you should be fully awake for the viewing experience ahead.

Mountain Dew. Well for me it is Mountain Dew, but any energy drink works; Monster, Relentless, Red Bull… you get the idea. Coffee doesn’t really cut it but they do serve free coffee and tea during intervals which is welcomed. Most of all, stay hydrated and have a bottle of water with you.

Food. Bring snacks with you as you will get hungry as the night/morning progresses. They do give you free Haagen Dazs ice cream to keep you going.

Bio breaks. There will be 2 or 3 intervals in between showings, so make use of them. Empty that bladder and grab more supplies!

Above all, have fun and be nice to other people in the cinema. For the anime ones at least, there is always a fun atmosphere and you are with these people for a very long time, so try not to make others angry. You may also get the odd person dozing on other people’s shoulders. Do not fret, give them a gentle poke and all will be well.

This year, the May lineup looks promising.

The Anime

Akira HD. A classic and one that all anime fans should know and love. Today, it stands the test of time and now that it has been given the high definition cleanup, it looks even more amazing than before. It tells the story of Kaneda, the leader of a biker gang and their fight against their rival The Clowns. During a high speed chase, Tetsuo splits from Kaneda’s pack and crashes into a strange boy trying to escape. From here on in, Tetsuo’s life changes dramatically with Kaneda trying to save his long time friend. Seeing this on the big screen was, to put simply, awesome. I loved every minute of it; the colours are rich and vivid and it brought back so many memories of when I first saw it.

Eden of the East: Air Communication is a very condensed version of the anime series, picking out key scenes to tell the story. I love Eden of the East; Production I.G did an amazing job with the animation and storyline that captivated me from the get go. Unfortunately, because of how deep the story goes with multiple plot threads, this summary doesn’t do the anime justice. It is even worse if you have never seen Eden of the East before. For example, Mr. Outside is suddenly introduced to Takizawa and you don’t fully understand who or what he is. You can just about grasp the concept of the Seleção and the 10 billion yen they are given to save Japan but still, you are left with the echoes of why what and how in your mind. I definitely recommend seeing the anime in full, where you will be able to appreciate Eden of the East much more.

Eden of the East the Movie I: The King of Eden. This is the first movie follow up to Eden of the East. It follows on from another “Careless Monday” incident that happened at the end of the series and Takizawa’s final requests to Juiz. Saki is back looking for Takizawa 6 months after these events, who disappeared and brainwashed himself once more. The other Seleção are also looking for him, which puts Saki immediately in danger. However, an unlikely ally helps them. This is a good movie follow up and continues the storyline with much pace. I am waiting for the next movie with baited breath.

2001 Nights: Fumihiko Sori’s: TO. I have never heard of this before, so I didn’t know what to expect. The early thumping soundtrack and introduction sequence gave much promise but alas, once that faded away you are left with a very slow paced CGI animation as a backdrop for over 2 hours of empty viewing.  This was in two parts; part one consisted of a very cliche story of a ship’s captain and his love for his space travelling wife. Because of the cryostasis from 15 year journeys, she is forever young while he grows old without her. Meanwhile, the ship is invaded by politically motivated rebels, taking the ship and crew by force. This is all very well, if it wasn’t for the ridiculous set pieces and long pauses in between scenes. And calling your wife “Mother” was all just too much in the end, as the whole back row, including myself, burst into fits of laughter. Oh yes, the script was hilarious by the way. The second part does not fare any better and the drunken old man in this is well… you can’t treat any of this seriously. A jellyfish type lifeform called Picard? Are you kidding me? I was waiting for slugs to come out called Data.

Redline. Ah this is much better. They showed this last year and I still enjoyed it, although it was much more entertaining the first time. When this came on, half the audience was asleep, or drifting in and out of consciousness. It didn’t matter, because it was so high octane with that amazing dance soundtrack that you couldn’t stay asleep for long. Think of it as F-Zero without Captain Falcon and with much stranger characters. The race is not easy however, as there are others trying to sabotage proceedings with insider betting behind closed doors. All the while, the racers risk their lives to get the coveted prize of winner of the Redline race. “Sweet” JP is hot on the heels of the sexy Sonoshi but who will win? Go see it and find out, you will not be disappointed.

FOOD! And the sun really, really hurts.

When everything was done and dusted, we stepped outside into the harsh sunlight to find ourselves starving with hunger. Pancakes were the order of the morning and it was oh so good. I had a great time, if tiring time, but it was well worth it.