Saturday, December 31, 2016

Sayonara 2016

Today is the last day of in 2016 so as usual, it is time to summarise and reflect on the past year. The highlight for this year is my trip to Australia in March. I did not get the chance to hug a koala or play with kangaroos but it felt great to be back to Sydney. I always thought it would be boring to travel to the same place more than once but this trip proved otherwise.

Other than that, 2016 has nothing much worth mentioning. I realised that I really watched a lot of movies this year. I think the 'coma' of my laptop really contributed much to that as my internet time was less than previous years. Another impact from that is I am not watching that much anime or J-drama this year and I sort of not really following J-pop music.

I also achieved some 'smaller' dreams such as completing photobooks from my trips to Europe, Japan, and Australia. I also attended my first ever live concert for AAA. The experience is quite addictive and not as daunting as I expected. I will not hesitate to attend future concerts of people that I like. Hehe.. I also attended the fan club event and got chance to high touch them. Hoho..

I am pretty daring with my first attempt at investment. I started with the monthly $200 for POSB invest saver in 2015 which is considered quite a small amount. Lol. This year I contributed to crowdfunding which is considered higher risk but higher return. I really think I was quite crazy to pump in $11000 into it o_0 So far I only managed to get $5000 back and it is quite a roller coaster ride with few missed payments. Not sure if my heart can take more roller coaster rides like this haha.. However, the mind set of "I am prepared to lose the $xxx that I pump in" really helps for such high risk investment. As the economy is not doing well, I already stopped doing this. Haha.. I actually stopped sometime in June so I effectively only participated for 4 months. Now I am only waiting for the repayments.

Premium Bandai Singapore also opened this year and I am working with my friends in Jakarta to open a Gundam shop. My task is simple: just to help to order whatever he thinks will sell and forks out the money first. Lol. I have to think about storage as well since my room is already like a store room but at least he will handle how to get the items to Jakarta. Lol.

I still continue with my Japanese language class although I am at the brink of giving up. Sigh.. I do not really put in the effort to memorise and it gets quite difficult to follow. Can't deny that it still makes the mugger in me happy about it. Haha.. It contributes a lot to my fortnightly Starbucks to do the homework too T_T Haha... My diet goes down the drain this year as I hardly avoid egg, chilli, and butter and I cannot maintain the discipline with my L-men for dinner. Sigh.. Not surprising that I have become so embarrassing fat this year, fat enough for me to actually plunge into a gym training. I also walked a lot thanks to Pokemon GO! I am more willing to walk to catch pokemons than for the sake of just losing weight. Yes... crazy me.

The realisation that I simply run out of storage of space really puts a brake to my binging on toy collections. For the past year, my spending is only 60% than the previous year. The percentage looks fantastic but I really thought I could spend even much lesser. Hmm.. where did the money go as I don't really think my bank account increase that much also leh?

Hmm.. after all the above, something is missing. Yes, I leave the rant about my job as the last. After the fun and excitement of SEA Games last year, work has been shit this year to give me negative vibes for the rest of the year. More importantly, it is shit enough to push me to actually actively look for job instead of just grumbling that I want to change job. Well, my bond just ended this September anyway.

In summary, 2016 is so lacklustre as compared to the fantastic 2015. Things are expected to be worse in 2017 whether you believe in Chinese horoscope or not so I am really not looking forward to it. My wish for 2017 is to find a 5-day week job so that I can find more meaningful activities (such as volunteering or church activities) on the weekend. I want to continue with my Japanese lessons and I will join the gym membership. It is painful to drag myself out for the gym but I really hope that the realisation that I have spent so much, I will at least make use of it. I hope to continue putting on a rein on my toy spending (not sure if it can happen) as the storage issue really drives me crazy. Bleah... Not sure if I want to find a girlfriend since I really still prefer to die young.

Wew.. what a depressing end of the year. New year is supposed to be happy right? Whatever.. Sayonara 2016 and welcome to 2017 whether you want it or not.

Friday, December 30, 2016

No rabbits

I am done arranging and tidying up my comic cabinet today. It was very tiring but I was so eager to look forward to visit the Rabbit Land at Mall Kelapa Gading in the afternoon. The pictures on the website look interesting and exciting and I could not wait to play and have photos with the rabbits. Sadly, reality is very far off from the advertisement and my trip became a disappointment. The area is too small and there were so many little kids. Well.. it is school holidays after all. I am not going to compete with little kids as I still have my 'face'. Haha.. but I was pretty shocked that the rabbits were allowed to run around and we are supposed to chase after them if we want to hold and carry them. Urrgh.. please... I hope the rabbits are not traumatised. I prefer going somewhere where the animals are treated better and proper chance to interact with them is provided.

I am also emo after realising that there is Muji that sells a similar drawer that can be stacked into cabinets like the ones I bought yesterday. Yes it is slightly more expensive (almost Rp 30000) then what I bought but it is bigger and it is made in Japan. Definitely the quality is better than the ones made in China that I bought. I am quite irritated with my sister because I asked if there was any shop to get container box at MKG and she said there was not.

Oh well.. That's all for today. Holiday is really coming to an end and I am far from what I planned to achieve. Haiz.. I only managed to revise 2 chapters of my Japanese class, not to mention that I have not done the latest homework. I did not make any Gundams. Tomorrow I will clean my toy detolf and I shall see if the Saint Seiya Myth Cloth base can fit nicely for my small Saint Seiya figures. May the last day of 2016 be a good one.

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Missing the past

The first thing that struck my mind when I reached home was how messy my house is!! Grr.. I like tidiness and cleanliness so it is really irritating. However, I have sort of expected that this home is no longer my 'home'. I want a nice and clean house but it is impossible without all the contribution of those living in it. I have done my part by removing all my clutter from the 'common' area. Sigh.. there is no point of nagging since I have no say or influence. I shall be happy with my own tidy and clean room -although it is full of things as well.

As years pass by, sadly the people are not getting more mature but getting worse. My parents and my eldest sister are still arguing on daily basis. Sigh.. My parents are getting older so they are becoming more bo chup since they have less influence on the kids. Thus they can only nag and nag now. But my sister continues to be immature and entitled. She should just keep quiet and let my parents nag so they will stop. But she answers and then the nagging continues. It is always the same nagging for the past few years and I am getting so tired hearing. My younger sister just stares at her own computer after work so she is hardly visible also.

Anyway today I decided to just spend my money and get those Rp 250000 container box that can be stacked like a cabinet if I wish. There are 3 types that I was interested in but none is really 100% suitable and I spent quite sometime deciding which one to get. I decided with the most squarish one although the material is the frosted kind that gives like a 'dirty dusty' feel. Bleah.. The other one looks like the typical cheap plastic cabinet when stacked so I don't want the cheap feel although the material is clear and has a 'cleaner' feel. The third one easily fell out favour because the size is slightly smaller. Anyway, it will be under the bed so I won't really see it and I bought 3.

Mall of Indonesia (MOI) is much better now after renovation. In the past, I only went there when I needed to buy container box from Carrefour. The last time I went, a lot of parts were closed for renovation and things like that and I was not expecting that the mall would last. Now there are so many interesting food places to eat and I simply had not enough space in the stomach to try them all. Today I tried otako (otak-otak goreng) and a very nice batagor. The batagor is Rp 28000 for 5 pieces so it is very reasonable and the taste is pretty good.

A bit more about the batagor because I am pretty sure it is the boss or maybe the boss' son who served me. He call me OM for goodness sake! Om means uncle and this is not meant to be a joke over the "Om telolet Om" meme. I don't think I am that much older than him or he can even possibly be older than me leh. Haha.. And I was wearing clothes that I wore during my secondary school days T_T Clothes can hide my signs of aging. Anyway I appreciate the friendliness and the small talks.

I saw him taking notes of how many items sold for the day and there were about 30 when I was there. Assuming he can sell 50 a day, after minusing the rent (I don't know how much), the wages for the workers, I think the profit may not beat what I am earning right now. I should be more grateful I guess.

Moving on the next thing about my old laptop. The first thing I did upon arriving home was to check if it was still capable of connecting to the internet. Thank goodness it is still capable using direct LAN cable. Antivirus updated, drivers updated, but the wireless and bluetooth adaptors cannot be revived. Sigh.. It took overnight to update the drivers (I don't really understand what it is all about) so I was very hopeful that it could somehow bring it back to 'life'. I cannot even do any update for Windows as the Windows Update just keeps searching sigh.. Anyway, it is 6 more months for it to be a decade old and it really has done a good job for me. Thanks, TravelMate! That is really the model name of my laptop, no pun intended haha..

My childhood rabbit plush (she is called Ui)  has a secret power of bringing me back to the past. There was 1 day when I slept by holding it and I literally had dreams about my younger days. The one at night was about me back in my secondary school days while the one at day was about me throwing tantrums to my siblings that ended up with me slamming the door and "Please get out of my room NOW!". Haha... I love you ui but I am not going to hold you in my arms when I sleep anymore.

Yesterday I decided to visit a few facebook pages that used to have Johnny's videos. They stopped uploading and removed their videos a few months ago citing copyright issues. Guess what? Now they are back!! Yay!! Haha.. I am not gonna say which pages so that JE does not harass them. I am pretty outdated so I was quite sad and shocked to hear that SMAP will be disbanding after this 31st December.

Time flies and Sexy Zone is already celebrating their 5th anniversary. Wow.. They are no longer kids now. I no longer 'followed' them after their 3rd album. I just got their fourth album which is horrible. The singles after their third album are not very nice and hence I don't follow this album but the other songs are not better. I think they are really losing their direction as they attempt to shed away their child image. Their newer songs simply no longer have the Sexy Zone feel and they will just end up as any other Johnny's group who has gone forgettable now.

They sang a medley in one of the Shounen Club episodes and I have mixed feelings hearing their older singles with their mature voice now. Yes it is more refreshing but at the same time, it reaffirms my perception that their voices are not unique enough to be recognisable. With songs which are getting more and more generic, it is really a journey towards obscurity. Sadly their 5th anniversary contains just copies of their previous singles. I would be less disappointed if they at least re-record to change previous boyish voices to their teenage voices now. Anyway, the new original songs for this album are also as forgettable as those songs in their fourth album. Oh ya, the title of the fourth album is Welcome to Sexy Zone. No reference to number 4 at all unlike all their other albums: one Sexy Zone, Sexy Second, Sexy Power, and 5th Anniversary Best.

I am waiting for my download quota for Hey! Say! JUMP's latest album so it is better not be a disappointment.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Old habits don't die

This is the first blog post since I reached home last week. As always, there is so little time for the so many things that I need or want to do. So far, I am done with 8 months worth of comics, I went for my hair cut, I bought the things that I intended to buy (working pants, L-men, bar soaps), I bought new plastic containers and tidied up my room, and most importantly, I am done with my procrastination for the cover letter to finally complete and submit my job application.

1-2 days before flying, I was so upset and stressed over the condition of my room. It is so full of toys and yet I find it difficult to choose any to bring over to Jakarta. They are either too big/bulky or I love them too much. With the limited space, I know I have to quit this hobby very soon. The same sentiment is repeated today while I was packing my anime artbooks and toy over at my room in Jakarta. It is just as full as my room in Singapore and really I have to stop somehow. Ironically, despite all these negative feelings towards collecting, I was already looking for items at Amazon this morning. Gosh.. I really need some help.. This is really already like an addiction.

I saw a nice cabinet at Carrefour on Monday but unfortunately there was no stock :( I spent the whole day from shops to shops to find a display rack or bookcase for my room. With the limited space I have in my room, it is not easy to find something which does not exceed 50cm x 40cm dimension. That cabinet fits the dimension and comes with door for each level. Sigh.. The price is also reasonable at about Rp 500000.

The cupboard in which I store my comics are already at maximum capacity and I am literally out of space for all the comics in the past 8 months. I am desperate enough to use the space under my bed and it is not easy to find a container which does not exceed 20cm in height. I have been eyeing one from ACE hardware but it is very expensive at Rp 300000 per piece. I guess that is the price for the versatility as each piece can be stacked on top of one another to form a standing cabinet. Even my large 80L container box only costs Rp 180000 each after discount. I still can't justify the Rp 300000 per piece but I think I will be desperate enough to eventually buy it. Unlike toys, I don't see myself stop buying comics as it is the only way for me to read manga because I hate reading scanlations.

I went for pre-Christmas confession before I flew over and I was telling myself that I hope to change: to be less negative and to be more positive towards this life. That hope is short-lived. I am still holding on to the wish of dying young. I don't know why but I get irritated when people ask when I am going to find a girlfriend and to get married. A part of me wants that kind of life but perhaps 90% part of me really just wants to die young. I am so tired of of living.. of working.. of everything.. Having girlfriend and then starting a family is like a responsibility for me to continue living which is against my desire. I don't know if I am weird. But next year I will be 30 years old and if I am still alive, I cannot keep on having this kind of thinking. Sigh.. Oh God help me...

It is already quite a long post and there are still a lot of things on my mind. I shall continue tomorrow. After all, it has been a week since my last post and I have been rather "free" for the past week to have a lot of things to think about. Lol.

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Another chance?

In late October, my plan C was halted in the process as the job advertisement suddenly disappeared from the website. The same post was reposted last Thursday! Wow.. Is this finally a chance? Lol. Unfortunately, whatever I did in October was already deleted from the system so I had to do everything from the scratch again. I promise that I am going to complete my application this time -whatever the outcome maybe- since bonus just came in and January is a good time to throw letter. Haha..

Earlier this month, I saw the advertisement for my earlier plan B so it seems that they still cannot find people for like 3-4 months already. In my heart, I am secretly praying that they just give up hoping for someone with inpatient experience and just take me. What are the odds but no harm in praying.. Sigh..

Today I attended a colleague's wedding and I got a revelation about my rejected lecturing job. My classmate got the job. Grr... I have always disliked her since school days and now she did this to me. Damn it!! Anyway, that fact reinforced my belief that I did not get the job simply because of my pay. Assuming that what is being considered relevant for the post is only working and training experience, I may only have about 1+ more experience than my classmate. Perhaps that is not enough to justify my requested pay which I foresee to be 20-25% more than what my classmate asked. After all, she was not promoted when she left the company and she was not first class. Thus definitely my pay is higher and my requested pay was even higher. It is another self justification and although I am still upset about it, I am feeling better to think that I got rejected not because I am incapable but it is more about cost-effectiveness. Haha.. Yeah.. call me thick skin.

Anyway Christmas is coming and here is currently the hottest Christmas video. No pun intended here unless your attention is to something else. Lol. See the video and you will know what I am taking about.

Saturday, December 17, 2016

Can't beat the laziness :(

Today marks the end of my gym trial period and yesterday was my last session. It was a good and tiring session yesterday plus the rain this noon were reasons for me not utilising my trial membership to the max by also going today. I am going home soon and I have to think about if I am going to sign up for the membership.

Honestly, I enjoyed my sessions. The inertia to overcome the laziness is the most difficult part but once I started with the session, I actually felt pretty good. On the flip side, my diet got a little bit uncontrolled. Gym became an excuse for me to eat junk :( So it seems that my choices are between gym + junk food or sleep + diet. The outcome is the same which is I am destined not to lose weight but the first option definitely will burn a hole in my pocket.

It is going to be a tough decision. $329 per month x 12 months is not a small amount of money and I cannot imagine having a battle between my bed vs gym every evening :( I have been not exercising with the excuses such as bad weather, running is boring, it is troublesome to bring sport clothes, and the worry of injuring myself when there isn't any personal trainer. This gym actually solves all of these things: no running, indoor (and hence no issue with bad weather), clothes and shower facilities are provided + barefoot exercising, and there is always a trainer to ensure that I am doing the right posture. Plus the fact that I am already spending money and yet all these still fail to motivate me. I seriously do not know what it will take to make me healthy.

Monday, December 12, 2016

Gym trial

As promised, I am going to write about my gym experience after going for about 3-4x for the past week. The first session was the most painful. I went last Monday and I needed 3 days to recuperate. I felt as if I was growing wings with the pulling sensation on my both shoulders. As mentioned, I usually hunch to hide my fats while the gym exercises force the correct posture or they call it "proud chest". I had difficulties with arm movement while showering, taking off clothes, or putting on clothes.

It was not easy period for me and I had all the negative emotions. I don't understand how people enjoy going to gym as it feels like spending money to get physically tortured. And why would I pay monthly fee when my body is so pain and I can only go maybe twice or thrice a week?

So I went again on Friday and I gotta admit that I felt some improvement. It was not as painful as Monday. Lol. Although I still went down stairs like I just gave birth. Haha.. I went again on Saturday and my feelings started to become impatience. Why did I still feel tired after 2 sets of push ups? That was exactly the same as the first session! Why am I not losing any weight yet?

For the first week, the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak. Come the second weak now, the flesh is willing but the spirit is no longer willing. And it is much more difficult to overcome the latter. I have 6 more days of trial and see how it goes. I personally think that I am not pushing my ownself as much as I can or I should because I still don't like the idea of sweating too much. Like that then what's the point of going to gym right? T_T

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Gym.. finally

Today is a perfect example of me sacrificing God for my human pursuit. I was still tired this morning after yesterday Distant Worlds concert and blogging about it. Yet, I had not finished my Japanese homework. So instead of spending the morning to attend mass, I used it to finish homework, played games, and slept. Haha.. I'm sorry God :(

I am on the verge of giving up with my Japanese class. I like learning but I think it is getting more and more difficult. The lesson has reached chapter 28 but I think my knowledge is still stuck at chapter 12. I keep playing games or sleeping during my free time instead of revising and memorising :( Currently I am at tandoushi (tadoushi) and jidoushi (intransitive) which is something like transitive (needs an object) and intransitive (does not need an object) words equivalent in English. The thing is English retains the same verb forms whether it is used in transitive or intransitive word. In Japanese however, the verb forms change and it is as if having to remember different vocabs altogether. For example, in English: I open the door (transitive) and The door opens (intransitive). The verb open remains for both form. However in Japanese, transitive form is akemasu and intransitive form is akimasu. Even in my native mother tongue (i.e Indonesian), verbs retain the form whether in transitive or intransitive context. That's why it is challenging as it is a new concept that I never come across in any language that I know.

After class, I went to gym. Yes! Finally.. The first session today was basically an introductory session so I shall not mention anything about the gym yet. I am quite glad to go as my posture was assessed. I was told that my 'resting' position tends to lean forward. Thanks to all the customer service bullshit of smiling, eye contact, and leaning forward!! At office I usually put my bag behind me so I never lean on the backrest of the chair. So I better make sure to take note of my posture while sitting as well as while dispensing. Of course work is not the only reason. I tend to 'hunch' i.e leaning forward and having my shoulders curl inwards to hide my tummy and man boobs :( I am not confident of my own body and I feel that I am fat. Sigh.. I hope I am okay for another session tomorrow to be able to write more about this overall gym-ing experience.

Saturday, December 3, 2016

Final Fantasy Distant Worlds

After 7 years, Final Fantasy Distant Worlds concert is finally back in Singapore. I did not watch when the first time it was in Singapore so I am very excited for this one. The tickets were selling pretty quickly but I have to say that I am pretty lucky to be able to get a 4-seater at the circle just next to the opening at the center of the hall. The concert was held at The Star Theatre at the Star Vista. It was my first time and I was quite amazed that it could hold 5000 people. Wow.

Despite all the excitement and enthusiasm, I was not really satisfied with the overall concert experience. The concert hall is bigger and better than expected but the acoustic is not good enough as the sound seems to be only coming from speakers in front of the stage. I was roughly at the center of the hall and I found it not loud enough. Not sure if those at the back were having it worse. The incline is not steep enough so the heads of the row in front of me blocked my view. The hall was also not cold enough.

There are tonnes of fantastic Final Fantasy songs but I feel the repertoire was rather poor. There are too many mellow songs which made the mood rather somber. In addition, there is not enough love for the older FF series. I may be biased because I am more familiar with the older series but the songs from the newer series sound somewhat similar to older ones. That is quite ironic considering the newer series have different composers while the earlier ones are mostly done by Nobuo Uematsu. They should just skip FF XI (not many responded when Arnie Roth asked who are fans of it). I think they do not want to be keep repeating the 'better' songs for all the concert and try to play some new songs but I really think the choices are quite bad. Even the usual favourites like Chocobo's Theme was 'butchered'. Bleah.. They should do more medleys as the FF VI and Battle Themes medleys were great.

The videos which are played to accompany the songs could have enhanced the concert experience greatly. Sadly, the videos seem to be just haphazardly done just to make sure that the audience is not bored and have something to see. The selected scenes got repeated a few times, told no story and held little significance to the songs except for the fact that they came from the same series.

The music was not perfect. I could hear wrong notes and imperfections particularly at the parts where there were running melodies that had to be played in quick succession at a short time. I just think it is not acceptable for a concert of this calibre or is it just my expectations. The choir did some gesture e.g raising fists after the Victory Fanfare which should be a fun thing but they sounded and looked robotic insead of fun.

Event management was disappointing too. I understand no photography and no videography rule is pretty normal. But it is really poor (and poor thing for the ushers) that photography was not even allowed BEFORE the concert began. Hello.. it is just a screen showing Final Fantasy Distant World and stage full of empty chairs. What's the big deal?

Part of concert going experience is to get the concert merchandises. I did not even get a chance to see. There is only a small (definitely too small for 5000 audience) area at level 5 dedicated for this. I caught glimpse of the poster and I know there were T-shirts (never mind), Distant Worlds CDs (never mind, I can always download), an artbook, Moogle plushie (saw another person carrying it), and I don't know what else at the bottom half the poster. Sigh.. I am a fan of artbook :( though I am consoling myself that FF is celebrating 30th anniversary next year so there will be artbooks coming out anyway.

The great thing about the whole thing is the conductor, Arnie Roth! He is both conducting and emcee-ing. His emceeing is fantastic: he knows how to hype up the audience, engage the audience, while providing a brief introduction on the next pieces to be played. While introducing the next pieces, he always asked who are fans of the series so this really gets the audience hyped up. He knew FF XV was just released over the week and asked who already played the game. He promised a surprise related to FF XV which turned out to be the 'world premiere' of Apocalypsis Noctis as it was its first time played in Distant Worlds concerts. Quite a smart way to put it that way although the song itself, while pretty good, sounds somewhat similar and familiar to other music from other similar games or some action movies. Good but not memorable enough as a tune just form 1 hearing.

I would have to mention the guest star, Rikki. I am not a fan of the song Suteki Da Ne because it is too mellow and I am disappointed that she really appeared just for that 1 song. She did not even say any words. At the end, Arnie brought her up the stage again twice just to literally stood around and thanked the audience. Aww... I am expecting more since she was so hyped up in the promo materials.

To promote FF XV, before Apocalypsis Noctis was played, audience was asked to don paper masks of FF XV characters and the official photographer would take a photo from the stage. At level 5 (again at the super crowded place that I did not get to go), there were some FF XV promotional activities: like standees of the characters and these paper masks things being given out. I am wondering, though, if the game was doing well as these paper masks bore the date of the game's release, not the concert date. Were these leftovers from game launch or were these specially made for this concert. Noone knows.

My friend kept saying that this felt so cult like right from before the concert. Haha.. We laughed at the taking photo with the paper masks things. To end it off, One Winged Angel was reserved for the encore and Arnie invited all the audience to chant 'Sephiroth' along during the song. LMAO really like a cult. Haha.. But anyway, it was great way to engage audience and the audience was participative. In fact the audience had been great and appreciative throughout the concert. As expected FF VII still got the loudest cheer.

Lastly, I think the best gesture was when Arnie as well as the video slides show mentioned and thanked the fans for undying support for Final Fantasy series so far. Awww... how nice and touching. I may not be that much of a fan but I think I pass the undying criterion with the absurd amount of money that I spent and am going to spend in the future for FF. Lol. While overall I am somewhat disappointed, will I watch again if Distant Worlds is back in Singapore? Yes, I will :) But why? I could just have listened to the music better played online and the nicer videos online too.. Hmm.. maybe because I am a fan and I am already into this cult. Lol.. 

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Moana

I was a skeptic for Moana. When I saw the trailer for the first time (can't remember when I was watching what movie), it did not appeal to me: the humor fell flat, the visual was nothing special, the characters were uurgh.. My friend watched it a few days ago and he said it was great. He shared the song which did not impress me.

Having said all the above, I still watched it. I guess the holiday mood starts to set in so let's be merry and give this a try. I am glad I did. Moana turns out to be very hilarious and very entertaining. The whole cinema was laughing! It is pretty unbelievable that perhaps half of the joke is revolving around the chicken called heihei. Moana's grandma, who dubs herself as the crazy woman of the island, seems to be the designated comic relief character as every time she appears, she never fails to make us laugh, sometimes with her bad ass-ery like when Moana is worried if she is going to be reported to the father for trying to get out to the see and the grandma simply replied: I'm his mother. Why should I report to him? Haha..

Sadly, the story is just ordinary and provides nothing special. It goes straight just like any other go save the world adventure story. The main characters, Moana and Maui, also follows general template of go save the world adventure story personalities: a willing and positive heroine with no superpower and a powerful but unwilling hero. It does not help that both of them offer nothing unique to make them likeable. The music are kinda hit and miss. The songs which are sung by humans in English are kinda horrible. But those background music and songs to illustrate the voyaging history of the tribe are wonderful. The traditional Polynesian tune really sounds amazing, powerful, and has the sea-faring adventure elements. The visual for the nature is stunning too! If only real life beaches, islands, and nature are as colourful and vibrant as in this movie.

Anyway, humor alone can only propel the movie thus far. I think Moana is going to end up as one of 'forgettable' Disney movies as it does not have anything unique in terms of story, characters, or songs. The preceeding Disney movies which lack Princess' charm such as Zootopia, Big Hero 6, and Inside Out are unique and memorable as they explore new themes. Frozen (which most people has gotten sick of) may not be that fantastic in the story but the characters shine, despite them following the usual Disney personalities, and noone can deny that even a few years later, we still cannot let go its Let It Go.