Farewell and Adieu.

Today is a sad day.

So sad, I wrote a post on it. Warning, text.

Since about three years past, when I was still a form five student, I didn’t have internets. But even then, I was already a plamo ‘enthusiast’. That means that I buy plamo and destroy them in the process of making random mods.

Still.

I loved plamos, nonetheless. One of my happiest moments were stashing away part of my weekly allowance, so that at the end of the month, I’d be able to buy one kit. What it was, I didn’t know. The last gundam series I saw (partially, at that) was Wing, and the SEED series, that as good as it was, did not interest me due to the long episode list of 50 per season, and two seasons in total, and the fact that it was so gaddamne filled with drama.

Still, I liked SEED, kinda. It was filled with drama, sure. Yes, the fight scenes are recycled more than a piece of paper at a recycling plant, and most of it’s characters are annoying *cough*FlayAllster*cough*, it still had rockin’ mech designs.

Now, skip a year, to after my family decided to install an internet connection in the house. And I got my laptop (squee!).

I finally had 24h unlimited internet connection. And a personal terminal to tap into said internets. But I still lacked one thing:

Something. To. Do.

And so it was that google was my friend. I looked around, and found this incredibly image-laden site on gundams, gunpla, and a lot of other things I couldn’t recognize back then. Sure, even on home internets, it took some time to load. But what information richness it contained pertaining to that which I could proudly call my hobby.

It was NK.

The blog design was so-so, the title was odd (to me back then), and it was one of the most mistyped URLs for me (again, back then). But it was so informative, that all these cons were obliterated in the face of the pros. NK is a Sarawakian, which means that he speaks the same language I do: Ringgit Malaysia. And that also means that he suffers from the same things I do: difficult to obtain stuff from japan.

But he wasn’t mired by one thing which I was inexplicably neck-deep in: Ignorance.

He dredged the swamp which was the internet, hunting, seeking, for relevant information. And it was all new information. And it was in ENGLISH. Which meant that I could understand it.

From there, I learned of the new things pertaining to Gundam. Like Gundam 00. Which was already at half the first season, then.

So on to youtube I went, in pursuit of subbed episodes.

And it was glorious.

I fell in love with the series immediately, and that wasn’t an understatement. The mech designs, the odd Solar Reactor/GN-Drive thingymabob, the Union Flags, the characters, the fact that the main Gundam wasn’t a bit-spamming dramakid, and most importantly, the non-recycled action scenes.

And from then on, my gunpla purchases racked up. Exia, Union Flag, OverFlag, two GN-XIIs. And it wasn’t showing signs of stopping anytime soon. And then second season came.

And the purchases kept increasing. Gundam 00 Season 2 was the first anime that I followed, week after week, episode after episode. And gunpla after gunpla.

Of course, it wasn’t just NK that helped me, it was the other readers, too. Before that, I never knew that Sungei Wang plaza had any plamo shops, much less Time Square’s Time Machine, or Grafitti-Toys. I only bought kits from big stores, like Jusco, Carrefour, and Isetan. And how overpriced they were.

But now, NK is closing down his blog, the wellspring of information it is. All due to the fact that some people are too bitchy about gundam series and/or timelines.

I acknowledged that UC is old, and sometimes overused, but it played a big part in establishing the ‘classic’ theme of Gundam series to come.  Frankly said, I’m not much of fan for these series. So I just don’t care. Bitching about how the series you like is better than the others isn’t gonna do anything. You must like the series you like for whatever reason it is that you do like it, and that is true for me, too. But even if I’m not a big fan of older series, I still think that they hold certain quirky elements that are likeable. Like G Gundam’s nationally themed MSs (I still don’t get why Neo-Malaysia’s was Skull Gundam but meh), and Amuro Ray running away so much (which was later incorporated into Saji Crossroad).

So, if NK still wants to close his blog, then he shall. Sad as it may be.