[12 Days of Anime] Day 12 – Halfey’s Most Influential Anime Girls of All Time (Part II)

As promised last year, this is the continuation post for the most influential anime girls of all time. This time subjects are being assessed more on the historical value, memorable factor and not just the changes they brought or the fans they drawn. Due to this, many old series has been recapped and internet has been utilized to its fullest for related research works. People were interrogated interviewed, sweat broken, blood spilled and tears dropped, all done in order to bring you only the best. And now here I present you:

1. Sakura Kinomoto (Card Captor Sakura and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles)

Who doesn’t know the name Sakura, one of the most used name for females in Japan. Upon hearing that name a true anime fan would be sparked by the image of one magical cute anime loli, despite many other female anime characters share the same name. Thanks to her appearance, Sakura has turned many man into lolicon since the Cardcapto Sakura series hit the aired broadcasts. Her more mature appearance in the newer series, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles only popularized her more. Thus, this grants Sakura as one of the most influential anime girls of all time.

2. Chii (Chobits)

If you think Mahoromatic is one of the most influential anime girls of all time, perhaps you might need to know about Chii as well. Other than Sakura Kinomoto, Chii is another CLAMP’s masterpiece. Believe it or not, Chii once awarded “The Most Feminine Anime Characters” sometime ago and on top of that, she’s just a personal computer in a form of a human girl. If you think that’s not convincing enough, just look in many imageboards on the net, where you’ll see tons of her fanart and derivative images. This should be enough to justify Chi as one of the most influential anime girls of all time.

3. Kuroko Shirai (To Aru Kagaku no Railgun)

Kuroko is perhaps the most annoying female anime characters ever created. Not just annoying, she’s a lesbo too, making it hard to get rid of her image be it from a lover’s or a hater’s head. She is hot, ‘strong’ (in a sense that she can kick the bad guy’s ass) and again, annoying. However if we only consider the ‘influence’ part, there’s no mistake that she has what it takes to make herself unforgettable. That said it is just right to consider Kuroko as one of the most influential anime girls of all time.

4. Naru Narusegawa (Love Hina)

One of very few first notable tsundere girls, the anime that strikes the world and managed to settle in almost everywhere, creating a foundation for future anime? While the anime itself regarded as phenomenal and legendary, the anime-crazy guys wouldn’t care much if it’s not because of Rei. She indeed started the trend of appearance of cold and emotionless anime girls in many anime that follows after that. In fact it wouldn’t be too exaggerated to say that she is the big sister of all emotionless anime girls in the future. Since many anime-crazy guys would approve this, Rei is hereby declared as one of the most influential anime girls of all time.

5. Lina Inverse (Slayers)

Perhaps the most popular anime girls in the late 90′s. Many people tried to relate her with the ‘tsundere’ archetype but she is more reasonable than most typical tsundere although she may become extremely unreasonable at times. Even as a female lead, she’s not super perfect. She maybe a bit tomboyish but she still has acute side. With this Lina Inverse is granted the position as one of the most influential anime girls of all time.

6. Azusa Nakano (K-ON!)

If you think Mio Akiyama is the only “most popular” girl from the anime K-ON!, then you are wrong. Anybody will never be a true K-ON fan if they missed to spot on Azusa. Her influence is just too great that although everybody knows her name is Azusa, people are more comfortable calling her Azu-nyan. And the most important thing is, she is damn cute too. And as the only person with the right mind in the anime (maybe?) she has the very right to be placed here as one of the most influential anime girls of all time.

7. Yuki Nagato (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu)

Yuki is the proof that big breasted girls with super cute big eyes are not always the more popular. Just take a look at her, more people worship her than Mikuru Asahina. She knows exactly where to act ‘manly’ and where to act womanly, as well as where to act bossy whenever it is necessary. She can a good companion, a good teacher, a good ‘servant’, a good girlfriend and a good knight or whatever it is if that’s what you asked her for. With a combination of strength and beauty she will remain in many anime-crazy guys’ heart for a very long time.

8. Black Rock Shooter (Black Rock Shooter)

If you think Miku Hatsune doesn’t have a personality to be listed here, then how about we give her one, and make her an anime? There, we have Black Rock Shooter. She maybe a derivative art from Miku but just like the green-haired Vocaloid, this black-haired beauty can stand on her own even without a personality. It is also alright to say that she represents what a true form anime art is, a true ‘clean’ character with no association with anything like software or anime. That is enough to justify that she is one of the most influential anime girls of all time, although her existence predates her ‘anime’ part.

9. Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon)

It is relatively safe to say that everybody knows Sailor Moon. It is not the first mahou shoujo anime and course not the last. This is the anime where Usagi Tsukino, the Sailor Moon herself made her legendary appearance. After her time almost anybody who is no anime fans would think of her when they saw any blonde anime girl in sailor uniform. She maybe not that important (in terms of contributing to the plot) in the anime itself but the fact that she became the iconic female anime character is a proof that she is very influential and there’s nothing to argue about it.

10. Nanoha Takamachi (Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha)

The anime itself is a rarity among magical girls series. If fact it is rare for a mahou shoujo anime to be as serious as this anime. Meet Nanoha Takamachi, a way ‘sexier’ loli than Sakura Kinomoto. Nanoha in the anime maybe not as good as her enemy, Fate Testarossa when it comes to getting emotional attention but despite that there’s no denying that her presence in anime history is very memorable. 

You know, getting old anime these days is still a pain especially in a non-anime-friendly nation like my country. Internet is not the best option because the seed is almost non-existent due to the fact that most of them has been licensed. Scarcity of anime is still here although the anime boom has started since 1995 with the arrival of Evangelion. I might have missed some great characters too like the already ‘classic’ Belldandy (Ah! My Goddess!) or even my beloved Mami-san (Madoka Magica) but ‘vacancies are limited’. Well, I’ve decided to make this into annual post anyway so you may expect to see your favorite character in the list next year. Happy new orbit everybody! \(^o^\)\(^o^)/(/^o^)/

[12 Days of Anime] Day 11 – You & Me, Yuri & Moe

I am straight as bone, both inside and outside. I just can’t imagine liking yuri anime. Maybe I could if I tried but I treat both male and female equally even if they’re 2D. That means if I were to like yuri that means in order to be fair to both genders I’d have to like yaoi too, but no, there’s no way I’d do that. The same goes to moe. I see many people today are misguided about the term. The fact is moe is valid for both male and female. However the way anime makers producing anime these days has resulting in fans believing moe is associated only with female. They forgot moe is also valid for non-character/appearance. Moe is also applicable for situations. That said I can’t accept it if the anime exists only for the sole purpose of moe or yuri exhibition. I can only accept it if moe and yuri only present as the element in the anime but not as the main subject.

Actually I’m already quite lenient towards both yuri and moe. Well maybe because of the accident I had in August, where I nearly lost my life that I now no longer hostile towards the above. If you follow my posts anywhere on the net (particularly in Google+) you’d happen to see some girl x girl pics too as well as how I already give +1 to posts containing images from a certain moe anime I used to hate so much. However, just to be on the safe side, I wouldn’t say the hate is completely gone and instead I’d say the hate is still there. It’s something that is born with me. It’s an orientation. Just like how you can’t force a gay to turn straight, you also can’t force me to love something that I hate. And I chose to be vocal on that instead of being silent because this is something that I want to share. If you could tell me “DON’T LIKE IT, DON’T WATCH!” then I can also say if you don’t like what you read here then stop reading any further.

Just so you know my hatred ends there. If I hate a certain anime it doesn’t mean I hate its fans too. Even if you found me hating some fans chances are they are the fans who hate me just because I don’t like what they watch. Now the matter is between you and me. We can coexist and approve each other if both of us choose for it. However coexistence and each others approval would remain a wishful thinking if one of us use the dominant position to tell everybody that it’s a winning position. No it is not. This is not about democracy. Politics does not apply to how anime is being good or bad. The fans have no say in it either. If you rely on fans to judge an anime being good/bad than you’re no different than those stupid reality TV shows that put their bet on the audience in determining the next entertainer.

[12 Days of Anime] Day 10 – My anime design principle

I am not a good artist and neither a good designer. However from a ‘real’ audience point of view, I know honestly what I like and it is not something that what others told me to like or what to hate. If I were to design my own anime characters I’d follow these design principle:

“Design and decoration must seduce, shape, and more importantly, evoke an emotional response.”

That’s it, it must be able to ‘seduce’, something lovely to the eyes, pleasing to look at. Anything that’s opposite to this would be deemed as ugly. How do I measure it? Well for me if the look alone is enough to seduce without the help of the plot/story to support it then it’s won already. I’d take keion for example, where there are cases where people fall in love with the characters even without/before watching the anime. Miku Hatsune, the Vocaloid doesn’t even have a fixed personality to begin with, other than being a 16 year-old girl as touted by the developer/creator, still managed to become a world-class “pop star”. Her derivative, known as Black Rock Shooter is also doing very well. Not to mention the female characters from the bullet-hell shooting game Touhou Project (all of them) also have thousands of fans worldwide. If you ask me to show the example of “ugly” character then I have not much to say as I normally don’t watch/follow what I hate. After all isn’t that what fans have always told the ‘haters’? I mean the popular saying “If you don’t like it, don’t watch!” However stumbling upon hateable stuff in inevitable or impossible. That said, I hate the design of Panty & Stocking (the anime). In fact I think most people like it because it has the anime to support the design. I don’t think the some people who love it now would love it if it was from some American cartoon that carries different name/title and different story.

Of course design alone is not enough if we’re talking about anime in general. That’s why I always insist that anime has to have proper plot/storyline to accompany the characters. After all characters are designed for the sake of the plot, not the other way round, where you could design a character to look like in any way you wanted it to be solely based on the plot given to you but there’s no way telling what kind of plot from a character design alone. This is what I meant by “emotional response”. For me the genuine emotional response can only be triggered by the story. It doesn’t matter how bad the drawing is. It also doesn’t matter how bad the animation is. If it is enough to evoke an emotional response in you than it already won half of the battle. I maybe biased in this and I could be wrong too but again the one who is being entertained here is me and this is why how the character look and in what story they’re in is important to me. Otherwise I would not find them that entertaining. For any anime to entertain me, it has to do the above without fail. With that said, I do admit that my No. 1 favorite character, Mami-san (and the rest of Madoka Magica characters) is badly drawn and I even criticized it in my post here. Also I never liked SHAFT anime studio to begin with but the story and my emotional response towards it saved Madoka Magica from being dropped/hated in my watchlist. Yes I am extremely picky but regardless how picky I am it doesn’t concern anybody.

[12 Days of Anime] Day 9–Wishlist

Of course Mami-san would always be the top in my wishlist (^_^)

Mami-san with ‘real’ clothing and ‘real’ hair. DO WANT! (>_<)

Nendomura (^_^)

I participated in a WordPress theme design contest back then in hope that I’d win this Moemura figma but I was out of luck (T_T)

It wasn’t until 11/11/11 (the “Pocky Day”) that I realized how I loved this character so much. Although Kyouko is maybe quite tomboyish (I’m not complaining) but her being fond of Pocky seems to be her cute side to me (^_^)

Of course it’s incomplete without Nendo Kyouko as well (^_^)

Nendo mahou shoujo together (^_^)

Kuroneko, one of my all-time favorite characters (^_^)

I can see her pantsu!

Sorry but I can’t help to share this that has seized my eyes and won’t give them back (>_<)

Haven’t watched Fate/Zero because it didn’t interest me much, until I saw this bike!

My only complain would be, where’s the head/signal/brake lamp?

The real-life, working version. Too bad it’s not for sale. Not that I have the money to afford it anyway (>_<)

Ohana in swimsuit! Somehow this looks sexier than in the anime (^_^)

Last but not least, Nako-san in swimsuit too! I wish she could wear a ‘normal’ swimsuit instead of sports swimsuit like this but I guess this is also good enough. It’s not always for us to see Nako-san in swimsuit after all

Now I hope they’ll make a Mermaid Nako-san as well.

[12 Days of Anime] Day 8 – Cosplay: Inori Yuzuriha of Guilty Crown by MIYUKO

I have not much to say about this cosplay. Just enjoy the pics (and fap to MIYUKO’s half-bare breast!)

My only  ‘complaint’ would be….. I’m not sure if I should point this out but if compared to the anime, Inori had the area below her belly button more revealed, a little bit further down to the bikini line. Believe me I’ve seen some Chinese cosplayers more daring than her. Well I’m not really ‘blaming’ Miyuko though as this is perhaps one of the sexiest cosplays she ever done (the other one is the Princess of the Crystal of Mawaru Penguindrum). I don’t really like the shiny fabric and the ‘striking’, sparkling accessories she used here but there’s no way to tell it’s ‘wrong’ because in the anime itself it’s hard to tell what kind of fabric being used to make Inori’s battle costume. At least the design is right.

[12 Days of Anime] Day 7 – My 5 best picks anime of 2011

1. Puella Magi Madoka Magica

It would be great of we could get our wishes became true, even if it’s just one wish. Naturally we would have to pay for it but what kind of payment will do? Would you trade your soul for it? Most people probably would do that when they learn the still have their souls in possession, even if it means their souls are now outside of their body. In Madoka Magica, things didn’t stop there, where in exchange of drawing your soul out from your body and had your wish comes true, you gained magical powers alongside the responsibility to fight the Witches. Actually the reason you soul being taken out and resides in your Soul Gem is to prepare your body for a battle that normal people wouldn’t be able to handle. However the price you’d need to pay is actually more than what explained to you. There’s an irrevocable contract that never revealed to you just because you’ve never asked for the details, and you are also bearing the risk of becoming a Witch yourself. Once you become a mahou shoujo, the process in irreversible. That said, this anime will remain as my numero uno anime for a very long time.

2. Steins;Gate

What if a modified microwave oven could allow you to send phone messages to the past? It would be useful to warn ourselves about anything before it happened, provided that you have the cellphone in the past to receive it. However it would probably be pointless if your past self never believed the message (thought of it being a prank or something), or if you don’t have the “Reading Steiner” ability like Okarin. In a sense the modified microwave here is some sort of time machine. However in the world where spies are around every corners of the world, possessing a working time machine would draw unwanted attention no matter how hard you hide it. You might lost your life, or the life of your dearest ones in the silent battle. Here in Steins;Gate we saw conflicts and conspiracies that spans through time and parallel universes. Okarin fought bravely for everybody’s sake in order to save the past, present and the future, as well as the love of his life. This is perhaps the only anime I never had any complaint. I’m not saying that it’s perfect but there’s nothing awkward happened and not even a single moment I felt like telling the characters to do this or that. It’s really a show to remember.

3. Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai

As a transfer student it’s just normal if you don’t have a friend at your new school. However it’s not that normal if you’ve never had any, even in your previous schools. Not to mention after months in your new school you’re still unable to befriend anybody, thanks to your natural-delinquent look that you were born with. Well you’re lucky if you found someone who is also ‘friendless’ just like you. And that person is a girl, or to be exact, someone you knew from the past. Together you formed a club and soon more and more ‘friendless’ people joined in. That’s what happened in this anime. The truth is I’ve been waiting for probably more than a year. Probably not the best for everybody but definitely one of my best picks.

4. Hanasaku Iroha

You’re a girl who just turned 16, and you mother left you under the custody of the grandmother you’ve never met, because she eloped with her good-for-nothing boyfriend. You nearly lost your hope when your grandmother treated you badly in an abusive manner, and forced to work your ass off as she wouldn’t support you as her grandchild. To make things worse, your colleague, who is also your roommate hates you with no real reason. That’s the life that Ohana lived in the Kissuiso inn. If I were her I might have killed everybody in the inn (well except Nako-san) but Ohana isn’t the type of a girl who would fight for her rights. Instead in a short time she has grown into a ‘stupidly’ optimistic person who would see people bullying her as “having good reason behind such action”. The only heartwarming moment in this anime is probably the romantic relationship between Ohana and Kouichi. I managed to follow this anime to the end is because I wanted to see Ohana fights back. The new anime for this series has been announced but it’s still unconfirmed whether it will be a second season (prequel or sequel) or just OVA but I’d like to see Ohana’s grandmother ‘defeated’. That old hag deserves to be clubbed to death.

5. Mayo Chiki

Imagine you’re having severe gynophobia where you could bleed from your nose just from being touched by a girl. And then how about you’re forced to cure it by allowing a girl to stay close to you? Kinjirou, the gynophobic guy stumbled upon Subaru, a cross-dressed girl in a toilet. And that girl is a ‘butler’ to a sadistic ojousama (Kanade) whom later forced him “to take necessary actions” to protect Subaru’s secret. It is not an easy task where Kinjirou had to face various obstacles such as the S4 group, Subaru’s father and more. Subaru then began to develop some sort of romantic feelings towards Kinjirou. However it seems like she is not the only one who feels that way towards him. Her rival might be the her ojousama and both of them have kissed Kinjirou in separate occasions. As things are getting more complicated, the series ended with the expected cliffhanger. Well I hope there will be a second season to bring the conclusion, and I’m rooting for Subaru x Kinjirou.

[12 Days of Anime] Day 6 – Merry Christmas! Here are some sexy santa for you (NSFW – You’ve been warned!)

[12 Days of Anime] Day 5 – We Don’t Have Many Friends (BokuTomo ep .12 finale)

Yozora only gets sexier with that short haircut (>_<)

The anime is finally over, but my love towards it will just continue. BokuTomo ended with the mix of good laughs, touching scenes and of course a few moe moments too.  It may not ended in the way I wished it would be (for it to take the romance path) but this is something I’ve expected. However this is also a good thing as this could be a hint that the second season might follow soon. And I really hope the second season will become real as I really want to see the conclusion between Kodaka and those girls so bad!

Yozora's teary eyes, this will definitely become one of the most memorable scenes to me (^_^)

I personally think Yozora with short hair seems more feminine than she was. In this episode not only the voice acting sounded a bit more ‘girlish’, she also acted like a girl whom just met her long-lost boyfriend. Yes, Yozora also have that part in her and I like how she blushes so many times in the first half of the episode. The funnies part in this episode is when their fellow classmates misunderstood the reason Yozora cut her hair when she was explaining it to Kodaka. For a moment it made me feel like how I wish I was there in the class

Yozora's unforgettable expression, it's as if she's just heard a love confession from Kodaka (^_^)

After we had a very touching moments of the ‘real’ reunion of Yozora and Kodaka, we’re presented with scenes for good laughs. First we had the ‘Mad Scientist’ mistook Yozora as a random hunk (and consequently had ‘orgasm’ from the thoughts of it). Even Yukimura also fell to Yozora’s “trap” appearance. The only person who knew right away it was Yozora is ironically Yozora’s ‘enemy’ none other than Niku. Niku found this as something ‘trollable’ and even made some funny assumptions for the reason Yozora cut her hair but of course Yozora is the better troll than her

'Meat' is making fun of Yozora, only to get trolled back before she could finish laughing

If the ep. 09 was “Sena’s episode” then this episode is Yozora’s. In fact I think this is the first time Yozora being the center of the episode. Everything about Yozora’s and Kodaka’s shared past is now clear. Yozora may appear to be stubborn sometimes but in this episode I started to see some of her reasoning behind it. Kodaka also has learned to accept Yozora as she is.

This is the best! Loli Yozora from 10 years ago who was too shy to tell Kodaka that she's actually a girl (^_^)

BTW if we recall all the previous episodes, I must say episodes 01-10 are ‘funny’ episodes, ep. 11 is an emotionally touching episode while this final episode combines both funny and touching moments. I think those moments arrived just at the right place and didn’t feel awkward at all. This is one of the anime I hardly get bored of even after repeating it many times. Maybe not the best for everybody but definitely one of the best for me. We had some depressing moments with Madoka Magica and Steins;Gate earlier this year so having finished this anime right before the new year is right at its time as well as a good way to end the year.

I'm hoping to see you again next time! (^_^)

[12 Days of Anime] Day 4 – Music in anime

When it comes to audio entertainment I’m always go to anime first. While most people would use the radio (both online or “offline”/on-air radio) for music discovery, I use anime instead. I treat anime like a music discovery tool in a similar way people treat the radio. It is because to me music discovered from anime is like music of “the chosen one”. There must be something special about it that it became the OP/ED/BGM of an anime. In other words, listening to anime music is like listening to something of special value, a value that is usually missing from randomly discovered music in radio.

Anime maybe my default music discovery tool but it is not the only one. There are at least 3 other sources for my music, namely games (eroge/visual novel included), Jdrama and not to forget doujin music circles. That said if I were to make a ranking anime has always be at the top, followed by the rest. I hardly take recommendations because I can’t simply accept it. For me music has to be good not only for my ears but also “good” in terms of being used in anime.

So how did some music that didn’t come from the above sources ended up in my collection anyway? Well, if you look carefully they are either classics, music from the yesteryear, nostalgic music from my distant past that I’ll always be fond of (like the vintage rock in the 70′s & 80′s). Even if you still managed to find newer/recent non-anime/games/jdrama/doujin music in my collection, again look carefully and you’ll find they’re sung by the same artists who sing for some of the sources above.

Recently anime music has become less interesting to me. I don’t think I’m the one who have changed, it must be the anime. Although I listen to many kinds of music I usually tend to pick Jrock over Jpop, as well as classical orchestra and new age music (that includes Gregorian and Celtic too). I think the most recent “good” orchestra music I’ve heard is “Mini Ika Musume na Hibi” from Ika Musume Season 1 OST. That was years after the last one, which is “Ailes Grise” from the anime Haibane Renmei. I wish more anime could have orchestra music too, at least as the BGM piece if not as the OP/ED.

When it comes to composer though I like Yuki Kajiura‘s works very much. Her works, accompanied by the awesome voices from her “FictionJunction” project and the girl band “Kalafina” really add extra powerful touches to her music. To be honest so far she is the only composer in the world that I like all of her creations. Even for other composers, there’s always at least one of their works that I can’t stand listening for long.

Speaking about my favorite music and the composer, of course it would be unfair without me mentioning my favorite singer/musician too. I like it when Hanazawa-san sings for anime but not all of her song sounds good to my ears. The same also true for my other favorite female artist, KOKIA. She has super awesome voice but I’m not ‘compatible’ with all her songs. That is why I rarely purchase a whole album of any artist. BTW I can’t mention Miku Hatsune here though since her songs and music really depends on the composer behind her, not herself. For musician/band/circle I mostly listen to music from IOSYS, supercell (just to name a few) because of their relationship with anime fandom in general (not necessarily have direct connection to anime but they have some affinity or association with anything anime-ish, including the Touhou Project).

Before I end this let me tell you I don’t stick to a certain artist/genre when it comes to music though I may have a tendency towards classical orchestra music as I’ve mentioned earlier. I only follow the song/music. Therefore if the music sounds good enough to my ears, and it comes from the sources I mentioned above I’d most likely grab it and I don’t care who’s behind it. The only reason I’d care about the artist behind it is to allow me to look for more works from that artist.

[12 Days of Anime] Day 3 – Cosplay: Yozora Mikazuki of BokuTomo by MIYUKO

I’ve tried to do this cosplay review since last month but I just didn’t know where to start because the Spiral Cats Team suddenly became so ‘productive’ that I barely could cope up with them. Now that the 12 Days of Anime event is here I’m taking this opportunity to blog this anyway.

If you’ve followed my blog posts you might already know that MIYUKO is my favorite cosplayer, even topped many notable Japanese cosplayers in my personal cosplayer chart. Gifted with what I refer to as “thousand faces” she is perfect for almost any character she could cosplay.

When MIYUKO does a cosplay, or any cosplay for that matter, I always have very little complain or none at all. Just look at the picture above, where at this point it’s “perfectly perfect”.

Have you watched the anime Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai? Or at least read the light novel? If you haven’t then I think you should. If you think MIYUKO as Yozora above is very beautiful, then I have to tell you too that Yozora is the most beautiful ‘troll’ ever.

Nobody’s perfect. I did say that MIYUKO made a perfect cosplay but in the picture above the ‘imperfection’ is visible, if you can notice it. You know Yozora usually has several pink ribbons tied to the ends of her hair that maybe barely noticeable because of her waist-length hair. I wonder how many years she’s been keeping it that it has grown that long. Maybe since Kodaka left the city, which is 10 years to be exact? Back to the hair business, some people might argue that there are also times where Yozora didn’t have those ribbons but you should realize to that when in her school uniform Yozora ALWAYS have them. Not a big deal of course but I have to deduct some points anyway.

Well as long as nobody noticed the absence of those ribbons then I think it’s fine. I’m no perfectionist either so I guess it’s fine as well but still not enough for me to dismiss the fact that they’re absent, though enough for me to give her an ‘A’. Man I still have some more new cosplay by MIYUKO I’d like to review. I hope I’d be able to do it before the end of the year.