Jumat, 24 Desember 2010

Ikan Marlin/Ikan Todak


Todak (Xiphias gladius) atau adalah sejenis ikan laut yang rahang atas dan moncongnya memanjang berbentuk seperti pedang pipih dan kuat, berukuran hampir sepertiga panjang badan ikan tersebut. Tubuh ikan todak panjang membulat dapat mencapai 2 - 4,6 m dan dapat berbobot hingga 650 kg. Kulitnya licin tidak bersisik, bagian atas tubuhnya berwarna keunguan atau kebiruan dan bagian bawah tubuhnya keperakan. Banyak terdapat di perairan tropis dan perairan iklim sedang.
Ikan todak satu-satunya anggota famili Xiphiidae.

Nama ilmiahnya berasal dari paruhnya yang panjang dan tajam menyerupai pedang (Latin gladius) atau tombak. Pedang tersebut bersama dengan bentuk tubuh yang melancip memungkinkan ikan todak menyibak air dengan mudah dan lincah. Berlawanan dengan kepercayaan, pedangnya itu tidak dipakai menombak, melainkan untuk memukul untuk melukai mangsanya, untuk membuat mangsa tersebut mudah ditangkap. Untuk menangkap mangsanya, ikan todak sangat bergantung pada kecepatannya yang dapat mencapai 80 kilometer per jam serta kelincahan dalam air.Ikan ini pun di juluki ikan tercepat di laut. Satu penggunaan untuk pertahanan yang mungkin dari pedangnya adalah melindungi dirinya dari pemangsa alaminya yang sedikit. Hiu mako sirip-pendek adalah salah satu binatang laut jarang yang cukup besar dan cepat untuk mengejar dan membunuh seekor ikan todak, namun hiu itu tidak selalu menang. Kadang-kadang, saat berjuang melawan seekor hiu, seekor ikan todak dapat membunuh hiu tersebut dengan menusuknya di insang atau perut.

Todak betina lebih besar dari yang jantan, dengan jantan yang lebih berat dari 135 kg jarang ditemukan. Ikan todak betina dewasa pada umur 4-5 tahun di Pasifik barat-laut sementara jantan dewasa sekitar umur 3 sampai 4 tahun. Di Pasifik Utara, pemijahan berkelompok terjadi di air yang lebih hangat daripada 24 °C dari bulan Maret hingga Juli dan sepanjang tahun di Pasifik katulistiwa. Ikan todak dewasa mencari makan yang berupa ikan pelagis seperti tuna kecil, lemadang, barakuda, dan ikan terbang, makarel, dan juga spesies bentik seperti hake dan rockfish. Jika ada, cumi-cumi juga mangsa yang penting. Ikan todak dewasa dianggap memiliki sedikit pemangsa, sedangkan ikan todak muda sangat rentan dimangsa oleh ikan pelagis besar.

Ikan todak bukan ikan yang hidup berkelompok. Mereka berenang sendirian dan dalam pengelompokan yang berjauhan, terpisah sekitar 10 meter dari ikan todak tetangganya. Mereka sering ditemukan berjemur di permukaan, mengudarakan sirip punggung pertamanya. Penumpang kapal melaporkan hal ini sebagai pemandangan indah, seperti lompatan kuatnya yang membuat spesies ini dikenal. Lompatan ini oleh beberapa peneliti dianggap untuk melepaskan hama, seperti remora atau lamprey. Lompatan itu juga bisa menjadi cara ikan todak makan di permukaan dengan mengejutkan ikan kecil saat todak itu melompat dari air, membuat ikan kecil tersebut lebih mudah ditangkap untuk dimakan.Meskipun ikan todak termasuk hewan berdarah dingin, mereka mempunyai organ khusus dekat mata untuk menghangatkan mata dan juga otak mereka. Suhu 10 sampai 15 °C di atas suhu air sekitarnya telah diukur. Pemanasan mata meningkatkan penglihatannya, dan meningkatkan kemampuannya dalam menagkap mangsa. Dari lebih dari 25.000 spesies ikan bertulang sejati, hanya 22 yang diketahui mampu menghangatkan bagian tubuh tertentu di atas suhu air sekitarnya. Di antara ikan-ikan tersebut adalah ikan todak, marlin dan tuna.

Ikan todak makan setiap hari, seringkali pada malam hari saat mereka naik ke permukan dan air dekat permukaan untuk mencari ikan yang lebih kecil. Mereka telah diaamati bergerak melewati sekawanan ikan, menebaskan pedangnya untuk membunuh atau mengejutkan mangsanya. Di Atlantik Utara bagian barat, cumi-cumi merupakan makanannya yang populer. Ikan seperti menhaden, makerel, bluefishsilver hakebutterfish, dan hering juga merupakan makanan ikan todak.

Cheetah

Cheetah atau citah (dari bahasa Sansekerta Chitraka berarti "berbintik") (Acinonyx jubatus) adalah anggota keluarga kucing (Felidae) yang berburu mangsa dengan menggunakan kecepatan dan bukan taktik mengendap-endap atau bergerombol. Hewan ini adalah hewan yang tercepat di antara hewan darat dan dapat mencapai kecepatan 110 km/jam dalam waktu singkat sampai 460 m, dengan akselerasi 0 - 100 km/jam dalam waktu 3,5 detik, lebih cepat dari beberapa supercar. Konon, selama bertahun-tahun Cheetah hanya dikenal sebagai cerita hantu. Menurut cerita, binatang pemangsa besar dengan garis-garis mirip macan ditubuhnya ini sering membawa kabur orang-orang yang berada di perbatasan Mozambique. Penduduk sering memberi julukan "magwa". Cerita atau isu adanya Cheetah terbukti kebenarannya ketika Paul dan Lena Bottriel berhasil memotretnya pada tahun 1975.

Air Terjun di Venezuela,Amerika Selatan


Air Terjun Angel atau Salto Angel adalah air terjun jatuh-bebas tertinggi di dunia dengan ketinggian 979 meter (3.212 kaki) dengan jatuh tanpa hambatan sekitar 807 meter (2.647 kaki). Air terjun ini terletak di Rio Caroni, Taman Nasional Canaima, Venezuela.
Meskipun pertama kali dilihat di awal abad ke-20 oleh penjelajah Ernesto de Santa Cruz, air terjun ini tidak dikenal dunia sampai ditemukan secara resmi oleh penerbang Amerika, James Crawford Angel yang sedang terbang mencari lokasi tambang emas. Pada tahun 1936, James Angel kembali dan mendaratkan pesawatnya di dekat air terjun. Air terjun ini dinamakan "Air terjun Angel" untuk mengenang penemunya, James Crawford Angel. Suku Indian Pemon menyebut air terjun ini sebagai "Auyan-tepui" ("Aiyan-tepui") yang berarti "Gunung Setan".
Ketinggian resminya ditentukan oleh National Geographic Society pada 1949. Air terjun ini merupakan atraksi turis paling terkenal di Venezuela.
Air terjun ini juga ada di film "UP" loh.

Rabu, 15 Desember 2010

Plue

Nikora"The Canis Minor", or more commonly Plue, is a Celestial Spirit that has no obvious combat abilities and seems to be merely a comical character for his summoner Lucy Heartfilia. The character is pretty much the same from Hiro's previous work Groove Adventure Rave a.k.a Rave Master. He communicates through interpretive dance.

Appearance

Plue is a short, stout white creature (who is commonly referred to as a dog by Lucy Heartfilia) with bland eyes and a golden horn-like nose. He cannot speak besides saying Plue, but Natsu can understand what he is saying. He mostly communicates by using gestures and motions which makes Lucy think he's cute.

Magic and Abilities
Plue is relatively the same as he was in Rave Master. He loves sweets. He can only be summoned on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays when Lucy makes her contract with him. But later, Plue could be summoned everyday. He serves as a cute pet for Lucy rather than a combat spirit.

Plue doesn't have any particular abilities, merely acting as a pet to Lucy.

Nikora's role in the story is much like a pet for Lucy. However, he was used to demonstrate how contracts are made to Natsu Dragneel. He also seemed to recognize Loke, during the Loke arc, which was possibly meant foreshadow Loke's revelation as a Celestial Spirit, or it may have meant nothing.

Selasa, 14 Desember 2010

Pegasus



Dalam mitologi Yunani, Pegasus (Yunani: Πήγασος (Pégasos)) adalah seekor kuda bersayap yang merupakan putra Poseidon dan Medusa. Poseidon memperkosa Medusa sehingga Athena mengubah Medusa menjadi monster. Suatu hari Perseus, dengan dibantu oleh Athena, berhasil memnggal kepala Medusa, dan dari darah Medusa terlahir Pegasus.
Pegasus membantu Bellerofon sang pahlawan dalam perlawanannya melawan Chimaera dan bangsa Amazon. Suatu ketika, Bellerofon mencoba menerbangkan pegasus ke Olympus sehingga para dewa menghukumnya dan menjatuhkan Bellerophon dari Pegasus. Sejak saat itu, Pegasus menjadi pembawa petir untuk Zeus.
Kata "pegasus” kini digunakan untuk merujuk kepada segala macam kuda bersayap secara umum.

Pegasus dan mata air
Dimanapun pegasus menghentakan kakinya ke bumi, munculah sumber mata air. Salah satunya adalah di Gunung Helikon, yang disebut Hippokrene ("mata air kuda"),dan Poseidon memerintahkan gunung tersebut agar tidak membengkak dengan nyanyian Muse; sementara mata air lainnya ada di Troezen. Hesiod menggambarkan bahwa Pegasus sedang minum dengan tenang di salah satu mata air ketika Bellerophon menangkapnya. Hesiod juga menyebutkan bahwa Pegasus membawakan petir Zeus.


Sabtu, 11 Desember 2010

Igneel


Igneel is a dragon the foster father of Natsu Dragneel.

Igneel has been shown to be a loving parental figure towards Natsu, however, leaving him to fend for himself leads one to doubt this. Despite leaving him, Igneel is shown to be incredibly protective of Natsu
 as he watches him from afar.
Contrary to his loving self, Igneel can also be very fierce when he wants to be. He has also shown some arrogance, referring to himself as "the one and only Igneel" during Grandine's visit.
According to Grandine, like Natsu, Igneel has a tendency to take things to excess.
He taught Natsu how to write, speak, and even how to use the fire-brand style of magic known as "Dragon Slayer". For some still unknown reason, Igneel disappeared one day without saying a word to Natsu on the 7th July 777 (along with the other dragons Grandine and Metalicana), leaving Natsu to fend for himself. Natsu dreams of meeting Igneel again, and searches for clues of his whereabouts throughout the series.

Igneel's wrath
  • Events take place in the Tower of Heaven arc in manga but Fighting Festivals arcin the anime 
After the events at the Tower of Heaven, Igneel is shown residing in a volcanic region, talking to the dragon who raised Wendy Marvell, Grandine, about Natsu. Igneel immediately orders Grandine to leave once it sounds like she threatens Natsu/states that he'll get killed eventually. He then makes a reference to the Black Wizard Zeref and the dragons' removal from human affairs. He then shows that he is in fact very firm on leaving humans alone, especially Natsu. Hearing these words, Grandine leaves hoping that Natsu's friendship with Wendy will be better than his "friendship" with Metalicana's foster son Gajeel Redfox.

As a father and a mentor of Natsu Dragneel, Igneel also uses a fire magic, but probably more powerful than his "child".

Fire Dragon Magic: It includes creating and manipulation of fire. In the manga was shown that Igneel can create a fire over all his body. In the anime, it shows the fire being hot enough to melt the entire cave he was residing in in a mere two seconds, and remain uninjured even while the lava trickled down his back and face.
  • Igneel seems to have a scar on his neck. Coincidently, Natsu also has a scar on his neck, it is unknown how the both of them got these scars though.
  • According to the earlier chapters of the series; Igneel taught Natsu letters, further explained in the anime, after only teaching him letters, Natsu had problems with reading things that had nothing to do with food.
  • He made an appearance on 4th opening.
  • At the later part of the manga, whenever Natsu uses a strong attack, an image of a Igneel is shadowed during or after his attack, giving a sense of power.

Kamis, 09 Desember 2010

Lyon Bastia

Lyon Bastia, first introduced as Reitei Lyon, is one of three ice mages shown in the series, as well as a rival of Gray Fullbuster. He was the main antagonist of the Galuna Island arc and later appears as a member of the Lamia Scale Guild
  
Personality

Lyon looks like a cold and calm mage but he can also be emotive and follow his instincts, such as during the delegates' meeting, he rushes into the woods following Natsu Dragneel.
He takes his goals and dreams too seriously, this lead him to try to reverse the freezing of the immortal demon Deliora just to try to fulfill his dream to surpass his teacher Ur

History

It is unknown what exactly happened to Lyon's parents but he likes it in his but when younger he searched for the strongest mage who would make him their pupil and found Ur. Some years later, whilst walking through the ruins of a town destroyed by Deliora, he and Ur found a survivor, Gray. They took him in, much to the chagrin of Lyon, and the two trained together. When Gray ran after the demon Deliora, he and Ur followed after him and Lyon attempted to use the spell Iced Shell because he believed Ur was not fighting seriously. Ur quickly froze him, knocking him unconscious, but then sacrificed herself by using the spell herself, turning her body into ice, but asking Gray to "tell Lyon that I died".
Presumably afterwards the two training partners went their separate ways with Lyon spending ten years gathering knowledge and recruiting comrades and then, after learning about Galuna Island, bringing the frozen Deliora to the island 3 years before the current storyline.  

Synopsis

Once on the island, Lyon begins the Moon Drip ritual to unfreeze the Iced Shell off of Deliora in an attempt to defeat the demon himself and surpass his teacher. Complications arise when Natsu, Lucy Heartfilia, Gray and Happy arrive at the island on an unauthorized S-Rank mission and come into confrontation with his group. Lyon takes on Gray and manages to win their first bout after becoming angry when Gray mentions that defeat Deliora is impossible as years before Ur and Lyon told him about the exact same thing about confronting Deliora in the northern continent.
The next day Lyon finds that Sherry Blendi and Yuka Suzuki were defeated and faces Natsu who tilted the ruins, thus stopping the Moon Drip ritual. Their battle is interrupted by a recovered Gray. After a little talk about Ur´s true condition (eternally alive as ice) Lyon stabs Gray telling him that he already knew all of that that; these words anger the injured Gray who attacks Lyon several times. The now injured Lyon claims that he wants to save his magic for his future fight with Deliora and starts to attack Gray using his one handed ice magic but this time it's Gray who comes out the victor when Lyon's power becomes unbalanced at the height of the fight. However, the ritual is soon completed by Toby and Deliora is freed from the shell. Even so, a heavily wounded Lyon tries to take on the beast but is knocked down by Gray. Then, much to his dismay, the demon suddenly crumbles before it can attack. Realization dawns on Lyon that Deliora was
long since dead and that he can never surpass his teacher now as she defeated the demon before he could. In the end Gray and he reconcile, and Lyon considers joining a guild.

Fighting Festival arc

Lyon, along with Toby, Sherry and Yuka Suzuki, appear in a short panel watching Gray and Juvia Loxar in the Fantasia festival.

Oración Seis arc

Lyon along with Sherry now as members of Lamia Scale and part of its delegated team to fight the Dark Guild Oración Seis, after meeting up with all the members he rushes with Sherry and the others (with the exception of Jura Nekis and Ichiya Wanderlei Kotobuki) to the woodlands where they are ambushed and easily defeated by the Oración Seis. After the battle everyone notices Erza Scarlet who was poisoned and wanted her arm to be cut off which led Lyon to volunteer to do it but was stopped by Gray. Later, as they spilt up to find Wendy Marvell, Lyon, Sherry and Jura fight off an entire guild and are successful. He then leaves with Sherry as Jura senses a Oración Seis member.
As he leaves, he runs into Gray who is having a motorcycle battle with Racer. Lyon jumps onto Grays bike to assist him and he reveals that he has gone back to using two hands to cast Ice Make. The two then work together, while subconsciously taking their shirts off to Racer's confusion and Sherry's fancy, to fight Racer off of his motorcycle but as he gets faster on foot, Lyon discovers his weakness. As he continues to fight and freeze Gray in a large Ice Tower, Racer battles with and nearly kills him. However, Lyon reveals that Racer doesn't run fast but slows down time around him. With this, Gray completes Lyon's plan. Sadly, Racer tries to blow him and everyone up with explosive Lacrima and with this, Lyon pushes him off a cliff and apparently sacrifices himself to save Sherry and Gray. However Lyon survives and reappears as Sherry started attacking Natsu, Gray, and Lucy. With this, he playfully insults them saying he can't die so easily like them and returns Sherry to the light. He is later seen carrying an unconscious Sherry and cheering on the Fairy Tail mages as they climb Nirvana.
Later on he aids the rest of the light team by creating a wing of Ice to fly the battleship Christina. After that he encourages Gray into the final fight against the Oracion Seis.
When the mission is complete, the entire light team goes off to Cait Shelter for recovery. Jura congratulates Lyon and Sherry for their hard work, and later Lyon strips his clothes off alongside Gray as they overhear Natsu's idea for a party. Afterwards he and his guild mates learn the sad secret of the Cait Shelter Guild and Nirvana. As each of the delegates return to their guilds, Lyon tells Gray to get rid of his stripping habit, only to have Gray point out his own indecency. Along side Eve Thylm, Happy and Lucy, he notices quite surprisingly that Sherry started arguing with Ren Akatsuki about leaving each other.

Magic and Abilities

Like Gray, Lyon practices the ice magic, Ice Make. Which allows him to form any type of object from ice. Unlike Gray whose version is static (which allows him to create weapons), Lyon´s Ice Make is Living (aka Dynamic), which means most of his creations are animal familiars made from ice. However, Lyon does know some static ice-make like the sword, prison, and geyser abilities but like Gray he prefers to use the opposite of his former partner. Lyon also has been shown to have expert skills in hand-to-hand combat, overwhelming Gray by aiming for his wounds.

Ice-Make : A form of alchemy magic that creates shapes or objects out of ice. In Lyon's case, he uses Dynamic ice magic, meaning he can shape his ice into animals or moving objects. Dynamic magic, as stated by Racer, is apparently faster than Static magic. At first Lyon believed that he was a prodigy and that he could create ice magic single-handedly without the side effects, but this was disproved in his battle against Gray. One-handed molding magic is unbalanced, unstable and it cannot reach its full power at critical moments (note that the colour of the ice he made is greenish in color); after his fight with Gray in Galuna Island, Lyon started to create ice magic using both hands. 

Spells:
  • Ice Make: Eagle: Lyon creates several eagles that fly towards his enemy and strike it, as Dynamic ice magic, these eagles can avoid obstacles to hit their target.
  • Ice Make: Snow Dragon: Lyon creates an ice dragon that rushes against its enemy and crushes it.
  • Ice Make: Ape: Lyon creates an large ape: it was used to protect him against Gray´s ice hammer; The Ape can be also used to attack.
  • Ice Make: Wolf: Lyon surrounds his hand with ice in the form of wolf's head and attack enemy.
  • Ice Make: Shield: Lyon creates a half dome of ice to protect himself from enemy attacks.
  • Ice Make: Snow Tiger: Lyon creates a tiger made out of ice that can rush to and bite its target.
  • Ice Make: Sword: Lyon creates an ice sword to strike and pierce his enemies.
  • Ice Make: Geyser: Freezing the ground in front of him, Lyon creates a tower of ice spikes that impales his opponents.
  • Ice Make: Unnamed Prison: Lyon creates a diamond-sided sphere of an unmeltable ice (Natsu´s Dragon fire wasn't able to melt it) on his enemy's body. It was stated that this spell destroys the body of the trapped person along with the ice. However, it loses its hardness the further it is away from the caster and eventually shatters.
  • Ice Make: Dummy: Lyon creates a copy of himself made out of ice, this spell can be used to avoid attacks or just to create a distraction for a surprise attack.
  • Ice Make: Hedgehog: Lyon covers his body with ice spikes in the manner of a hedgehog to protect himself from melee attacks.
  • Ice Make: Wing: Lyon can creates wings made by Ice. He used this on Christina.
Iced Shell: A forbidden spell, it seals an enemy in a large block of ice made out of the caster's body. This ice is unbreakable even to fire, unless using the spell Moon Drip.

Trivia

  • Lyon and his team/friends appeared as extras in some pages during some arcs after the Galuna Island arc like in the Sorcerer magazine in chapter 104.
  • In the Oración Seis arc, he is seen stripping at the same time as Gray, which means he picked up the stripping habit from Ur as well.
  • In Anime he didn't used Ice Make: Sword to attack Grey, but an unnamed panther-like Ice Make.
  • His name is the combination of two french cities : Lyon and Bastia.
  • During the Galuna Island Arc, Lyon's helmet mirrors that of Cecil Harvey in Final Fantasy IV.
  • Lyon has his Lamia Scale stamp the same place Gray put his Fairy Tail stamp.