*pouts like the child she pretends to be* i want more.
I hope this gets a second season, i don't think it will (depending on what happens in pilot and the princess) but still... i want more... cause i'm greedy.
Anyways.
Pilot's love song is about a floating land mass known as Isla that is heading to a place known as "the end of the sky". The story focuses on a class of new student who are learning to become pilots just incase they need to defend Isla from unknown foes. The class contains mostly younger student, one just so happens to be the supposedly dead prince who may or may not want revenge on the current governor who essentially sent his family to their deaths. However revenge is easier said then done.
As i mention before it is in the same universe as Pilot and the princess but as of this moment i haven't seen that film and have no idea how they are connected... but i did order it from NISA so i should get it eventually (whenever the other thing i ordered gets released)
Also NISA announced pretty early on in the shows run that they got the license for this so i'm really excited to own this in one of their lovely boxes.
The good:
There are a few turns that the story takes that i didn't see coming and i love being surprised like that. The story and world are very interesting and while some bits feel rushed (aka this could have easily been a 22-26 episode show instead of 13) the overall pacing works well for the type of story that is being told.
I love that fairly quickly not only do i know all the students by name (which is rare for me) but i also know all their personality and backstory without huge exposition dumps.
The not so good:
I'm curious what the animation budget was for this... and how much was spent on rendering the planes cause wow the animation for this show it pretty terrible.
It's never distracting but i do wish the show could be prettier to look at considering the grandeur of the plot.
and yeah... again... i want this to be longer but from the looks of it there are quite a few stories in this world so maybe we'll get more? I'm hopeful.
The bad:
That stupid voice actor recognition thing i do completely spoiled one of the bigger plot twists before it was even hinted at. It was literally a moment of "that sounds like------ ah crap" which was followed by me being all sad until it was finally shown.
In the end i enjoyed this title a lot, easily up there with my favs of the season, you can watch it over on Crunchyroll.
I think the only other thing that is finishing this season is Nagi no Asukura on Thursday and then it'll be onto the spring 2014 lineup first impressions... after looking at the promo art for all the shows nothing really jumps out at me but i'll still try to give everything a shot.
Monday, 31 March 2014
Sunday, 30 March 2014
Karneval
First impression of the show: wow this is one of the prettiest shows I've ever seen...
it's also nice to hear hiroshi kamiya... i didn't know he was in this... lucky~
First time hearing the intro song: That voice... it's familiar.... Granrodeo? *waits till it pops up* Called it.... dunno when i started being able to do that with music but.... okay.
After hearing the ending song a few times: It sounds like... Hiroshi Kamiya singing... but.... can he even sing? *does a little research* son of a..... he has a band? and he IS singing the ending song for this show *sighs* i give up...
Anyways.... onto the show.
Karneval is about Nai and Gareki and how they end up on a ship full of elite agents known as Circus. Nai is actually an animal in a human body so many different factions are after him, Gareki just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and ends up saving and then befriending the odd boy.
They eventually befriend their bodyguards and everyone works together to find Nai's father/creator Karoku.
All that being said i will be greatly upset if this show doesn't get a second season... so far they are saying no but it's being considered.
The good: (sorry in my feverish state over the past few days I've completely thrown my format out the window... lets get back to doing this right now that I'm finally better [only took 48ish hours])
As i said above this is probably one of the prettiest shows I've ever seen. The lovely use of colour, the fluid animation and just incredibly detailed art... half the time i couldn't help but want to draw cause it was all just so pretty.
The voice acting is stellar and I'm not just saying that cause my fav voice actor has a lot of speaking time. This just has a really good cast... even Nai who would normally be "the annoying" voice is kinda cute in a childish and endearing way... and the bunny/sheep robots... way too cute.
The music is good... again not just cause i happen to like granrodeo (though that helps) and KAmiYU has my fav voice actor singing (that helps too though) but the circusy vibe of the music without being overdone is just such a nice balance.
The character design is also pretty fantastic, every silhouette is distinct which for anime is pretty rare... also I'm a suck for extremely colourful characters... i mean i like when they go more realistic too but in this world the colourful hair and eyes work so well.
The not so good:
The way it ended completely suggest 2nd and potentially even 3rd seasons.... but it seems the show didn't do as well as they were hoping... but this show is really good so... i hold out hope that maybe we'll get another season? it's been a year since the original spring 2013 release... anime do tend to have long breaks... but yeah if this is really all we get then that kinda sucks. It ends off at a fine point but boy do i want more.
The bad:
... i got nothing.
Maybe some chunks feel a bit filler-ish?
maybe we could have learnt more about circus?
But if we get another season I'm positive those things will be addressed.
for now though... I'm bad at waiting so.... time to see if anyone has licensed the manga.
*checks*
No?
. . .
well that sucks... honestly I've been so behind with manga licensing companies in NA that i have no idea who would be best suited for this kinda story....
I'm just gunna say shoujo beat cause it's cheap.
and yes.... i consider this shojo... that many pretty boys and i automatically assume it's targeted at my gender thank you very much (though anyone could enjoy it I'm sure... shojo doesn't only mean romance just like shonen doesn't only mean action)
The entire season can be seen over on Funimations website (at least in North America, i do not know if they ever license for other countries.)
I will be picking up the DVD if i see it for a good price at a con... for now though i really should be conserving bandwidth (can't wait for unlimited bandwidth starting next month.)
and maybe some fan art of the show would be fun... so much colour... i could go nuts.
it's also nice to hear hiroshi kamiya... i didn't know he was in this... lucky~
First time hearing the intro song: That voice... it's familiar.... Granrodeo? *waits till it pops up* Called it.... dunno when i started being able to do that with music but.... okay.
After hearing the ending song a few times: It sounds like... Hiroshi Kamiya singing... but.... can he even sing? *does a little research* son of a..... he has a band? and he IS singing the ending song for this show *sighs* i give up...
Anyways.... onto the show.
Karneval is about Nai and Gareki and how they end up on a ship full of elite agents known as Circus. Nai is actually an animal in a human body so many different factions are after him, Gareki just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and ends up saving and then befriending the odd boy.
They eventually befriend their bodyguards and everyone works together to find Nai's father/creator Karoku.
All that being said i will be greatly upset if this show doesn't get a second season... so far they are saying no but it's being considered.
The good: (sorry in my feverish state over the past few days I've completely thrown my format out the window... lets get back to doing this right now that I'm finally better [only took 48ish hours])
As i said above this is probably one of the prettiest shows I've ever seen. The lovely use of colour, the fluid animation and just incredibly detailed art... half the time i couldn't help but want to draw cause it was all just so pretty.
The voice acting is stellar and I'm not just saying that cause my fav voice actor has a lot of speaking time. This just has a really good cast... even Nai who would normally be "the annoying" voice is kinda cute in a childish and endearing way... and the bunny/sheep robots... way too cute.
The music is good... again not just cause i happen to like granrodeo (though that helps) and KAmiYU has my fav voice actor singing (that helps too though) but the circusy vibe of the music without being overdone is just such a nice balance.
The character design is also pretty fantastic, every silhouette is distinct which for anime is pretty rare... also I'm a suck for extremely colourful characters... i mean i like when they go more realistic too but in this world the colourful hair and eyes work so well.
The not so good:
The way it ended completely suggest 2nd and potentially even 3rd seasons.... but it seems the show didn't do as well as they were hoping... but this show is really good so... i hold out hope that maybe we'll get another season? it's been a year since the original spring 2013 release... anime do tend to have long breaks... but yeah if this is really all we get then that kinda sucks. It ends off at a fine point but boy do i want more.
The bad:
... i got nothing.
Maybe some chunks feel a bit filler-ish?
maybe we could have learnt more about circus?
But if we get another season I'm positive those things will be addressed.
for now though... I'm bad at waiting so.... time to see if anyone has licensed the manga.
*checks*
No?
. . .
well that sucks... honestly I've been so behind with manga licensing companies in NA that i have no idea who would be best suited for this kinda story....
I'm just gunna say shoujo beat cause it's cheap.
and yes.... i consider this shojo... that many pretty boys and i automatically assume it's targeted at my gender thank you very much (though anyone could enjoy it I'm sure... shojo doesn't only mean romance just like shonen doesn't only mean action)
The entire season can be seen over on Funimations website (at least in North America, i do not know if they ever license for other countries.)
I will be picking up the DVD if i see it for a good price at a con... for now though i really should be conserving bandwidth (can't wait for unlimited bandwidth starting next month.)
and maybe some fan art of the show would be fun... so much colour... i could go nuts.
Saturday, 29 March 2014
Kuroko's Basketball Season 2
Aka: Kuroko no basuke
Aka The basketball which kuroko plays.
Sports anime tend to be pretty boring, so back in 2012 when this show started i was fairly sure it wouldn't be my cup of tea.... but i had also decided to give more shows a shot since i had the crunchyroll subscription anyways.
I loved the first season, the characters were great and all had their own personality. It had humor and charm and it didn't fall into a lot of the tropes that make sports anime kinda terrible.
As someone who played basketball for a while I was worried it would be too unrealistic or that they would do stupid annoying stuff like naming moves or having a second last a few minutes as they talk back and forth in midair.
and yes that happened a few times in the first season but it was kept to a minimum... for the most part the show was more about building the team then it was about the matches. The generation of miracles was an interesting concept and it was used pretty well.
However, i can't say the same for this season.
The show is still really good... the characters are still great, the story thats old when they aren't playing games is interesting... you really get a sense of everyones personality and the music for the show is just fantastic (i really enjoy Granrodeo so that probably helps)
But then it started to rely on a lot of those tropes that i mentioned hating.
They started naming moves (ignite pass? barrier jumper? meteorite dunk? or my personal fav Ignite pass Kai? like... why?) which is so incredibly stupid it made me yell out at the screen every time cause it needed to stop... then the matches got much longer... the Aomine match lasted at least 5 episodes... maybe more. we started only really caring about the matches against the generation of miracles and as they faced more they ended up feeling a bit like... Godmode.
however the worst thing to happen this season was "the zone"
every time the zone was used the show just felt like it was tossing all the other characters skills away to focus on the one character...
not to mention the lightning from the eyes stuff was just silly... again i understand that you are trying to visually represent a mental state but you know what? maybe don't... maybe just describe the zone as it is... an intangible state where you suddenly can focus on more then you could before.
also last time i checked this is "KUROKO's Basketball, not Kagami's basketball... not Teppies... Kuroko....
I don't mind that the other characters get focus... i was just sad that they got almost all of the focus.
when the intro changed animation and you see what kuroko has up his sleeve i was so excited that he would be attempting 'that' but then he does it... and everyone is happy... and then it's kinda dropped... i wanted more focus on him becoming a more formidable player instead of just "look at how good kagami is"
The show is still really good but it felt like they were really trying to build tension near the end of this season... even though it may be a while before we see a season 3. so we have all this energy thats going to be lost between now and when we get the new season.
Not to mention he still hasn't faced Akashi... i really want him to face akashi and see what his deal is (cause i know nothing other then what the anime has shown)
my hope is that in the next season Kagami gets knocked down a peg or two cause a story of someone who is good but not good enough is far more interesting then the story of someone who is just an unstoppable monster who goes super saiyen when the going gets tough.
Also more focus on kuroko please, i want to see him become a strong player then any of the others realize.
Still it's a great show, watch both seasons over on crunchyroll.
and please someone license it so i can own it on dvd/bluray
also bring over the manga please.
cause yeah.... it's good... just silly.
Aka The basketball which kuroko plays.
Sports anime tend to be pretty boring, so back in 2012 when this show started i was fairly sure it wouldn't be my cup of tea.... but i had also decided to give more shows a shot since i had the crunchyroll subscription anyways.
I loved the first season, the characters were great and all had their own personality. It had humor and charm and it didn't fall into a lot of the tropes that make sports anime kinda terrible.
As someone who played basketball for a while I was worried it would be too unrealistic or that they would do stupid annoying stuff like naming moves or having a second last a few minutes as they talk back and forth in midair.
and yes that happened a few times in the first season but it was kept to a minimum... for the most part the show was more about building the team then it was about the matches. The generation of miracles was an interesting concept and it was used pretty well.
However, i can't say the same for this season.
The show is still really good... the characters are still great, the story thats old when they aren't playing games is interesting... you really get a sense of everyones personality and the music for the show is just fantastic (i really enjoy Granrodeo so that probably helps)
But then it started to rely on a lot of those tropes that i mentioned hating.
They started naming moves (ignite pass? barrier jumper? meteorite dunk? or my personal fav Ignite pass Kai? like... why?) which is so incredibly stupid it made me yell out at the screen every time cause it needed to stop... then the matches got much longer... the Aomine match lasted at least 5 episodes... maybe more. we started only really caring about the matches against the generation of miracles and as they faced more they ended up feeling a bit like... Godmode.
however the worst thing to happen this season was "the zone"
every time the zone was used the show just felt like it was tossing all the other characters skills away to focus on the one character...
not to mention the lightning from the eyes stuff was just silly... again i understand that you are trying to visually represent a mental state but you know what? maybe don't... maybe just describe the zone as it is... an intangible state where you suddenly can focus on more then you could before.
also last time i checked this is "KUROKO's Basketball, not Kagami's basketball... not Teppies... Kuroko....
I don't mind that the other characters get focus... i was just sad that they got almost all of the focus.
when the intro changed animation and you see what kuroko has up his sleeve i was so excited that he would be attempting 'that' but then he does it... and everyone is happy... and then it's kinda dropped... i wanted more focus on him becoming a more formidable player instead of just "look at how good kagami is"
The show is still really good but it felt like they were really trying to build tension near the end of this season... even though it may be a while before we see a season 3. so we have all this energy thats going to be lost between now and when we get the new season.
Not to mention he still hasn't faced Akashi... i really want him to face akashi and see what his deal is (cause i know nothing other then what the anime has shown)
my hope is that in the next season Kagami gets knocked down a peg or two cause a story of someone who is good but not good enough is far more interesting then the story of someone who is just an unstoppable monster who goes super saiyen when the going gets tough.
Also more focus on kuroko please, i want to see him become a strong player then any of the others realize.
Still it's a great show, watch both seasons over on crunchyroll.
and please someone license it so i can own it on dvd/bluray
also bring over the manga please.
cause yeah.... it's good... just silly.
Friday, 28 March 2014
Samurai Flamenco
There will be spoilers cause i can't talk about the show without spoiling something so.... yeah
Short Version: This is a good show with a few pacing problems but overall i enjoyed it. If you like the idea of Civilians as superheroes btu felt Kickass was a bit too crass and not funny enough you will probably like this show. Also if you like 'sentai' style teams theres a lot of jokes and humor just for you.
Okay.
As i mentioned before this is a show about a civilian super hero who fights crime... simple stuff like littering or bullying but still Samurai flamenco feels he is doing his job in keeping the peace.
Too bad everyone things he's just some costumed freak.
One day Goto, a cop, hears a noise in an alleyway. He checks it out to find a naked Masayoshi who is claiming not to be suspicious. He just happened to be fighting evil when his suit got torn and thats why he was naked in the alleyway.He's actually a model and this super hero buisness is on the side and totally secret so he asks goto not to tell anyone.... not that they would believe him anyways. They develop a friendship even though Goto doens't get why masayoshi can't just become a cop.
SO... In my first impressions I said this:
But then Episode 8 happened.... and at first i didn't believe it... I was completely stunned and by the time i recovered the first thing out of my mouth was. "I didn't see that coming" and then i paused. "Okay i did see it coming, i even said it after the first episode but i didn't see it happening now"
and that wasn't the only time the show did something surprising... it was just easily one of the more effective times. The introduction of monsters really did change how the story was told.
But it also caused the problems with pacing i mentioned.
so... epsiodes 1-8 he's just a normal guy.
Episode 8 you get a threat introduced, and i believe by ep 12 or 13 that threat is neutralized (kinda)
this works cause it's enough time to both types of stories... the revelation could have been as early as 6 but it works fine at 8.
then when the intro song changes we are introduced to a new concept which was another interesting spin on the formular... which onlys lasts a few episodes before we get into a new spin on the story.
and then there is a new twist
and then another
and then the best twist
and then a new twist
and then it ends.
.... needless to say thats a lot happening in a very short time.
I get that what they are actually doing is going through the different type of comic book/sentai stories that were popular. (monster of the week, big bad, vigilante, ect.) but because the show is only 22 episodes long some of the villans feel rushed. and other feel dragged out.
This show has the opposite problem Golden time had.
It knows exactly who it's main character is.... but it made almost every other character WAY more interesting. Goto especially.
The best episodes are when Goto and Masayoshi are together in stressful situations and showing the difference between a cop and a costumed hero.
the other good episodes are when they two just can't see eye to eye since one has to follow a set of rules and restrictions while the other will go after even the smallest crime.
So the large chunk of episodes where Goto is barely mentioned cause we now have a large cast of Flamenco girls and/or Flamengers (i am not kidding)... it just lost some of what made it interesting and that pretty much killed the pacing.
Like i said there is another Great twist in the story right near the end that i wish was revealed a little earlier. It has to do with Goto and it really helped flush him out as a more developed character... but he's not the main focus so it's not really dealt with as much as it could have been.
The show is good, for the most part well animated (it's gunna be a show that looks better on bluray cause they will probably fix some of the derpy face moments)
The music is really good and i especial like the second animation to the second intro song.
The story is good overall but getting there can be a bit of a drag, the final villain should have been hinted to a little sooner and the ending is a bit ridiculous... i don't see why he needed to do what he did other then to throw people off.
But the best part is Goto.
Partially (okay mostly) cause of his voice.
SO... Goto is voiced by Sugita Tomokazu.... who also does the voice for Kyon in the melancholy of haruhi suzumiya.
So... i thought to myself. "what if this is kyon but older, the girl friend he talks to on his phone could easily be haruhi" and then i got thinking more.
After finishing highschool and becoming a cop Kyon enjoys his dull days away from espers, aliens and time travellers... he also likes that he's gotten away from the stupid nickname. Still it's a little dull.
Then he meets a self proclaimed super hero which is stupid but the kid is into it... he's only fighting petty crimes but no one is getting hurt.
Still what if there were real monsters? how would he be then?
Bam, suddenly (while Goto is there no less) there are monsters.
when the threat is dealt with and things go back to normal he is a bit sad that things just go back to the way they were but then a new threat appears... every time one threat is knocked out a new one comes and stops everyone from living an ordinary life.
therefor my random headcanon is that Goto is Kyon.
and the more i thougth about it the more i could work it in especially considering what happens near the end.
still of course this isn't the intent it's just a fun way (for me) to look at it.
Do i like the show? yes, despite the pacing problems the show got quite a few laughs out of me and i was having a good time. If you are curious about it you can watch it over on crunchyroll. I would say watch the first episode to see if you like the overall feel of the show and if you can at least make it to episode 8 before you decide if you stick with it or not.
Short Version: This is a good show with a few pacing problems but overall i enjoyed it. If you like the idea of Civilians as superheroes btu felt Kickass was a bit too crass and not funny enough you will probably like this show. Also if you like 'sentai' style teams theres a lot of jokes and humor just for you.
Okay.
As i mentioned before this is a show about a civilian super hero who fights crime... simple stuff like littering or bullying but still Samurai flamenco feels he is doing his job in keeping the peace.
Too bad everyone things he's just some costumed freak.
One day Goto, a cop, hears a noise in an alleyway. He checks it out to find a naked Masayoshi who is claiming not to be suspicious. He just happened to be fighting evil when his suit got torn and thats why he was naked in the alleyway.He's actually a model and this super hero buisness is on the side and totally secret so he asks goto not to tell anyone.... not that they would believe him anyways. They develop a friendship even though Goto doens't get why masayoshi can't just become a cop.
SO... In my first impressions I said this:
now normally i don't like superhero stories... but this one is kinda.. .charming... and to tell the truth i was expecting to hate it cause the preview was downright terrible... but, at least in the start, it seems to be more about the type of person who walks around the street in a superhero getup that i assume will eventually transform into fighting real monsters... or maybe it'll just stick to the way it is... i don't know.So i bolded the one line cause as the show went on an it continued just to be petty crimes i thought maybe i was wrong, maybe this will really just stick to costumed people... that could be interesting...
either way it was kinda cute, well animated with decent music.
But then Episode 8 happened.... and at first i didn't believe it... I was completely stunned and by the time i recovered the first thing out of my mouth was. "I didn't see that coming" and then i paused. "Okay i did see it coming, i even said it after the first episode but i didn't see it happening now"
and that wasn't the only time the show did something surprising... it was just easily one of the more effective times. The introduction of monsters really did change how the story was told.
But it also caused the problems with pacing i mentioned.
so... epsiodes 1-8 he's just a normal guy.
Episode 8 you get a threat introduced, and i believe by ep 12 or 13 that threat is neutralized (kinda)
this works cause it's enough time to both types of stories... the revelation could have been as early as 6 but it works fine at 8.
then when the intro song changes we are introduced to a new concept which was another interesting spin on the formular... which onlys lasts a few episodes before we get into a new spin on the story.
and then there is a new twist
and then another
and then the best twist
and then a new twist
and then it ends.
.... needless to say thats a lot happening in a very short time.
I get that what they are actually doing is going through the different type of comic book/sentai stories that were popular. (monster of the week, big bad, vigilante, ect.) but because the show is only 22 episodes long some of the villans feel rushed. and other feel dragged out.
This show has the opposite problem Golden time had.
It knows exactly who it's main character is.... but it made almost every other character WAY more interesting. Goto especially.
The best episodes are when Goto and Masayoshi are together in stressful situations and showing the difference between a cop and a costumed hero.
the other good episodes are when they two just can't see eye to eye since one has to follow a set of rules and restrictions while the other will go after even the smallest crime.
So the large chunk of episodes where Goto is barely mentioned cause we now have a large cast of Flamenco girls and/or Flamengers (i am not kidding)... it just lost some of what made it interesting and that pretty much killed the pacing.
Like i said there is another Great twist in the story right near the end that i wish was revealed a little earlier. It has to do with Goto and it really helped flush him out as a more developed character... but he's not the main focus so it's not really dealt with as much as it could have been.
The show is good, for the most part well animated (it's gunna be a show that looks better on bluray cause they will probably fix some of the derpy face moments)
The music is really good and i especial like the second animation to the second intro song.
The story is good overall but getting there can be a bit of a drag, the final villain should have been hinted to a little sooner and the ending is a bit ridiculous... i don't see why he needed to do what he did other then to throw people off.
But the best part is Goto.
Partially (okay mostly) cause of his voice.
SO... Goto is voiced by Sugita Tomokazu.... who also does the voice for Kyon in the melancholy of haruhi suzumiya.
So... i thought to myself. "what if this is kyon but older, the girl friend he talks to on his phone could easily be haruhi" and then i got thinking more.
After finishing highschool and becoming a cop Kyon enjoys his dull days away from espers, aliens and time travellers... he also likes that he's gotten away from the stupid nickname. Still it's a little dull.
Then he meets a self proclaimed super hero which is stupid but the kid is into it... he's only fighting petty crimes but no one is getting hurt.
Still what if there were real monsters? how would he be then?
Bam, suddenly (while Goto is there no less) there are monsters.
when the threat is dealt with and things go back to normal he is a bit sad that things just go back to the way they were but then a new threat appears... every time one threat is knocked out a new one comes and stops everyone from living an ordinary life.
therefor my random headcanon is that Goto is Kyon.
and the more i thougth about it the more i could work it in especially considering what happens near the end.
still of course this isn't the intent it's just a fun way (for me) to look at it.
Do i like the show? yes, despite the pacing problems the show got quite a few laughs out of me and i was having a good time. If you are curious about it you can watch it over on crunchyroll. I would say watch the first episode to see if you like the overall feel of the show and if you can at least make it to episode 8 before you decide if you stick with it or not.
Thursday, 27 March 2014
Golden Time
So it's been a few hours since the other 'review/rambles' I wrote today... i am still a little feverish from having had food with msg in it so again... if my spelling is worse or i'm not making sense it's cause i can't rally think straight.
Also because i can't think straight i'll probably just end up spoiling everything so....
Short version: This isn't very good, Toradora! is much better watch that instead.... this isn't bad but boy is the main love interest creepy/annoying.
Okay onto spoilers~
Tada Banri is an ordinary guy (his name is a pun for just another ordinary guy apparently), he's just started college and makes some new friends quickly, one of his friends is apparently being stalked by a girl named Kaga Koko who has hunted him down to his college and is trying to join all his classes... but he doesn't like stalkers so he does his best to avoid her.
Banri on the other hand thinks she's cute and harmless and tries to get her to be less obsessive but she just uses him as a way to try and get pity for her situation and get closer to the guy.
Throught this they eventually become friends and after getting half kidnapped by a cult Banri lets it slip that he has no memories before the end of highschool because he was in an accident and fell off a bridge.
Hey you know what... a rom com about a boy who is deal with amnesia could be really interesting, it gets to deal with themes of "what is the Self" and we've seen it work well in some films from the 80s... lets see where this goes.
So they (Kaga and Banri) end up escaping the cult, become better friends and come across the traditional dance club who has a girl named Linda in it who has helped banri a few times so far... later we find out that Linda and Banri were best friends in high school and he loved her and the accident happened cause she was late getting to the meeting point and he was hit by a motorcycle.
Anyways... all that stuff about the amnesiac boy having to deal with the fact that he may know people and not recognize them and how that may effect them and all those lovely themes of self i was talking about... well.... toss those out the window for most of the show.
Stuff happens and eventually Banri and Kaga start dating cause apparently they are in love (though theres a bit where he asks her and she sais no but then later she asks him and was like "sorry it was in my plan that i ask you so i had to turn you down before" and i'm sorry but thats REALLY creepy) and then the rest of the show is them being all lovely dovey but kaga screwing up cause she's kinda useless and obsessive.
again theres an ep where they want to go to the beach and banri wants to pay for himself but he can't afford it without getting a job... Kaga doesn't want him to work cause it means they can't be with each other as much... this forces banri to lie about working on an assignment while he goes to a high paying waiter gig.... in the (lets assume) 4-6 hours he was working she leaves him hundreds of textx, calls him a lot and leaves some messages... she even went to his house to check up on him... then she has the audacity to be angry that he lied about working.
i'm sorry... no
no that is stalking, it is creepy... it is not cute
after that episode i actually wrote a rant on why this ep is really creepy and how it disturbs me that she is most likely the one banri will end up with.... but anyways.
Eventually the fact that he has amnesia comes up again and he realizes that as he's gaining mempories from before he's losing the memories he got after the incident.
ooo this could be neat.... how do they screw it up?
By making Kaga the focus.
Hm... okay show... you seem confused... Kaga isn't the main character... Banri is.... this is his story.... so why is all the focus on her and her creepy obsession then sudden dismissal when theres the threat of being forgotten... why should i the viewer care that she finds the anti anxiety meds he's taking... for that matter why does that upset her... it was perscribed by a doctor and he's taking it... whats so bad about that? But by having all the focus being on Kaga's feelings you minimize Banri's story or having an identity crisis and facign the fact that one day the current him may vanish like the old one did. The most intersting arc Kaga has is when she nearly kills everyone by falling asleep at the wheel and havign to deal with the guilt... but that only lasts one episode.
Anyways.... Banri loses himself, goes back home and thinks abotu dropping out of college since he can't remember anything he did while there. Kaga goes to his house to drop off a DVD and he mistakes her for another girl Oka Chinami (who is essentially just a plot device... maybe she has a more important role in the manga?) Kaga doesn't correct him and asks for directions to the bridge he fell off of.
then stuff happened and he remembered her and we are supposed to be happy but.... you know what? No.
Kaga isn't a creepy by the end of the story... but that doesn't change the fact that as a character i really didn't like her. I felt her actions forced and cruel and possessive and creepy and damn near abusive at some points. I would have been fine had the two sets of memories merged and he went back to her and tried to start as friends again.... but no it's just "Hey, I remember you... i love you" and super happy ending.
I just feel like this show is a huge mess of crap happening without a strong plotline to make it cohesive... the amnesia thing could have been more more prevalent and gradual and heart breaking... and these scenes where he switches between the two banri's are the most interesting in the show... but the show is so obsessed with Kaga and his relationship with her and how awkward she is that you don't get the time you need to deal with the heavier subject matter.
So why compare it to Toradora.
Well when i first saw Golden time the first thing i felt was that it had a Toradora vibe (and not just cause the main girl had wavy hair but i'm sure that helped), so i did some research and yeah, it's the same creators.
I honestly couldn't see it in the art causethe anime of Toradora has slanty face syndrome (which is not a bad thing it's just not what i like to see in art but it works for adding more expression) and golden time has these odd lines that make no sense to be but seem to be a stylistic thing.
but then i started reading the toradora manga and yeah... the style is pretty much exactly the same... so yeah thats the connection.
But i have to wonder... what happened?
Yes in toradora Taiga could be really annoying but she had this sweetness to her.... and Ryuji was a very well developed character who had some interesting character traits that you don't usually get from main characters in what is essentially a show where all the girls like the main guy.
But in golden time banri is just blander the white bread and kaga is a creepy stalker with pretty much no redeeming qualities... and i'm supposed to root for these characters because?
I don't know how this show could have been better.
well.... if it had focused more on the dual personality thing... and more on linda's sotry instead of just resolving that at the end... and i use the term resolving very loosely.... it just felt like a patch job and honestly do not waste your time on golden time.... Toradora is better... go watch that instead... NISA is dubbig it... get the dub and watch it *nods*
side note: if they dub nastume yuujinchou... i will be so happy.
If you still are curious, you can watch all of golden time for free (except the last ep which will be free next week) on crunchyroll.
other side note: if you ever suffer from a severe MSG sensitivity/allergy or MSG toxicity... get some cream of tartar, mix a little [1/2 tsp to 8 oz] it with water... drink it as fast as you can (the longer it sits the more you can taste the cream of tartar) and then just try and drink water for the rest of the day... i was surprised but it really works, apparently cream of tartar either absorbs or neutralizes msg and makes it easier to get out of your system... yay. It does not taste good though...
Samurai Flamenco finishes tomorrow for some reason... Nagi asu has one more ep... so yay... still sat is going to be busy... see you then.
Also because i can't think straight i'll probably just end up spoiling everything so....
Short version: This isn't very good, Toradora! is much better watch that instead.... this isn't bad but boy is the main love interest creepy/annoying.
Okay onto spoilers~
Tada Banri is an ordinary guy (his name is a pun for just another ordinary guy apparently), he's just started college and makes some new friends quickly, one of his friends is apparently being stalked by a girl named Kaga Koko who has hunted him down to his college and is trying to join all his classes... but he doesn't like stalkers so he does his best to avoid her.
Banri on the other hand thinks she's cute and harmless and tries to get her to be less obsessive but she just uses him as a way to try and get pity for her situation and get closer to the guy.
Throught this they eventually become friends and after getting half kidnapped by a cult Banri lets it slip that he has no memories before the end of highschool because he was in an accident and fell off a bridge.
Hey you know what... a rom com about a boy who is deal with amnesia could be really interesting, it gets to deal with themes of "what is the Self" and we've seen it work well in some films from the 80s... lets see where this goes.
So they (Kaga and Banri) end up escaping the cult, become better friends and come across the traditional dance club who has a girl named Linda in it who has helped banri a few times so far... later we find out that Linda and Banri were best friends in high school and he loved her and the accident happened cause she was late getting to the meeting point and he was hit by a motorcycle.
Anyways... all that stuff about the amnesiac boy having to deal with the fact that he may know people and not recognize them and how that may effect them and all those lovely themes of self i was talking about... well.... toss those out the window for most of the show.
Stuff happens and eventually Banri and Kaga start dating cause apparently they are in love (though theres a bit where he asks her and she sais no but then later she asks him and was like "sorry it was in my plan that i ask you so i had to turn you down before" and i'm sorry but thats REALLY creepy) and then the rest of the show is them being all lovely dovey but kaga screwing up cause she's kinda useless and obsessive.
again theres an ep where they want to go to the beach and banri wants to pay for himself but he can't afford it without getting a job... Kaga doesn't want him to work cause it means they can't be with each other as much... this forces banri to lie about working on an assignment while he goes to a high paying waiter gig.... in the (lets assume) 4-6 hours he was working she leaves him hundreds of textx, calls him a lot and leaves some messages... she even went to his house to check up on him... then she has the audacity to be angry that he lied about working.
i'm sorry... no
no that is stalking, it is creepy... it is not cute
after that episode i actually wrote a rant on why this ep is really creepy and how it disturbs me that she is most likely the one banri will end up with.... but anyways.
Eventually the fact that he has amnesia comes up again and he realizes that as he's gaining mempories from before he's losing the memories he got after the incident.
ooo this could be neat.... how do they screw it up?
By making Kaga the focus.
Hm... okay show... you seem confused... Kaga isn't the main character... Banri is.... this is his story.... so why is all the focus on her and her creepy obsession then sudden dismissal when theres the threat of being forgotten... why should i the viewer care that she finds the anti anxiety meds he's taking... for that matter why does that upset her... it was perscribed by a doctor and he's taking it... whats so bad about that? But by having all the focus being on Kaga's feelings you minimize Banri's story or having an identity crisis and facign the fact that one day the current him may vanish like the old one did. The most intersting arc Kaga has is when she nearly kills everyone by falling asleep at the wheel and havign to deal with the guilt... but that only lasts one episode.
Anyways.... Banri loses himself, goes back home and thinks abotu dropping out of college since he can't remember anything he did while there. Kaga goes to his house to drop off a DVD and he mistakes her for another girl Oka Chinami (who is essentially just a plot device... maybe she has a more important role in the manga?) Kaga doesn't correct him and asks for directions to the bridge he fell off of.
then stuff happened and he remembered her and we are supposed to be happy but.... you know what? No.
Kaga isn't a creepy by the end of the story... but that doesn't change the fact that as a character i really didn't like her. I felt her actions forced and cruel and possessive and creepy and damn near abusive at some points. I would have been fine had the two sets of memories merged and he went back to her and tried to start as friends again.... but no it's just "Hey, I remember you... i love you" and super happy ending.
I just feel like this show is a huge mess of crap happening without a strong plotline to make it cohesive... the amnesia thing could have been more more prevalent and gradual and heart breaking... and these scenes where he switches between the two banri's are the most interesting in the show... but the show is so obsessed with Kaga and his relationship with her and how awkward she is that you don't get the time you need to deal with the heavier subject matter.
So why compare it to Toradora.
Well when i first saw Golden time the first thing i felt was that it had a Toradora vibe (and not just cause the main girl had wavy hair but i'm sure that helped), so i did some research and yeah, it's the same creators.
I honestly couldn't see it in the art causethe anime of Toradora has slanty face syndrome (which is not a bad thing it's just not what i like to see in art but it works for adding more expression) and golden time has these odd lines that make no sense to be but seem to be a stylistic thing.
but then i started reading the toradora manga and yeah... the style is pretty much exactly the same... so yeah thats the connection.
But i have to wonder... what happened?
Yes in toradora Taiga could be really annoying but she had this sweetness to her.... and Ryuji was a very well developed character who had some interesting character traits that you don't usually get from main characters in what is essentially a show where all the girls like the main guy.
But in golden time banri is just blander the white bread and kaga is a creepy stalker with pretty much no redeeming qualities... and i'm supposed to root for these characters because?
I don't know how this show could have been better.
well.... if it had focused more on the dual personality thing... and more on linda's sotry instead of just resolving that at the end... and i use the term resolving very loosely.... it just felt like a patch job and honestly do not waste your time on golden time.... Toradora is better... go watch that instead... NISA is dubbig it... get the dub and watch it *nods*
side note: if they dub nastume yuujinchou... i will be so happy.
If you still are curious, you can watch all of golden time for free (except the last ep which will be free next week) on crunchyroll.
other side note: if you ever suffer from a severe MSG sensitivity/allergy or MSG toxicity... get some cream of tartar, mix a little [1/2 tsp to 8 oz] it with water... drink it as fast as you can (the longer it sits the more you can taste the cream of tartar) and then just try and drink water for the rest of the day... i was surprised but it really works, apparently cream of tartar either absorbs or neutralizes msg and makes it easier to get out of your system... yay. It does not taste good though...
Samurai Flamenco finishes tomorrow for some reason... Nagi asu has one more ep... so yay... still sat is going to be busy... see you then.
Witch craft works
two things before i start.
1. i didn't get to this show till today cause i had plans yesterday so yeah i'll probably be writing 4 of these things today.
2. due to eating food filled with MSG yesterday (cause i'm dumb and didn't think pho would have it) i am very sick today and running a bit of a fever. if my spelling is worse then normal or my sentences don't make sense that is why.
When i first heard about this show it didn't seem like something that would appeal to me. it's a goofy show about all these witches who are after one boy because he has "powerful white stuff inside him"
.... no not that...
the white stuff is the all powerful witch evermillion and yeah everyone wants her power.
then stuff happens.... and it's all pretty goofy and funny and well animated but what sold me on the show was this.
this song made me way too hard the first time i saw and pretty much encapsulates the vibe of the show.
is the show good? it's okay, it's just kind of fluffy fun with some really nice visuals and great character design. I had fun watching it over on Crunchyroll.
will i ever watch again? no
will i be thinking about it after i finish writing this? probably not
but it was a lot of fun and sometimes thats great.
Also when i heard the intro song for the first i got this odd feeling. "why am i getting eccentric family feelings?"
well... cause it's Fhana... who did que sera sera which is still one of my fav songs.
but yeah, it's a fun little 12 episode show and if they ending song makes you laugh as much as i did you should check it out.
1. i didn't get to this show till today cause i had plans yesterday so yeah i'll probably be writing 4 of these things today.
2. due to eating food filled with MSG yesterday (cause i'm dumb and didn't think pho would have it) i am very sick today and running a bit of a fever. if my spelling is worse then normal or my sentences don't make sense that is why.
When i first heard about this show it didn't seem like something that would appeal to me. it's a goofy show about all these witches who are after one boy because he has "powerful white stuff inside him"
.... no not that...
the white stuff is the all powerful witch evermillion and yeah everyone wants her power.
then stuff happens.... and it's all pretty goofy and funny and well animated but what sold me on the show was this.
is the show good? it's okay, it's just kind of fluffy fun with some really nice visuals and great character design. I had fun watching it over on Crunchyroll.
will i ever watch again? no
will i be thinking about it after i finish writing this? probably not
but it was a lot of fun and sometimes thats great.
Also when i heard the intro song for the first i got this odd feeling. "why am i getting eccentric family feelings?"
well... cause it's Fhana... who did que sera sera which is still one of my fav songs.
but yeah, it's a fun little 12 episode show and if they ending song makes you laugh as much as i did you should check it out.
my dinner adventure
Yesterday my friend was part of a ceremony and i was invited along with her family, afterwards she had to stay and finish up some paperwork while i went out to dinner with her family.
"Lets go for Pho" they said.
my immediate reaction was "i like soup... should be good... i've had it once or twice before"
So we get there and yeah, the pho was really tasty.... it had a lot of Cilantro which i don't like but i was able to push most of it aside.
I head home and eventually get to sleep.
This morning:
I feel ill, really ill. I could hardly move without pain going through my entire body.... i felt almost dehydrated and my stomach hated me.... and i was confused cause i wasn't feeling this sick yesterday.
then it hit me... like how could i not see the obvious.
I have been allergic to MSG since i was little... i avoid asian food (in restaurants) because trying to flush it out of my system takes for ever and almost all of them use it.
however i haven't gotten sick from it for about 5 years cause i do not have it in my diet at all... and i completely forgot that pho would most likely have it.
so moral of the story.... i'm a moron.
also fun side story: one time i was with my college friends in an asian grocery store and they offered me some food they bought. "no, i can't, it most likely has msg"
they nodded and said i should ask if it does.... so i did and the response i got was.
"of course it does, you are allergic? you can't be allergic.... it's from nature, it's made from tapioca"
i was flabbergasted by the sheer stupidity of the statement and before i realized i shouldn't be a snarky bitch i blurted out. "you know what else is from nature? Arsenic, Cyanide and hemlock" now at this point i was already commited to telling this woman how wrong she is so... "you say msg is from tapioca? okay thats fine.... but tapioca if it's not processed properly is poisonus so... that argument is wrong too"
needless to say she wasn't happy and i feel bad for being snarky to someone who gets enough shit from working a crappy min wage job... but i can't stand when anyone argues that "it's healthy cause it's from nature"
lots of deadly stuff is from nature... you argument is invalid.
but yeah hopefully i flush all this msg from my system soon... i don't want to be like this for more then a day.
but seriously why does all the yummy food have to use msg... that soup was delicious.... worth the pain? no.... but still good.
"Lets go for Pho" they said.
my immediate reaction was "i like soup... should be good... i've had it once or twice before"
So we get there and yeah, the pho was really tasty.... it had a lot of Cilantro which i don't like but i was able to push most of it aside.
I head home and eventually get to sleep.
This morning:
I feel ill, really ill. I could hardly move without pain going through my entire body.... i felt almost dehydrated and my stomach hated me.... and i was confused cause i wasn't feeling this sick yesterday.
then it hit me... like how could i not see the obvious.
I have been allergic to MSG since i was little... i avoid asian food (in restaurants) because trying to flush it out of my system takes for ever and almost all of them use it.
however i haven't gotten sick from it for about 5 years cause i do not have it in my diet at all... and i completely forgot that pho would most likely have it.
so moral of the story.... i'm a moron.
also fun side story: one time i was with my college friends in an asian grocery store and they offered me some food they bought. "no, i can't, it most likely has msg"
they nodded and said i should ask if it does.... so i did and the response i got was.
"of course it does, you are allergic? you can't be allergic.... it's from nature, it's made from tapioca"
i was flabbergasted by the sheer stupidity of the statement and before i realized i shouldn't be a snarky bitch i blurted out. "you know what else is from nature? Arsenic, Cyanide and hemlock" now at this point i was already commited to telling this woman how wrong she is so... "you say msg is from tapioca? okay thats fine.... but tapioca if it's not processed properly is poisonus so... that argument is wrong too"
needless to say she wasn't happy and i feel bad for being snarky to someone who gets enough shit from working a crappy min wage job... but i can't stand when anyone argues that "it's healthy cause it's from nature"
lots of deadly stuff is from nature... you argument is invalid.
but yeah hopefully i flush all this msg from my system soon... i don't want to be like this for more then a day.
but seriously why does all the yummy food have to use msg... that soup was delicious.... worth the pain? no.... but still good.
Sunday, 23 March 2014
Noragami
This is the only other show i watched Via Funimation instead of Crunchyroll, the entire series should be available for free next sunday, i used my 2 week free trial to finish this a week early.
I have heard some people talk about how terrible this past season has been and i'm sorry but we must have been watching different shows.
Yes there is a lot of fluffy moe crap but on the other hand this season had some really good titles. So many that i can't pick a favourite.
That being said if you really pushed me this would be fighting for the number one spot.
Noragami is a story about a girl, Hiyori, who has an encounter with a god, Yato, and how they change each others lives.
The story deal with themes of life and loss and hard choices and it's all done so well and never feels heavy handed.
The animation is stellar, some of the best animation this season has to offer, it's fluid and expressive and easily pulls of the funny moments as well as the serious ones.
It is only 12 episodes which... kinda sucks cause i was really enjoying it but hey... it could have a season 2 if it wanted... and i'm sure the manga is different (cause of the added character for the anime) so i'll see if anyone picked that up and try to start reading it.
NOW... to address my major biases.
1. I love Shows that have fantasy elements in a modern day setting (i believe the term is 'urban fantasy' but i just heard it recently so i'm not 100% sure if thats the correct term)... i don't know why but i find it fascinating and it's an easy way to earn my love as far as storytelling goes.
2. I can be easily swayed by my ears. If i'm enjoying what i hear i will forgive a lot... there are more then a few shows i watched fully simply cause i enjoyed the music in it.
2.5. The main character in Narogami IS voiced by my favorite voice actor Hiroshi Kamiya... on one hand this lends itself to a fun little head canon where Natsume becomes a lecherous god which makes me giggle... on the other hand it just makes me happy to hear his voice in a slightly more forceful but not evil role.
That all being said... even if it wasn't set in modern day... or even if Hiroshi Kamiya wasn't playing Yato i would more then likely love this show.
The story, the art, the characters and the music are all very good and when Funimation brings this over (i am working under the assumption that whatever Funi simulcasts they also license) it will be the first series i have bought from them in a long time.
If you have the chance watch it (unless you hate the type of show that i just described). In North America you can watch it on Funimation's website but for the rest of the world... i honestly don't know.
Also just for giggles...
Natsume is a good kid, though after years and years of being backstabbed by both friends and yokai he eventually starts holding grudges > Becomes something like orihaya izaya from durarara and just starts messing with people as revenge > eventually gets tired of being an ass and decides to build a school under the name Mephisto from Blue exorcist but can't help but pull a few pranks here and there > Eventually somehow [possibly cause as natsume he was so powerful] ascends to the status of a japanese god of calamity and takes on the name Yato and learns to care for humanity once again.
*takes a bow* i know it's stupid and silly but i enjoy doing random crap like that even though it's all just for fun.
Alright... everything i'm watchign except nisekoi and yowapeda end this week so here is what we are in for.
Monday: Pilots love song
Wednesday: Witch Craft Works
Thursday: Nagi no Asukura, Golden time, Samurai Flamenco
Saturday: Kuroko's Basketball.
Why does everything air on thursday...
I have heard some people talk about how terrible this past season has been and i'm sorry but we must have been watching different shows.
Yes there is a lot of fluffy moe crap but on the other hand this season had some really good titles. So many that i can't pick a favourite.
That being said if you really pushed me this would be fighting for the number one spot.
Noragami is a story about a girl, Hiyori, who has an encounter with a god, Yato, and how they change each others lives.
The story deal with themes of life and loss and hard choices and it's all done so well and never feels heavy handed.
The animation is stellar, some of the best animation this season has to offer, it's fluid and expressive and easily pulls of the funny moments as well as the serious ones.
It is only 12 episodes which... kinda sucks cause i was really enjoying it but hey... it could have a season 2 if it wanted... and i'm sure the manga is different (cause of the added character for the anime) so i'll see if anyone picked that up and try to start reading it.
NOW... to address my major biases.
1. I love Shows that have fantasy elements in a modern day setting (i believe the term is 'urban fantasy' but i just heard it recently so i'm not 100% sure if thats the correct term)... i don't know why but i find it fascinating and it's an easy way to earn my love as far as storytelling goes.
2. I can be easily swayed by my ears. If i'm enjoying what i hear i will forgive a lot... there are more then a few shows i watched fully simply cause i enjoyed the music in it.
2.5. The main character in Narogami IS voiced by my favorite voice actor Hiroshi Kamiya... on one hand this lends itself to a fun little head canon where Natsume becomes a lecherous god which makes me giggle... on the other hand it just makes me happy to hear his voice in a slightly more forceful but not evil role.
That all being said... even if it wasn't set in modern day... or even if Hiroshi Kamiya wasn't playing Yato i would more then likely love this show.
The story, the art, the characters and the music are all very good and when Funimation brings this over (i am working under the assumption that whatever Funi simulcasts they also license) it will be the first series i have bought from them in a long time.
If you have the chance watch it (unless you hate the type of show that i just described). In North America you can watch it on Funimation's website but for the rest of the world... i honestly don't know.
Also just for giggles...
Natsume is a good kid, though after years and years of being backstabbed by both friends and yokai he eventually starts holding grudges > Becomes something like orihaya izaya from durarara and just starts messing with people as revenge > eventually gets tired of being an ass and decides to build a school under the name Mephisto from Blue exorcist but can't help but pull a few pranks here and there > Eventually somehow [possibly cause as natsume he was so powerful] ascends to the status of a japanese god of calamity and takes on the name Yato and learns to care for humanity once again.
*takes a bow* i know it's stupid and silly but i enjoy doing random crap like that even though it's all just for fun.
Alright... everything i'm watchign except nisekoi and yowapeda end this week so here is what we are in for.
Monday: Pilots love song
Wednesday: Witch Craft Works
Thursday: Nagi no Asukura, Golden time, Samurai Flamenco
Saturday: Kuroko's Basketball.
Why does everything air on thursday...
Saturday, 22 March 2014
The Misfortune of Kyon & Koizumi
So when i first heart about this i thought it was just a fan manga/Yaoi and that it had nothing to do with the actual creators.
well i wasn't wrong.... but i wasn't right either.
Misfortune is a bunch of short manga chapters done by quite a few different artist with stories that follow Kyon and Koizumi specifically. (yen press is calling it a Manga Anthology)
I will say While it is not Yaoi you can tell some of the artist ship Kyon/Koizumi more then others... hell one comic is about haruhi wanting Yaoi fanboys in the club but then kyon and koizumi take it the wrong way and hilarity ensues.
Each 'chapter' is different and not connected at all to any other comics (unless they were done by the same artist or referencing what happened in the book)... this is both great cause you get to see another persons interpretation of the world.... and also kinda annoying cause sometimes they get a detail in the plot wrong but hey it's all in good fun. There are a few repeated themes.... in different chapters Koizumi, Kyon and Haruhi all get sick (yeah.... i can't imagine haruhi or kyon getting sick but... hey it's a fun chapter so i guess it's okay)
My favorite chapter is when Kyon and koizumi switch bodies... it's only a few pages long but i'd love to see an entire plotline dedicated to that.... and whether Kyon would now have esper powers since he's in the espers body.... i dunno it just seems like a fun idea.
But yeah most surprising of all is that this is being published as part of the series, just little side stories (not canon technically but still)... if you like Kyon or koizumi then this is a really fun read.... if you hate them then yeah you miss nothing by avoiding it.
Koizumi used to be my least fav (until i read the book) but this did make me enjoy him a bit more... especially one chapter where he can see himself and he's so embarrassed about how goofy he is.... it's great and it adds to the whole (mild spoilers) how he acts around haruhi is just an act and he's actually much different.
In the end though i still prefer the light novels to the manga in general... you really get in kyon's head and since he was my favorite character it just works. but this was still a lot of fun...
I may eventually get the Haruhi suzumiya manga but honestly i do own 7 vols of it and i just have a hard time getting into it... no idea why.
well i wasn't wrong.... but i wasn't right either.
Misfortune is a bunch of short manga chapters done by quite a few different artist with stories that follow Kyon and Koizumi specifically. (yen press is calling it a Manga Anthology)
I will say While it is not Yaoi you can tell some of the artist ship Kyon/Koizumi more then others... hell one comic is about haruhi wanting Yaoi fanboys in the club but then kyon and koizumi take it the wrong way and hilarity ensues.
Each 'chapter' is different and not connected at all to any other comics (unless they were done by the same artist or referencing what happened in the book)... this is both great cause you get to see another persons interpretation of the world.... and also kinda annoying cause sometimes they get a detail in the plot wrong but hey it's all in good fun. There are a few repeated themes.... in different chapters Koizumi, Kyon and Haruhi all get sick (yeah.... i can't imagine haruhi or kyon getting sick but... hey it's a fun chapter so i guess it's okay)
My favorite chapter is when Kyon and koizumi switch bodies... it's only a few pages long but i'd love to see an entire plotline dedicated to that.... and whether Kyon would now have esper powers since he's in the espers body.... i dunno it just seems like a fun idea.
But yeah most surprising of all is that this is being published as part of the series, just little side stories (not canon technically but still)... if you like Kyon or koizumi then this is a really fun read.... if you hate them then yeah you miss nothing by avoiding it.
Koizumi used to be my least fav (until i read the book) but this did make me enjoy him a bit more... especially one chapter where he can see himself and he's so embarrassed about how goofy he is.... it's great and it adds to the whole (mild spoilers) how he acts around haruhi is just an act and he's actually much different.
In the end though i still prefer the light novels to the manga in general... you really get in kyon's head and since he was my favorite character it just works. but this was still a lot of fun...
I may eventually get the Haruhi suzumiya manga but honestly i do own 7 vols of it and i just have a hard time getting into it... no idea why.
Thursday, 20 March 2014
Heart of the Ocean -From Start to Finish-
So as my arm heals i've been trying to draw more and more, most things don't make it past the sketch stage but at least i feel like i'm not just sitting around waiting to get better (or more accurately waiting for my appointment to see if it's carpel tunnel in my neck/wrist or not)
I've mentioned it a few times but my favorite pose to do is actually the back towards vewier pose. it's a lot of fun to draw and can be very pretty.
so i did this.
hm.... not feeling it.
but i did want to update the design of this particular character so i waited a few days and tried again.
hm well... it's better... still not in love but i'll try inking it and see if i play around with the details i'll enjoy it more.
Now when i start any picture i flip it horizontlly first to see if (for the most part) things make sense but also to see if it would be better facing the other way.
For piece like this where there is no ground i add the step of rotating the canvas just incase there is a more dynamic piece possible.
In this case there was so i went with that.
It has been a while since i have drawn any mermaids (mostly cause i was just a bit burnt out on them and needed a breather) so i was a bit worried that i wouldn't finish this.
Day 1:
I finished the lineart which ended up with quite a few different details.
Day 2:
After finishing the flat colour i figured why not call it a day, give my wrist a rest... i had gotten quite a bit done in a short time frame (about an hour?).
but after about an hours break my internet gave me a lovely little notification.
"you have used 75% of your allowed bandwidth for the month"
it was the 19th.... crap.
So after setting my brother up with lots of things to do that kept him off the internet... i looked at my computer and had a little cry.
I knew at least until my family called the company to deal with it i had to reduce most of my internet time.
well apparently the best thing to make yourself productive is to stay way from the internet. who would have guessed?
in another hour or two i managed to get most of the piece done.
But then my wrist told me to stop so i couldn't actually do the finishing touches... i did mass around with things like colour though just so i felt like i was still working.
Later that night my family calls them and their response is. "oh if you want to upgrade to unlimited bandwidth it's only another 10 dollars"
so essentially we had been dealing with doing our best to conserve bandwidth when for a measly 10 bucks more we wouldn't have to? i wouldn't have to worry about streaming and hell could even potentially do some live streaming myself?
it never occured to them and call us to tell us about this offer... that would have been too kind... no instead they wanted us to go over and get us to pay the freakishly high overcharge fee.
anyways.
Day 3:
more fussing and fiddling and after another 30 mins it's finaly done... yay~
I wanted to give her a more scaly look but it wasn't working out so i tried some other methods.
So yeah this is Mizu (name will probably change cause when i was 13 i couldn't name things very well) My water elemental with the heart of the ocean which is under her care.
I may do the other 5 elementals like this (3 stil lhave stupid names though) but who knows... i tend to say i'll do things and then... yeah i just don't.
Anyways i hope you enjoy this, you can see it and some of my sketches over at Patreon.
Otherwise thanks for stopping by.
I've mentioned it a few times but my favorite pose to do is actually the back towards vewier pose. it's a lot of fun to draw and can be very pretty.
so i did this.
but i did want to update the design of this particular character so i waited a few days and tried again.
Now when i start any picture i flip it horizontlly first to see if (for the most part) things make sense but also to see if it would be better facing the other way.
For piece like this where there is no ground i add the step of rotating the canvas just incase there is a more dynamic piece possible.
In this case there was so i went with that.
It has been a while since i have drawn any mermaids (mostly cause i was just a bit burnt out on them and needed a breather) so i was a bit worried that i wouldn't finish this.
Day 1:
I finished the lineart which ended up with quite a few different details.
Day 2:
After finishing the flat colour i figured why not call it a day, give my wrist a rest... i had gotten quite a bit done in a short time frame (about an hour?).
"you have used 75% of your allowed bandwidth for the month"
it was the 19th.... crap.
So after setting my brother up with lots of things to do that kept him off the internet... i looked at my computer and had a little cry.
I knew at least until my family called the company to deal with it i had to reduce most of my internet time.
well apparently the best thing to make yourself productive is to stay way from the internet. who would have guessed?
in another hour or two i managed to get most of the piece done.
But then my wrist told me to stop so i couldn't actually do the finishing touches... i did mass around with things like colour though just so i felt like i was still working.
Later that night my family calls them and their response is. "oh if you want to upgrade to unlimited bandwidth it's only another 10 dollars"
so essentially we had been dealing with doing our best to conserve bandwidth when for a measly 10 bucks more we wouldn't have to? i wouldn't have to worry about streaming and hell could even potentially do some live streaming myself?
it never occured to them and call us to tell us about this offer... that would have been too kind... no instead they wanted us to go over and get us to pay the freakishly high overcharge fee.
anyways.
Day 3:
more fussing and fiddling and after another 30 mins it's finaly done... yay~
I wanted to give her a more scaly look but it wasn't working out so i tried some other methods.
I may do the other 5 elementals like this (3 stil lhave stupid names though) but who knows... i tend to say i'll do things and then... yeah i just don't.
Anyways i hope you enjoy this, you can see it and some of my sketches over at Patreon.
Otherwise thanks for stopping by.
Wednesday, 19 March 2014
Inari Kon Kon
i am a little surprised that this show is only 10 episodes... i was expecting a couple more.
So, most of the shows i talk about are from crunchyroll because up until recently Funimation would not work for me... at first it was because they used Hulu which doens't have licensing rights in Canada... and then after they switched their player just wouldn't load videos.
However now it seems like whatever the problem was it's been fixed (for me at least, my friend stil lcan't get it to work?) ... yay. Unlike crunchy i wont be getting a subscription (yet) if only because they don't have enough titles to warrant the 8 bucks a month (especially with the CAD being at .90 right now so it's closer to 9 buck+exchange fee)... there back catalog is very big but yeah... not a lot of titles look interesting to me (for the moment)
So why was i watching this title? Well... Noragami is on Funimation.... spoilers: noragami is probably one of my fav shows this season (a line you are going to see more then once in the upcoming weeks) and i felt bad that i was only watching the one thing now that funimation was working for me.
so i tried out a few more simulcasts and this was the only one that didn't seem to..... fanservicy.
The story is about a girl who feels unable to do anything. If only she could be this other girl who is pretty and popular and able to speak to the boy she likes with ease. The god of the shrine the girl often visits gives her the chance to make any wish.
She wishes to become the other girl... but it doesn't take long for her to realize that just because you look like someone else it doesn't change the fact that you are still you on the inside.
She goes back to say "sorry nevermind take my wish back" only to have the god explain that she can't, granting two wishes to a human is playing favoritism and is against the rules.
Now pause a second, so far i am in love with the premise of "be careful what you wish for" and i was hoping for a bit of a body switch story and that they would have to work together to try and get back to their original form. I love these kinds of stories.
But then...
Instead the god says "well we'll give you some of our divine power which will allow you to transform into any living creature you want"
. . . awwww.... i got my hopes up for nothing.
so then we get a lot of filler about how humans can't really handle divine power and how the god was stupid to give the girl some and how when she gets the power back the girl wont be able to see her and it will be sad... yeah thats great and all but....
at the same time we get this side story abotu the girls brother and how he can see the god without any special power and how he actualyl kinda hates her.
Pause... okay so this is going to be a story about how they help each other out despite the mortal vs immortal differences and then they will come to respect and eventually love each other? then it'll be all tragic when the mortal shows his mortality... okay this can be fun.
NOPE.... instead we find out that the god is a fan of gaming... specifically dating sims.
and they play games together and he's all tsundere the entire time "it's not like i asked you to come play games... idiot"
they do fall in love but it never really goes anywhere.
theres also another side story of the pretty girl the main character originally transformed into actually likes another girl.
a cute premise that again... goes nowhere.
anyways the point of the show is the story of a girl gorwing up and takign responsibilities for her actions.
but it could have been so much more.
If the story was focused on any other character this could have been great but Inari is just.... kinda bland.
something bad happens, she subconsciously uses the power to deal with it, feels guilty, takes responsibility for her actions.
this happens every time.
even her brother finding out she has divine power is played up as "omg he's gunna be so mad" but then it happens and he's just "i am upset at you but i wont do anything about it"
The show is cute, well animated, good music but the story is just... blah... i was really hoping that more would happen, or that there would be a point to something.
this story would have played out the exact same way had she never met the god and gotten the power... she would have become friends with the girl she was jealous of, she would have gotten more courage to talk to the boy she likes and she would have continued to grow as a person.
I do like the show and it is very short but this season has so many good shows theres no point in watching unless you just want some cute fluffy stuff... and theres nothing wrong with that.
Intro song is catchy as hell.
(also i am reviewing this this week and not next cause i used the 14 day free trial so... yay... Noragami should be this sunday i believe)
Inari Kon Kon will be availble completely for free next week (March 26) so give it a try if you think it sounds fun.
So, most of the shows i talk about are from crunchyroll because up until recently Funimation would not work for me... at first it was because they used Hulu which doens't have licensing rights in Canada... and then after they switched their player just wouldn't load videos.
However now it seems like whatever the problem was it's been fixed (for me at least, my friend stil lcan't get it to work?) ... yay. Unlike crunchy i wont be getting a subscription (yet) if only because they don't have enough titles to warrant the 8 bucks a month (especially with the CAD being at .90 right now so it's closer to 9 buck+exchange fee)... there back catalog is very big but yeah... not a lot of titles look interesting to me (for the moment)
So why was i watching this title? Well... Noragami is on Funimation.... spoilers: noragami is probably one of my fav shows this season (a line you are going to see more then once in the upcoming weeks) and i felt bad that i was only watching the one thing now that funimation was working for me.
so i tried out a few more simulcasts and this was the only one that didn't seem to..... fanservicy.
The story is about a girl who feels unable to do anything. If only she could be this other girl who is pretty and popular and able to speak to the boy she likes with ease. The god of the shrine the girl often visits gives her the chance to make any wish.
She wishes to become the other girl... but it doesn't take long for her to realize that just because you look like someone else it doesn't change the fact that you are still you on the inside.
She goes back to say "sorry nevermind take my wish back" only to have the god explain that she can't, granting two wishes to a human is playing favoritism and is against the rules.
Now pause a second, so far i am in love with the premise of "be careful what you wish for" and i was hoping for a bit of a body switch story and that they would have to work together to try and get back to their original form. I love these kinds of stories.
But then...
Instead the god says "well we'll give you some of our divine power which will allow you to transform into any living creature you want"
. . . awwww.... i got my hopes up for nothing.
so then we get a lot of filler about how humans can't really handle divine power and how the god was stupid to give the girl some and how when she gets the power back the girl wont be able to see her and it will be sad... yeah thats great and all but....
at the same time we get this side story abotu the girls brother and how he can see the god without any special power and how he actualyl kinda hates her.
Pause... okay so this is going to be a story about how they help each other out despite the mortal vs immortal differences and then they will come to respect and eventually love each other? then it'll be all tragic when the mortal shows his mortality... okay this can be fun.
NOPE.... instead we find out that the god is a fan of gaming... specifically dating sims.
and they play games together and he's all tsundere the entire time "it's not like i asked you to come play games... idiot"
they do fall in love but it never really goes anywhere.
theres also another side story of the pretty girl the main character originally transformed into actually likes another girl.
a cute premise that again... goes nowhere.
anyways the point of the show is the story of a girl gorwing up and takign responsibilities for her actions.
but it could have been so much more.
If the story was focused on any other character this could have been great but Inari is just.... kinda bland.
something bad happens, she subconsciously uses the power to deal with it, feels guilty, takes responsibility for her actions.
this happens every time.
even her brother finding out she has divine power is played up as "omg he's gunna be so mad" but then it happens and he's just "i am upset at you but i wont do anything about it"
The show is cute, well animated, good music but the story is just... blah... i was really hoping that more would happen, or that there would be a point to something.
this story would have played out the exact same way had she never met the god and gotten the power... she would have become friends with the girl she was jealous of, she would have gotten more courage to talk to the boy she likes and she would have continued to grow as a person.
I do like the show and it is very short but this season has so many good shows theres no point in watching unless you just want some cute fluffy stuff... and theres nothing wrong with that.
Intro song is catchy as hell.
(also i am reviewing this this week and not next cause i used the 14 day free trial so... yay... Noragami should be this sunday i believe)
Inari Kon Kon will be availble completely for free next week (March 26) so give it a try if you think it sounds fun.
Monday, 17 March 2014
Blast of Tempest
so when i bought blue exorcist on sale i also got blast of tempest which was a decent price... not as cheap as blue exorcist but i really enjoyed the show and yeah... 12-13 episodes for around 50 bucks is within my threshold of reasonable prices... even though it's sub only, has no extras and minimal packaging.
Rewatching the show was great, it's like if the themes of Hamlet and the tempest had a baby that just happened to be an anime. it still kills me that essentially 4 episodes consists of them standing around and talking and it works perfectly.
The music is great.
the Animation is stunning (though if nothing else everything aniplex touches tends to be pretty)
Though theres this sense of foreboding deja-vu... and it took me a while to figure out why.
Still i wanna talk abotu the show before i talk about why i feelon edge.
The show is hard to describe so i'll just say Yoshino and Mahiro get dragged into a situation simply because of one 'co-incidence' that connects them to the larger plot. in the end will it be like hamlet or the tempest?
Also that love sucks and Shakespeare is a bit of an ass.
I love the character designs, i love how the plot is ever evolving (even though that's why it's so hard to sum up) i am really happy i own this but.... i have to talk about the DVD.
So when you first put it in, it immediately goes into the show.... i know some people prefer this but i like it going to a menu first since i often just want one ep at a time... and besides going into the show immediate give off this almost amateur feeling... considering it's what dvds used to do when they were first made and people didn't know what was the best format.
When you do get to the menu it's pretty bare bones.
Play
Chapters
Subtitles on/off.
on the first disk of each set you also get extras which consist of Textless songs and trailers.
Now had this been my first Aniplex dvd i would have just thought "okay so menu design isn't their strong suit" but it's not.
Blue exorcist has some pretty nice Menu design, it's interesting to look at and has great music as well as having a fairly nice layout... also it goes to the menu before playing the show.
you know who else massively downgraded their menu design and completely cut out special features? Geneon and ADV.
How do i know this is a downgrade?
Blue exorcist came out a few years ago (i would guess 2009 or 2010...)
Blast of tempest just released... like... the second half had been out for less then a month.
The songs also do not have romanji or english translations either... again a bit of a downgrade considering blue exorcist did. Now this always pisses me off cause when i buy a dvd i want the songs translated cause it adds another layer to the show but hey... whatever.
But still theres more.
The first half has a nice almost metallic pattern on the disk... but the second half just repeats those same patterns minus the metallic.
it just feels like cost saving measures to me... which is "fine" (except the not translating everything... that just feels lazy) but it is the same kind of stuff i have seen two other companies do... and those companies aren't around anymore... and the fact that they price their stuff well out of the market... yeah that doesn't help.
Do i think aniplex is in trouble? not really, they are a huge company with a lot of great shows and considering the foothold they have in japan they are not going anywhere... i just wont be surprised if they pull a Bandai and give up on the north american market and let other companies like NISA license everything. The problem is that their pricing model is not viable in a north american market... and fun fact, cutting corners while keeping your price the same is not the best way to make money.
But the question is... is the show worth it?dvd quality aside
that depends...
For the 75+ per 13 eps suggested retail price.... no, absolutely not... never
for the 50-60 sale price most people are selling for... maybe... watch it on crunchyroll for free first and then decided.
if possible wait for it to drop to 40-50 cause... well a sub only show with no special features and minimal packaging tends to go for that much in our current market so it would be unfair to expect less.. however aniplex doens't tend to drop their prices... so you may be waiting a while.
I do love this show though... I'm just curious to see if this leads anywhere... or if i'm worrying over nothing.
Rewatching the show was great, it's like if the themes of Hamlet and the tempest had a baby that just happened to be an anime. it still kills me that essentially 4 episodes consists of them standing around and talking and it works perfectly.
The music is great.
the Animation is stunning (though if nothing else everything aniplex touches tends to be pretty)
Though theres this sense of foreboding deja-vu... and it took me a while to figure out why.
Still i wanna talk abotu the show before i talk about why i feelon edge.
The show is hard to describe so i'll just say Yoshino and Mahiro get dragged into a situation simply because of one 'co-incidence' that connects them to the larger plot. in the end will it be like hamlet or the tempest?
Also that love sucks and Shakespeare is a bit of an ass.
I love the character designs, i love how the plot is ever evolving (even though that's why it's so hard to sum up) i am really happy i own this but.... i have to talk about the DVD.
So when you first put it in, it immediately goes into the show.... i know some people prefer this but i like it going to a menu first since i often just want one ep at a time... and besides going into the show immediate give off this almost amateur feeling... considering it's what dvds used to do when they were first made and people didn't know what was the best format.
When you do get to the menu it's pretty bare bones.
Play
Chapters
Subtitles on/off.
on the first disk of each set you also get extras which consist of Textless songs and trailers.
Now had this been my first Aniplex dvd i would have just thought "okay so menu design isn't their strong suit" but it's not.
Blue exorcist has some pretty nice Menu design, it's interesting to look at and has great music as well as having a fairly nice layout... also it goes to the menu before playing the show.
you know who else massively downgraded their menu design and completely cut out special features? Geneon and ADV.
How do i know this is a downgrade?
Blue exorcist came out a few years ago (i would guess 2009 or 2010...)
Blast of tempest just released... like... the second half had been out for less then a month.
The songs also do not have romanji or english translations either... again a bit of a downgrade considering blue exorcist did. Now this always pisses me off cause when i buy a dvd i want the songs translated cause it adds another layer to the show but hey... whatever.
But still theres more.
The first half has a nice almost metallic pattern on the disk... but the second half just repeats those same patterns minus the metallic.
it just feels like cost saving measures to me... which is "fine" (except the not translating everything... that just feels lazy) but it is the same kind of stuff i have seen two other companies do... and those companies aren't around anymore... and the fact that they price their stuff well out of the market... yeah that doesn't help.
Do i think aniplex is in trouble? not really, they are a huge company with a lot of great shows and considering the foothold they have in japan they are not going anywhere... i just wont be surprised if they pull a Bandai and give up on the north american market and let other companies like NISA license everything. The problem is that their pricing model is not viable in a north american market... and fun fact, cutting corners while keeping your price the same is not the best way to make money.
But the question is... is the show worth it?dvd quality aside
that depends...
For the 75+ per 13 eps suggested retail price.... no, absolutely not... never
for the 50-60 sale price most people are selling for... maybe... watch it on crunchyroll for free first and then decided.
if possible wait for it to drop to 40-50 cause... well a sub only show with no special features and minimal packaging tends to go for that much in our current market so it would be unfair to expect less.. however aniplex doens't tend to drop their prices... so you may be waiting a while.
I do love this show though... I'm just curious to see if this leads anywhere... or if i'm worrying over nothing.
Wednesday, 12 March 2014
Oleander -From Start to Finish-
it's been a while since i;ve shown my process work... so time to get back into that habit.
First off I want to mention that i have a love hate relationship with flowers, i love drawing them and i love using things like the langugae of flowers or colour to add more depth to a piece but when i have to actually render the flowers... i quickly begin to despise them.
so thats why there are so many pictures of mine that have flowers but the gaps between these pictures are large cause i forget why i hate flowers... cause i tend to go over the top.
This time... oh boy did i go over the top.
So i did a quick sketch and this is what went through my head.
I wanna draw a bust with flowers...
I wanna draw Niut, probably one of my more miserable characters considering everything she touches ages rapidly.
most flowers have positive meanings cause society has an obsession with not acknowledging negative things....
still better look.
narrow it down to 6 flowers that fit, pick two that also have the added proerty of being poisonus.
go to town with drawing way too many stupid flowers.
The smaller flowers are Purple Hyacinth which means I am Sorry, please forgive me. also apparently the bulbs are poisonous to the touch
At least according to this site
So great... i have a sketch (which i haven't been able to do for a while cause of my stupid injury), i have some symbolism that makes me happy and if no one else gets it then thats fine too... now i just have to ink and colour~ shouldn't take too long.
Day 1:
got all the inking and flat colour done in one day? i must be on a roll... this should be done in no time!
Day 2:
those stupid flowers.... they took all day... (approx 2-3 hours of work) and now i can't hold my tablet pen anymore.... i hate you flowers... i hate you so much...
Day 3:
I was worried since i still couldn't feel my hand that i would have to wait a few days before working on the last two layers but eventually i got feeling back and was able to finish... and here is the final product.
and yeah... i had a lot of fun with it, i am in a lot of pain right now but i don't care... i miss drawing and i haven't be able to much lately... so it felt so good to work on this.
I hope you enjoy it and you can also see it over on my Patreon and Deviantart pages.
First off I want to mention that i have a love hate relationship with flowers, i love drawing them and i love using things like the langugae of flowers or colour to add more depth to a piece but when i have to actually render the flowers... i quickly begin to despise them.
so thats why there are so many pictures of mine that have flowers but the gaps between these pictures are large cause i forget why i hate flowers... cause i tend to go over the top.
This time... oh boy did i go over the top.
So i did a quick sketch and this is what went through my head.
I wanna draw a bust with flowers...
I wanna draw Niut, probably one of my more miserable characters considering everything she touches ages rapidly.
most flowers have positive meanings cause society has an obsession with not acknowledging negative things....
still better look.
narrow it down to 6 flowers that fit, pick two that also have the added proerty of being poisonus.
go to town with drawing way too many stupid flowers.
hm it's funky but i can fix it later...
so the flowers are Oleander (aka Nerium) in the language of flowers they mean caution and through more research i also found that every aspect of them is considered poisonousThe smaller flowers are Purple Hyacinth which means I am Sorry, please forgive me. also apparently the bulbs are poisonous to the touch
At least according to this site
So great... i have a sketch (which i haven't been able to do for a while cause of my stupid injury), i have some symbolism that makes me happy and if no one else gets it then thats fine too... now i just have to ink and colour~ shouldn't take too long.
Day 1:
Day 2:
Day 3:
I was worried since i still couldn't feel my hand that i would have to wait a few days before working on the last two layers but eventually i got feeling back and was able to finish... and here is the final product.
I hope you enjoy it and you can also see it over on my Patreon and Deviantart pages.
Saturday, 8 March 2014
Project Diva F - Vita
I may not mention it but I happen to really enjoy rhythm games.
I've been playing DDR since my friend introduced it to me after i moved here. i've played a little rock band and garage hero (though those weren't my cup of tea since i didn't know any of the music... which is it's whole other ball of sad that we wont get into right now) and back in 2009 when the original Project Diva came out for the psp i actually imported it.
while i wouldn't consider myself a vocaloid fan i do enjoy quite a few of the songs since my friends always tend to show me the better ones. The first p.diva had enough of the songs i liked in order to get to to take the risk of potentially owning a crappy rhythm game.
but the original p.diva is really good, theres a bit of lag between the button presses during the faster songs but that tended to work more in your favor. Yes the game could pretty much exclusively be played one handed (right or left, both sides work exactly the same) but that didn't bug me since it was fun and it was fairly challenging. It only when to Hard but the songs were fun enough that i didn't care.
The problem with the p.diva series is that they are always releasing a new version... and importing games is not cheap.... so i didn't get another p.diva game till about 2 years ago. Project diva extend which is a follow up to Project diva 2nd but done more as a greatest hits so it had some songs from the first two games as well as having a few new songs.
boy had a lot changed in 3 years.
now there were arrows that forced you to push the two correct buttons at the same time. sounds easy? eventualyl but at first it's one hell of a learning curve. it also added extreme difficulty which you think would be harder but not really... at least not for how my brain works.. . i can't explain it so lets let someone who's much better at the game show it off, i didn't make these videos and if your curious about seeing more p.diva footage i suggest going over to their youtube channels.
notice how all the buttons tend to be grouped by type, that means hitting the same button over and over which kills my wrist pretty quick.... however extreme...
it changes up a lot more which at first is a learning curve but once you get it... it's just so much fun i cannot even begin to describe it.
and yeah i picked that song cause it's my favourite, just way too fun.
so when project diva f originally released i tried it cause a friend of mine imported and oh great another learning curve.
The Vita has two touch screens... front and back. theres a new star note that involved moving you finger (they call it scratching) on the touch pad in time.
In theory this is a natural progression for this series and adds even more depth to a surprisingly deep rhythm game.
in execution i have a few issues with it.
I'm not saying i don't like the mechanic.... i'm just saying i could rarely time the back touch pad to work (yes i had it set to on i just couldn't get the timing/i have really small hands so shifting in time to scratch always felt awkward) and whne i switched to using the front touch screen sometimes i would accidently cover up a button prompt and have to scrambl to move my hand back in place... and at first i still had an issue of figuring out what the timing was cause it's not like a tap... you have to move and the move has to register.
luckily most of the star sections (at least on hard) are grouped so that makes it easier but still i hope by F 2nd that the mechanic is refined just a little... i know there are 'double scratches' now and.... yeah i'm a little worried.
anyways i've rambled and i've barely talked about the game.
Project Diva F (Vita) is a rhythm game where you hit the face buttons according to the time, you start off with 5 song and as you beat them you unlock more and more.
Unlike other rhythm games you can finish a song and still fail, if each song is graded out of 100% if you get any lower then a 75 or 80 (can't remember which) then you fail the song. you can ear either Standard, Great, Excellent or perfect scores in order to unlock more content.
Music isn't the only unlockable content.
you can unlock Costumes or accessories for the different vocaloids to dance with .
There are four difficulties.
Easy, Normal Hard and extreme... already explained hard and extreme so i'll just take a moment to mention normal. when you first start the songs are only unlocked at easy and normal... you have to beat them on normal to unlock hard and you have to beat them on hard to unlock extreme.
on one hand this is a pain for people who have played the game before and just wanna jump into the more difficult songs but honestly it's a great way to get everyone used to the new mechanics that each game implements.
Normal songs only focus on two buttons + new mechanic
Hard focuses on all the buttons but keeps them grouped
extreme focuses more on the beat and mixing all the buttons around.
i dunno what easy is like cause... well it didn't force me to play it so i didn't. i may go back just cause beating it may unlock costumes or titles but yeah... right now i just wanna have fun.
Now, needless to say, if you can't stand vocaloids then this game is not for you, the music the produce is an acquired taste and even though i tend to like them overall there are still some songs in this game that make me want to rip my ears off.
you don't need to know all the songs going in but knowing he beat does help a lot... even on easy i failed a few times simply cause the song did something i wasn't expecting.
There are also technical zones where if you can keep your combo going for a certain length of time you get more points, and Chance time where if you succeed you change the music video slightly.
from what i can tell this game and it's PS3 port are identical... the ps3 version just has updated graphics and instead of scratching the touch pad you can also move the analog stick... and yes even though in north america the ps3 version came first the vita version was the original.
The good
I like it, i think for such a simple concept it is a fairly deep and challenging rhythm game. If you want to customize the character with outfits or wings or animal ears you can but it is completely optional... i tend to customize them cause it helps give a sense of them fitting more in with the music video thats in the background.
if you don't wanna play the game you can just watch the music video, considering how they were done in the original project diva they have come a long way and some are really impressive.
there weren't any moment where the game slowed down or there was lag so... thats a nice improvement over older versions.
There a lot of songs and not a single repeated from a previous game (except levan polka which is the tutorial song but it doesn't count)
all the costumes are new too which is neat i guess.
The not so good.
In previous games notes were rarely stacked ontop of each other... it happened but it was rare. it happens a few times in this game and for me it's just hard to read for timing.
Some of the music videos in the back are either distracting or too similar in colour to the buttons again making some bits harder to read.
Star buttons could be a little more sensitive since there was more then one onstant of me knowing i got the timing right but it didn't register.
Technical zones.... ugh i do not do well under pressure and the fastest way for me to break combos is to give me a timer that sais "ha ha you can't fail... but you know you're gunna so i'll just count down till you do"
The bad
people like to say this game is creepy cause of the diva room aspect, i wouldn't know i never opened it... i don't consider it part of the game since it really serves no purpose and i'm here for a rhythm game. but still i'll mark it as a negative simple cause it doesn't need to exist in the game and that memory space could be used for something like more songs or costumes.
Also sadistic music factory is probably the worst vocaloid song i've ever heard... in my personal opinion...
All in all, yeah i enjoy this series, it is a DL only (29.99) game but the fact that it came out at all here is nothing short of a miracle. I look forward to playing the persona version which literally looks like this game but with persona characters.
However it is not for everyone and if you can't stand the game i completely understand, but if your curious then give it a shot... i think it's a lot of fun at least.
Edit:
Normally i don't buy DLC but out of the 6 songs 4 looked pretty fun so i coughed up the money.
is it worth it? depends... check the songs on youtube and if you think they sound crappy then don't bother.
however now i can't say sadistic music factory is the worst song in the game...
Rin chan now is the worst song. at least in my opinion.
the dlc songs do feel a bt more challenging but it's all good.
also i've played more extreme songs and i am feeling "well i guess these are some songs i'll never beat" hopefully i get better soon but it feels like alternating sides isn't working... which throws my old strategy out the window.
but yeah... dlc is fun but check that you like the songs before you buy.
I've been playing DDR since my friend introduced it to me after i moved here. i've played a little rock band and garage hero (though those weren't my cup of tea since i didn't know any of the music... which is it's whole other ball of sad that we wont get into right now) and back in 2009 when the original Project Diva came out for the psp i actually imported it.
while i wouldn't consider myself a vocaloid fan i do enjoy quite a few of the songs since my friends always tend to show me the better ones. The first p.diva had enough of the songs i liked in order to get to to take the risk of potentially owning a crappy rhythm game.
but the original p.diva is really good, theres a bit of lag between the button presses during the faster songs but that tended to work more in your favor. Yes the game could pretty much exclusively be played one handed (right or left, both sides work exactly the same) but that didn't bug me since it was fun and it was fairly challenging. It only when to Hard but the songs were fun enough that i didn't care.
The problem with the p.diva series is that they are always releasing a new version... and importing games is not cheap.... so i didn't get another p.diva game till about 2 years ago. Project diva extend which is a follow up to Project diva 2nd but done more as a greatest hits so it had some songs from the first two games as well as having a few new songs.
boy had a lot changed in 3 years.
now there were arrows that forced you to push the two correct buttons at the same time. sounds easy? eventualyl but at first it's one hell of a learning curve. it also added extreme difficulty which you think would be harder but not really... at least not for how my brain works.. . i can't explain it so lets let someone who's much better at the game show it off, i didn't make these videos and if your curious about seeing more p.diva footage i suggest going over to their youtube channels.
and yeah i picked that song cause it's my favourite, just way too fun.
so when project diva f originally released i tried it cause a friend of mine imported and oh great another learning curve.
The Vita has two touch screens... front and back. theres a new star note that involved moving you finger (they call it scratching) on the touch pad in time.
In theory this is a natural progression for this series and adds even more depth to a surprisingly deep rhythm game.
in execution i have a few issues with it.
I'm not saying i don't like the mechanic.... i'm just saying i could rarely time the back touch pad to work (yes i had it set to on i just couldn't get the timing/i have really small hands so shifting in time to scratch always felt awkward) and whne i switched to using the front touch screen sometimes i would accidently cover up a button prompt and have to scrambl to move my hand back in place... and at first i still had an issue of figuring out what the timing was cause it's not like a tap... you have to move and the move has to register.
luckily most of the star sections (at least on hard) are grouped so that makes it easier but still i hope by F 2nd that the mechanic is refined just a little... i know there are 'double scratches' now and.... yeah i'm a little worried.
anyways i've rambled and i've barely talked about the game.
Project Diva F (Vita) is a rhythm game where you hit the face buttons according to the time, you start off with 5 song and as you beat them you unlock more and more.
Unlike other rhythm games you can finish a song and still fail, if each song is graded out of 100% if you get any lower then a 75 or 80 (can't remember which) then you fail the song. you can ear either Standard, Great, Excellent or perfect scores in order to unlock more content.
Music isn't the only unlockable content.
you can unlock Costumes or accessories for the different vocaloids to dance with .
There are four difficulties.
Easy, Normal Hard and extreme... already explained hard and extreme so i'll just take a moment to mention normal. when you first start the songs are only unlocked at easy and normal... you have to beat them on normal to unlock hard and you have to beat them on hard to unlock extreme.
on one hand this is a pain for people who have played the game before and just wanna jump into the more difficult songs but honestly it's a great way to get everyone used to the new mechanics that each game implements.
Normal songs only focus on two buttons + new mechanic
Hard focuses on all the buttons but keeps them grouped
extreme focuses more on the beat and mixing all the buttons around.
i dunno what easy is like cause... well it didn't force me to play it so i didn't. i may go back just cause beating it may unlock costumes or titles but yeah... right now i just wanna have fun.
Now, needless to say, if you can't stand vocaloids then this game is not for you, the music the produce is an acquired taste and even though i tend to like them overall there are still some songs in this game that make me want to rip my ears off.
you don't need to know all the songs going in but knowing he beat does help a lot... even on easy i failed a few times simply cause the song did something i wasn't expecting.
There are also technical zones where if you can keep your combo going for a certain length of time you get more points, and Chance time where if you succeed you change the music video slightly.
from what i can tell this game and it's PS3 port are identical... the ps3 version just has updated graphics and instead of scratching the touch pad you can also move the analog stick... and yes even though in north america the ps3 version came first the vita version was the original.
The good
I like it, i think for such a simple concept it is a fairly deep and challenging rhythm game. If you want to customize the character with outfits or wings or animal ears you can but it is completely optional... i tend to customize them cause it helps give a sense of them fitting more in with the music video thats in the background.
if you don't wanna play the game you can just watch the music video, considering how they were done in the original project diva they have come a long way and some are really impressive.
there weren't any moment where the game slowed down or there was lag so... thats a nice improvement over older versions.
There a lot of songs and not a single repeated from a previous game (except levan polka which is the tutorial song but it doesn't count)
all the costumes are new too which is neat i guess.
The not so good.
In previous games notes were rarely stacked ontop of each other... it happened but it was rare. it happens a few times in this game and for me it's just hard to read for timing.
Some of the music videos in the back are either distracting or too similar in colour to the buttons again making some bits harder to read.
Star buttons could be a little more sensitive since there was more then one onstant of me knowing i got the timing right but it didn't register.
Technical zones.... ugh i do not do well under pressure and the fastest way for me to break combos is to give me a timer that sais "ha ha you can't fail... but you know you're gunna so i'll just count down till you do"
The bad
people like to say this game is creepy cause of the diva room aspect, i wouldn't know i never opened it... i don't consider it part of the game since it really serves no purpose and i'm here for a rhythm game. but still i'll mark it as a negative simple cause it doesn't need to exist in the game and that memory space could be used for something like more songs or costumes.
Also sadistic music factory is probably the worst vocaloid song i've ever heard... in my personal opinion...
All in all, yeah i enjoy this series, it is a DL only (29.99) game but the fact that it came out at all here is nothing short of a miracle. I look forward to playing the persona version which literally looks like this game but with persona characters.
However it is not for everyone and if you can't stand the game i completely understand, but if your curious then give it a shot... i think it's a lot of fun at least.
Edit:
Normally i don't buy DLC but out of the 6 songs 4 looked pretty fun so i coughed up the money.
is it worth it? depends... check the songs on youtube and if you think they sound crappy then don't bother.
however now i can't say sadistic music factory is the worst song in the game...
Rin chan now is the worst song. at least in my opinion.
the dlc songs do feel a bt more challenging but it's all good.
also i've played more extreme songs and i am feeling "well i guess these are some songs i'll never beat" hopefully i get better soon but it feels like alternating sides isn't working... which throws my old strategy out the window.
but yeah... dlc is fun but check that you like the songs before you buy.
Wednesday, 5 March 2014
Mischievous Kiss - Love in Tokyo
I don't tend to watch dramas cause they are... well they are kinda silly.
Half the time it feels like "oh lets just vacation to this cool spot and say we are filming a film" (granted some movies and shows here feel like that too)
However this one seemed cute enough... so i gave it a shot.
by the end *shrugs* it was okay. it does some stuff i do not approve of. Irie, the main love interest, is a selfish, narcissistic jerk face who spends the entire series go "nah i don't love you" until suddendly theres the potential that he can't have her and he's all "but she's mine"
and yeah that isn't okay...
not to mention this girl has no other life aside from "what does irie think about me" I thought that maybe they'd hint at her love of food would lead her towards being a food critic but no... this girl has no other dream, no thoughts about herself... it's okay if someone dreams to be a housewife or have kids or not but she doesn't even think about that... all she thinks about is Irie... not even her with him... just him.
near the end she does start thinking about herself but damn it is really late in the series.
but despite all that..... i found myself really enjoying this series.
i guess this is what people call Guilty pleasures?
It's got some really sweet moments, the characters (especially the mom and kin-chan) are great and just a lot of fun... yeah it was good...
the music and effects are not good but everything else is enjoyable... maybe i should try some other dramas? it's hard jumping into something your not a big fan of in the first place.
Anyways season 2 has apparently been greenlit but you can see all of season 1 for free on Crunchyroll
Half the time it feels like "oh lets just vacation to this cool spot and say we are filming a film" (granted some movies and shows here feel like that too)
However this one seemed cute enough... so i gave it a shot.
by the end *shrugs* it was okay. it does some stuff i do not approve of. Irie, the main love interest, is a selfish, narcissistic jerk face who spends the entire series go "nah i don't love you" until suddendly theres the potential that he can't have her and he's all "but she's mine"
and yeah that isn't okay...
not to mention this girl has no other life aside from "what does irie think about me" I thought that maybe they'd hint at her love of food would lead her towards being a food critic but no... this girl has no other dream, no thoughts about herself... it's okay if someone dreams to be a housewife or have kids or not but she doesn't even think about that... all she thinks about is Irie... not even her with him... just him.
near the end she does start thinking about herself but damn it is really late in the series.
but despite all that..... i found myself really enjoying this series.
i guess this is what people call Guilty pleasures?
It's got some really sweet moments, the characters (especially the mom and kin-chan) are great and just a lot of fun... yeah it was good...
the music and effects are not good but everything else is enjoyable... maybe i should try some other dramas? it's hard jumping into something your not a big fan of in the first place.
Anyways season 2 has apparently been greenlit but you can see all of season 1 for free on Crunchyroll
Tuesday, 4 March 2014
Dropped: Hamatora
See, just cause it has my favorite voice actor doesn't mean i will automatically like it.
but this is episode 9... so why am i giving up so close to the end.
well for a large chunk of the episodes the focus was on Nice, a gifted minimum user and Art a great detective... and their relationship and interactions and how they help each other out without always realizing it.
Short Spoilers:
The other focus of the show is Art hunting down a man named Moral who is killing minimum holders and giving their powers to normal people. Art is doing everything in his power to find out about moral and keep Moral away from Nice.
this was all building up wonderfully and was prooving to be a huge conflict by the seasons end.
that is until seemingly out of no where Moral murders art.
now that scene is touching and really well done... Moral shape shifts into Art all to get closer to nice (even though he refuses to see nice) and it's like... how is this going to affect the dynamic...
End Spoilers
The reason i have dropped the show is cause after the event i mentioned in the spoiler we have gotten nothing but filler which has absolutely no bearings on the plot and is just goofy and stupid.... because of the change the entire dynamic of the show is ruined and it's just stupid and i don't care enough to finish.... maybe one day when i'm bored i'll see the rest but for now? no. the best part of the show isn't there anymore and although the artsy stuff it did was kinda neat it gets old and overdone rather quickly.
it was funny when the second episode hit and i was getting devil survivor 2 flashbacks... cause it's the same singer... but even the music seems a bit tired now.
maybe the show gets better by the end, for now just too much filler.
but this is episode 9... so why am i giving up so close to the end.
well for a large chunk of the episodes the focus was on Nice, a gifted minimum user and Art a great detective... and their relationship and interactions and how they help each other out without always realizing it.
Short Spoilers:
The other focus of the show is Art hunting down a man named Moral who is killing minimum holders and giving their powers to normal people. Art is doing everything in his power to find out about moral and keep Moral away from Nice.
this was all building up wonderfully and was prooving to be a huge conflict by the seasons end.
that is until seemingly out of no where Moral murders art.
now that scene is touching and really well done... Moral shape shifts into Art all to get closer to nice (even though he refuses to see nice) and it's like... how is this going to affect the dynamic...
End Spoilers
The reason i have dropped the show is cause after the event i mentioned in the spoiler we have gotten nothing but filler which has absolutely no bearings on the plot and is just goofy and stupid.... because of the change the entire dynamic of the show is ruined and it's just stupid and i don't care enough to finish.... maybe one day when i'm bored i'll see the rest but for now? no. the best part of the show isn't there anymore and although the artsy stuff it did was kinda neat it gets old and overdone rather quickly.
it was funny when the second episode hit and i was getting devil survivor 2 flashbacks... cause it's the same singer... but even the music seems a bit tired now.
maybe the show gets better by the end, for now just too much filler.
Completed: Blue Exorcist and Blue Exorcist The Movie
This show ended in October 2011 just around the time i started to write these blurbs.
I originally posted these on tumblr so i tried to make them as short as possible as to not clutter someone's page with text.
However... since i post these here now... i can be as long and rambly as i want and unfortunately i have a few stories to go with this so...
Short ver: Show is really good, you can watch it all for free here or you can buy it from Aniplex (though i suggest waiting for it to go on sale) The movie is also really good and only available from aniplex but seriously wait for it to go on sale.
SO~ with all that out of the way.
Blue exorcist is a story about twin brothers Rin and Yukio who just so happen to be spawn of satan. However only one brother actually inherited Satan's Blue flame and his powers were sealed in a sword. Both lived as humans until an unfortunate run in with a demon forces Rin to awaken to his powers and their lives are changed forever.
With the death of their foster father Rin makes a vow that he'll become an exocist and kick Satan's ass.
Now in these types of shows there tends to be the theme of things like Religion being the badguy and surprisingly this doesn't fall into that. Some corrupt people within the order are 'evil' but the order itself really just wants whats best for humanity... and most can't see how demons and humans could possibly live together but that doesn't make them evil... just uninformed.
Granted on the flipside i'm pretty sure there are MANY instances of "that religion doesn't work that way" but hey, what do i know? It makes me chuckle and it seems like pretty much everything is acknowledged and fair game to use.
The animation is lovely, i don't remember if it was this pretty 3 years ago (cause between tv and dvd/blueray releases these shows almost always get touched up) but holy crap it is pretty now. it's expressive and colourful and just everything i love about anime. [except for one character but i'll get to her]
The music, how did i not notice how pretty it was the first time i watched. like i adore the intro and ending songs but even the inbetween music is stunning and i'm kinda hoping i can get my hands on the soundtrack. (granted, it's got lots of violins which i am a sucker for)
The ending is a little abrupt.... it feels like they could have easily had another season cause the story could easily continue on but instead they just ended it there and thats fine... i'll eventually read the manga and see if it continues on more.
my only complaint about the show is Shura's design.
She has some of the worst design elements i have ever seen.
I know she's not the first instance of underboob in anime but she's probably the worst, i can tell you for a fact that top would not stay in place with the way she moves. not even double sided tape would help keep those girls in check. not to mention with the way it;s down being too small it looks like it would be really uncomfortable squeezing in where it does. like if the deisgners had just given her a bra thats fits i would have no problem with this design choice... it's not the amount revealed i have issue with it's simply that breasts do not work the way some shows seem to think they work and it's frustrating to watch.
but thats not it
a lot of promotional artwork has her back broken in multiple places with bludges that makes me wonder if the artist knows a damn thing about anatomy... it's all played up to be sexy but i can't see it being anymore more then mind boggling.
Otherwise she's fine, it's always nice to see bad ass female characters i just wish they had given her undergarments that fit.
The movie:
The film takes place at some point in the story past when they become exwires but not sure if it's before the final episode or not... it doesn't matter.
Rin, after having botched a mission badly, come across an injured demon and because of his screw up he is ordered to watch it for a few days before they decided what to do with it.
this movie is so cute and sweet and the music and gah i wish there was more.
thats always how i feel with this show... "that was good, why is it over?"
i would say more but i don't wanna give anything away. if you enjoy the show you'll enjoy the movie.
NOW.... time for an itty bitty rant.
So there is a reason i waited three years to buy a show i really enjoyed.
Aniplex.
every time they license anything i have a little cry.
their prices may as well be highway robbery.
I bought this is the 4 dvd set, the original price was 40 bucks for 7 episodes, i got it on sale for 20 each.
now i understand, localizing stuff isn't cheap and if there is a dub that can make the price get out of hand... still 20 bucks a disk roughly translates (after tax) to the 50 per half a season model i refuse to go over.... and i was really looking forward to the dub.
so boy was i surprised when i looked at the back.... granted this is my own fault... and i'm not upset that it was missing... i'm just annoyed that aniplex has the gaul to price a dubless anime at 40 bucks a pop for 7 episodes.
so then i looked, if i had really wanted the dub how much would i have to have shelled out?
Part 1 Bluray: 175 (12 episodes)
Part 2 Bluray: 175 (13 episodes)
ok well what about dvd?
Part 1 dvd: 80 (12 episodes)
part 2 dvd: 80 (13 episodes)
NO. no bad aniplex, you go to the corner and think about what you've done.
maybe if it came with stuff, a nice box? maybe then it would be worth it...
but the dvd comes with nothing, the blue ray comes with a cd and some lovely artwork but 3 times more then what everyone else sells half seasons for? no.
and the worst part is they keep licensing shows i really like...
Puella magic madoka magica? 50 bucks per 3-4 episodes on bluray, close to 40 each on dvd... 100 bucks per 4 episodes if you want the special edition. and the movies? two of which are retelling? 90 -120
yeah.... no, never, that is insane.
Durarara!
190 for the blue ray complete series... it comes in a lunch box and has a poster and mini artbook
even though i don't like this show... fate zero takes the cake.
For Sub only 13 episodes sets the retail price is 500 bucks.
right stuff has them at the low low price of 370-375 depending on where you live.
NO! why do they think they can get away with pricing their shit like this? oh thats right... cause people buy them.
STOP BUYING THEM.
or at least wait until they go on sale for reasonable prices. rightstuf does have all these items listed for a little less then i posted btu only a little... their sales are the best shot to get anything at a reasonable price... and even then...
SO YEAH.
Show is good
Movie is good
Aniplex sucks
i hope they stop licensing stuff and just let others do the licensing. but the need to keep animating cause their stuff is pretty.
i think i'm done.
well almost.
look at the pretty figures for blue exorcist.
ok now i'm done
I originally posted these on tumblr so i tried to make them as short as possible as to not clutter someone's page with text.
However... since i post these here now... i can be as long and rambly as i want and unfortunately i have a few stories to go with this so...
Short ver: Show is really good, you can watch it all for free here or you can buy it from Aniplex (though i suggest waiting for it to go on sale) The movie is also really good and only available from aniplex but seriously wait for it to go on sale.
SO~ with all that out of the way.
Blue exorcist is a story about twin brothers Rin and Yukio who just so happen to be spawn of satan. However only one brother actually inherited Satan's Blue flame and his powers were sealed in a sword. Both lived as humans until an unfortunate run in with a demon forces Rin to awaken to his powers and their lives are changed forever.
With the death of their foster father Rin makes a vow that he'll become an exocist and kick Satan's ass.
Now in these types of shows there tends to be the theme of things like Religion being the badguy and surprisingly this doesn't fall into that. Some corrupt people within the order are 'evil' but the order itself really just wants whats best for humanity... and most can't see how demons and humans could possibly live together but that doesn't make them evil... just uninformed.
Granted on the flipside i'm pretty sure there are MANY instances of "that religion doesn't work that way" but hey, what do i know? It makes me chuckle and it seems like pretty much everything is acknowledged and fair game to use.
The animation is lovely, i don't remember if it was this pretty 3 years ago (cause between tv and dvd/blueray releases these shows almost always get touched up) but holy crap it is pretty now. it's expressive and colourful and just everything i love about anime. [except for one character but i'll get to her]
The music, how did i not notice how pretty it was the first time i watched. like i adore the intro and ending songs but even the inbetween music is stunning and i'm kinda hoping i can get my hands on the soundtrack. (granted, it's got lots of violins which i am a sucker for)
The ending is a little abrupt.... it feels like they could have easily had another season cause the story could easily continue on but instead they just ended it there and thats fine... i'll eventually read the manga and see if it continues on more.
my only complaint about the show is Shura's design.
She has some of the worst design elements i have ever seen.
I know she's not the first instance of underboob in anime but she's probably the worst, i can tell you for a fact that top would not stay in place with the way she moves. not even double sided tape would help keep those girls in check. not to mention with the way it;s down being too small it looks like it would be really uncomfortable squeezing in where it does. like if the deisgners had just given her a bra thats fits i would have no problem with this design choice... it's not the amount revealed i have issue with it's simply that breasts do not work the way some shows seem to think they work and it's frustrating to watch.
but thats not it
a lot of promotional artwork has her back broken in multiple places with bludges that makes me wonder if the artist knows a damn thing about anatomy... it's all played up to be sexy but i can't see it being anymore more then mind boggling.
Otherwise she's fine, it's always nice to see bad ass female characters i just wish they had given her undergarments that fit.
The movie:
The film takes place at some point in the story past when they become exwires but not sure if it's before the final episode or not... it doesn't matter.
Rin, after having botched a mission badly, come across an injured demon and because of his screw up he is ordered to watch it for a few days before they decided what to do with it.
this movie is so cute and sweet and the music and gah i wish there was more.
thats always how i feel with this show... "that was good, why is it over?"
i would say more but i don't wanna give anything away. if you enjoy the show you'll enjoy the movie.
NOW.... time for an itty bitty rant.
So there is a reason i waited three years to buy a show i really enjoyed.
Aniplex.
every time they license anything i have a little cry.
their prices may as well be highway robbery.
I bought this is the 4 dvd set, the original price was 40 bucks for 7 episodes, i got it on sale for 20 each.
now i understand, localizing stuff isn't cheap and if there is a dub that can make the price get out of hand... still 20 bucks a disk roughly translates (after tax) to the 50 per half a season model i refuse to go over.... and i was really looking forward to the dub.
so boy was i surprised when i looked at the back.... granted this is my own fault... and i'm not upset that it was missing... i'm just annoyed that aniplex has the gaul to price a dubless anime at 40 bucks a pop for 7 episodes.
so then i looked, if i had really wanted the dub how much would i have to have shelled out?
Part 1 Bluray: 175 (12 episodes)
Part 2 Bluray: 175 (13 episodes)
ok well what about dvd?
Part 1 dvd: 80 (12 episodes)
part 2 dvd: 80 (13 episodes)
NO. no bad aniplex, you go to the corner and think about what you've done.
maybe if it came with stuff, a nice box? maybe then it would be worth it...
but the dvd comes with nothing, the blue ray comes with a cd and some lovely artwork but 3 times more then what everyone else sells half seasons for? no.
and the worst part is they keep licensing shows i really like...
Puella magic madoka magica? 50 bucks per 3-4 episodes on bluray, close to 40 each on dvd... 100 bucks per 4 episodes if you want the special edition. and the movies? two of which are retelling? 90 -120
yeah.... no, never, that is insane.
Durarara!
190 for the blue ray complete series... it comes in a lunch box and has a poster and mini artbook
even though i don't like this show... fate zero takes the cake.
For Sub only 13 episodes sets the retail price is 500 bucks.
right stuff has them at the low low price of 370-375 depending on where you live.
NO! why do they think they can get away with pricing their shit like this? oh thats right... cause people buy them.
STOP BUYING THEM.
or at least wait until they go on sale for reasonable prices. rightstuf does have all these items listed for a little less then i posted btu only a little... their sales are the best shot to get anything at a reasonable price... and even then...
SO YEAH.
Show is good
Movie is good
Aniplex sucks
i hope they stop licensing stuff and just let others do the licensing. but the need to keep animating cause their stuff is pretty.
i think i'm done.
well almost.
look at the pretty figures for blue exorcist.
Saturday, 1 March 2014
Completed: The Wind Rises
My personal history with studio ghibli is hit and miss.
So keep that in mind as you read.
First: This is not a kids film, do not bring your children to go see it... The theater i was in was 90% kids and they all left bored or disturbed and confused about some of the darker subject matter. Just because Disney is distributing it... just cause it's a "cartoon" doesn't mean it's okay to bring your children to it. look into the fi;m before you bring your kids to it.
Do i think kids shouldn't see it? no... i just know as a kid had I a seen a animated film where a character vomits blood i would not have handled it well.
Also the talk of politics, culture, history and planes could easily bore those who don't care.
so yeah don't bring them to a theater expecting happy fun time... watch it yourself and then decide if it's something they will like or if it's better to wait.
Second: This film is both extremly Real and incredibly Surreal.
The real focuses on the time frame, characters and politics of japan (mostly during WWII)... but it's offset with these surreal dreams of the main character.... where you get a flamboyent sterotypical italian showing the main character some planes that weren't intended for war but will be used that way.
Third: The film can feel..... awkward.
thats not necessarily a bad thing... but it's something to keep in mind... we don't normally see war films from the "losing" side.
Also long conversations about cigarettes (which considering time frame and mind set of japan... yeah it makes sense)
all that being said the film is.... okay.
The poster says "best animated film to hit theaters".... yeah i will respectfully disagree.... it's not bad but it's not that good. I don't think it'll be winning any oscars tomorrow (infact even though i haven't seen it i bet frozen will win tomorrow) but i think it's good that a film like this has been brought over without being edited too much.
these are japanese character in japan and that is never changed or glossed over unlike other Western dubs.
I had a decent time, it was a fairly pretty film... you can tell it was Miyazaki's love letter to aircraft and i could see why he wanted it to be his retirement piece (even though i'm pretty sure he's already confirmed that he's not retiring... again) but in the end i still prefer other films of his like Princess Mononoke.
ok one last thing, i saw the english dub... it was fairly flat which was a bit disappointing since there are a lot of talented people on this... but just... no real depth in how the characters speak.
still if you can easily go see it and are curious, give it a shot. if not then just wait a bit to see it.
So keep that in mind as you read.
First: This is not a kids film, do not bring your children to go see it... The theater i was in was 90% kids and they all left bored or disturbed and confused about some of the darker subject matter. Just because Disney is distributing it... just cause it's a "cartoon" doesn't mean it's okay to bring your children to it. look into the fi;m before you bring your kids to it.
Do i think kids shouldn't see it? no... i just know as a kid had I a seen a animated film where a character vomits blood i would not have handled it well.
Also the talk of politics, culture, history and planes could easily bore those who don't care.
so yeah don't bring them to a theater expecting happy fun time... watch it yourself and then decide if it's something they will like or if it's better to wait.
Second: This film is both extremly Real and incredibly Surreal.
The real focuses on the time frame, characters and politics of japan (mostly during WWII)... but it's offset with these surreal dreams of the main character.... where you get a flamboyent sterotypical italian showing the main character some planes that weren't intended for war but will be used that way.
Third: The film can feel..... awkward.
thats not necessarily a bad thing... but it's something to keep in mind... we don't normally see war films from the "losing" side.
Also long conversations about cigarettes (which considering time frame and mind set of japan... yeah it makes sense)
all that being said the film is.... okay.
The poster says "best animated film to hit theaters".... yeah i will respectfully disagree.... it's not bad but it's not that good. I don't think it'll be winning any oscars tomorrow (infact even though i haven't seen it i bet frozen will win tomorrow) but i think it's good that a film like this has been brought over without being edited too much.
these are japanese character in japan and that is never changed or glossed over unlike other Western dubs.
I had a decent time, it was a fairly pretty film... you can tell it was Miyazaki's love letter to aircraft and i could see why he wanted it to be his retirement piece (even though i'm pretty sure he's already confirmed that he's not retiring... again) but in the end i still prefer other films of his like Princess Mononoke.
ok one last thing, i saw the english dub... it was fairly flat which was a bit disappointing since there are a lot of talented people on this... but just... no real depth in how the characters speak.
still if you can easily go see it and are curious, give it a shot. if not then just wait a bit to see it.
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