I’m Winky and I am announcing to you all that I’m a new poster for this site. Content I’m going to be focusing on includes (but isn’t limited to) anime reviews, previews and maybe news and tidbits I find interesting.
I prefer to write about an anime as a whole, so episodic reviews will probably barely be seen posted by me. In fact, due to this my reviews will most likely be of series’, OVA’s and movies which are not on the bleeding edge of releases and have been out for a while.
I watch any genre but find special interest in weird, creepy or horrific anime. Some of my favourites in no particular order are:
Ghost in the Shell
Black Lagoon
Baccano
Lucky Star
……………As I said, I watch any genre.
Due to time constraints in my life it’s more likely that I’ll only be posting once or twice a week, if
That, but don’t fret for I will endeavour to get at least something out each week.
SPOILERS BE WARNED. THIS IS AWESOMENESS MEANT TO BE EXPERIENCED, NOT SPOILED.
My thoughts of the anime thus far:
BEST F*CKING THING SINCE SLICED-BREAD!!!
HAVE YOU WATCHED IT YET?
NO?!
THEN WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?! GO WATCH IT ALREADY!! DOITDOITDOIT!!!
NOW WATCH IT AGAIN!!
I love Attack on Titan (or Shingeki no Kyojin). It is a simple concept, and yet, it is cleverly unique in execution. The animation is great, the music superb, and despite it’s inconsistent writing quality, this show is still full of intense, jaw-dropping moments that never cease to leave us flabbergasted and wanting more. The Titans are horrifying, falling deep below the uncanny valley. The characters embody the best and the worst aspects of humanity, and do so without screaming “but who are the real monsters?!” Because in a world fraught with monsters, questions like those don’t matter, and never had. It’s one of the rare shows that, though imperfect, manages to overcome its flaws through quality execution and taking fresh twists, bursting full-force and coming out on top.
In short, it hits all the right notes.
ARMIN’S A BADASS!!!
And so, here we are; the second half. And what better way to kick things off than an epic, fast-paced opening sequence that they obviously butchered their budget on. Now that’s how you start a second half.
After Eren’s heroic efforts, the people are quick to label him as their saviour. But what happens after that? The dark side of human nature, and what it plans to do with Eren. Because no good deed goes unpunished, and – needless to say – with great power comes great fear. And it’s stupid, I know. But it’s not too far from reality, which is also stupid.
Now we can finally meet Zoe- WHOAMYGOD!!
And that’s what sets Eren apart from other shoddy action heroes like, say… Kirito. Both main characters possess special powers beyond the norm, and use it to fight their foes and protect humanity. But the difference is that Eren must face social and political ramifications because of his powers… and have the very limits of his humanity tested. People will support him, but people are understandably scared, too. Every action he takes, everything that he is, will always have consequences, good or bad. He can either be humanity’s key to salvation, or bring them that much closer to extinction.
How appropriate; in a courtroom, a boot to the face.
Really, Eren’s existence brings with it a load of problems. His suffering never ends, does it? Then again, not all of it can be considered bad. Levi beating the crap out of Eren was to (quite literally) hammer in the fact that only the Recon Corps can deal with him. In the end, no one got hurt and everyone wins… except Eren, maybe, but at least he only lost a tooth! For a few hours…
And did anyone notice the look on Levi’s face when he was describing how Eren’s titan form can kill 20 titans? He was not impressed.
Eren and Levi – best friends.
It’s Prediction time!
Did anyone notice the titan with blue eyes and a noticeable bust in the opening? My siblings think it is the “Mikasa Titan”. And in this episode, Mikasa was accused of being a titan as well! Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. Too soon to tell. But it’s an interesting bit of thought.
The ending indicates that Ymir will be joining the main cast of cadets. Considering Marco’s dead, and she’s very close to Krista Lenz (a little TOO close if you ask me), it makes alot of sense. I wonder if her character’s important to the plot somehow…
The Recon Corp is full of all sorts of weirdos and freaks! But I’m going to guess that they’re extremely competent, since they stand beside Levi himself.
HYPEHYPEHYPEHYPE!! SO MUCH F*CKING HYPE!!! ATTACK ON TITAN BEST ANIME EVAR!!!!
“Swearing upon our hearts We strike at Linie der Torheit!
And soar up the sky with ——
ミ Flügel der Freiheit 彡 !!!”
The 2nd opening, Jiyū no Tsubasa. Play it. Love it.
Now that we got that out of the way, shall we begin?
I had previously believed that originality was rare, and even if found it would require a grand amount of execution to become truly special and memorable.
I still do.
But that’s not to say that originality is dead. Hell no. My brother literally slapped me silly for believing that. It is indeed possible to find such “original anime” in this decade; very few shows like The World God Only Knows, Durarara!, Hyouka, Chuunibyou, were able to provide truly unique experiences, or a unique twist – invigoration – of an established genre/formula.
Yachiyo Hinata best girl!
Where am I going with this? This show, of course! I went into Stella Jogakuin Koutou-ka C³-bu expecting another trashy, K-On copycat, only to find myself enjoying what could be a fairly unique twist on the moe, slice-of-life, high-school club anime.
It starts out in familiar fare, with a dreamy-eyed girl, named Yura Yamato, on her first day of high schoo- HOLY CRAP that school is huge! Alright, so not everything is completely within Yura’s fantasy, but seriously; first world problems, I tell ya.
Rento Kirishima best girl!
Uh, where was I? Right, then Yura finds a gun under her pillow- whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, a GUN?! Yes, and this is where things get interesting!
The gun’s fake, by the way.
Cue the opening sequence. Soon after, we’re greeted by an insane cast of characters, and I mean INSANE. Whether it’s Yachiyo and her wackily huggable expressions, the G36K-wielding meganekko Honoka, the cake-loving Rento with beautiful hair, or the machine gun-totting american stereotype Karila… they are all borderline sociopathic!
One minute they’re sweet as tea, and the next they handle their guns with eerie anticipation, and firing rounds with big smiles on their faces! It’s weird! And crazy! And I love every minute of it.
My reaction to meeting another otaku. :3
I admit it! I’ve fallen in love with these characters. Their passion for airsoft complements their madly eccentric personalities perfectly, constantly providing us with loads of on-screen hilarity and entertainment. It certainly helps that the chemistry and interaction between the entire cast are nothing short of fantastic. All of it feels particularly fresh, despite being held back by some K-On-ish moments. (Complete with tea, cakes and everything!)
K-On, this is not.
The show feels polished as well. The animation is splendid where it counts (if you can get past the cutesy character designs), especially during the airsoft battles. The original creator definitely did his research when it came to military tactics. Being constantly on the move and switching between cover-to-cover, rolls, cover-fire, hand-signals, and surprise ambushes – there were no shortcuts or flashy stunts. Just good ol’ gunplay, and it was AWESOME. I also really liked Yura’s fantasy vision, which gave the battle a slight Chu-2 vibe to it. And who can forget that smooth jazz playing in the background?
Karila Hatsuse best girl!
So far, I like what I’m seeing. Clean animation, cute style, insane and memorable characters, and an awesome premise that sets itself up for intense, over-the-top airsoft battles! And to top it all off, no fanservice! The bad kind, I mean.
As long as the show doesn’t wallow in nothing happening at all, it may turn out to be one of the best shows of this season! My expectations are high, and I look forward to more of this insanity.
What a great way to kick start the summer season! 😀
Finally what I have been waiting for since it was announced last year, Monogatari the second season. Monogatari is animated by Studio Shaft, and directed Akiyuki Shinbo. Episode 1 takes place during the events of the Tsubasa Tiger arc of the Nekomonogatari White light novel.
First off I was always under the impression that Koyomi Araragi was the only one who could see Hachikuji… I guess not. The episode starts with a conversation between Hanekawa and Hachikuji, quickly reminding me why I love this franchise so much. The episode was full of the dialogue and banter that this franchise delivers so well. I loved the blatant foreshadowing/spoilers that Hachikuji tries to tell before she is quickly shut down. “My episode will be in the next title.” Does that mean no Araragi in this Tsubasa Tiger arc, are the girls going to have to solve everything on their own?
Anyway if you loved Bakemonogatari you will probably enjoy the first episode of the Tsubasa Tiger Arc.
There are plenty Head Tilts.
Plenty of Fan Service
And whatever this is!
Anyway the Tsubasa Tiger Arc looks like it is going to delve into the fucked up life of Tsubasa Hanekawa. Instead of asking for kelp from the Araragi family, the Senjogahara family, or anyone else after her house burns down she decides to live in the old abandoned cram school…alone. Glad that Senjogahara put her in her place…what a reaction. Senjogahara freaks out, a little out of character. Anyway I am a huge fan of how passive aggressive Senjogahara was in this episode. Or maybe she is just aggressive. “I’ll shove a stapler in your mouth and deliver a blow to your neck if that’s what it takes, Ms. Hanekawa” was probably my favorite line of the day.
Anyway this episode was great; I have high hopes for my favorite Anime franchise of all time.
Oh yah…Hanekawa still loves Araragi…This should be interesting.
Thanks for reading!
-Xana
Sorry for this blank space below something is fucked up with the formatting!
I have no idea what happened to my fellow writers but I’ll kick off the new summer anime season with my first impressions of Gonzo’s new anime InuHasa. InuHasa, Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyo, or Dog & Scissors as it is known in English is a comedy series based on a light novel series. This comedy revolves around Kazuhito Harumi a high school boy who loves reading. One day he is murdered and is resurrected as a dog. He is unable to read in his new form and now belongs to Kirihime Natsuno a sadist who likes to abuse him with scissors.
The majority of this shows comedy revolves around Kirihime Natsuno breast size. It is truly a comedy oozing originality. Yes she is flat chested, such a great reason to make fun of her. All the other jokes revolve around abuse. Yay, lets cut the dog. Are there actually people who laughed at any of this, because I sure didn’t?
Episode 1 of InuHasa was a brain-rotting affair that was in no way entertaining, or funny or in anyway enjoyable. I wasn’t expecting much from this series but I didn’t expect it to be trash. Hopefully the rest of the summer anime season will be better.
I haven’t reviewed a full series in forever. What should I review…let’s go with the last anime I watched. I just watched the complete Kami-sama no Memo-chō (or Heaven’s Memo Pad as it is referred to I English) anime in the span of 24 hours so I am going to review that. Basically to sum up the plot, take the NEETS from Eden of the East, the color gangs from Durarara and the detective from Gosick, give her black hair and you have got Heaven’s Memo Pad. The story revolves around Narumi Fujishima, an underachiever who doesn’t even care to learn his classmate’s names. He is forced into participating in his school’s gardening club whose members consist of himself and Ayaka Shinozaki. He also gets dragged in as a member of NEET, an amateur detective agency filled with NEETS who take on and solve cases on their own whims led by Alice, a little girl. The show may seem harmless but it deals with some very heavy topics including, prostitution, suicide, drug abuse and gang violence so let’s get to the review. Also don’t worry this review is spoiler free.
Heaven’s Memo Pad is aired out of order, but you wouldn’t even know without doing some research. The series flows well despite this. The hour-long series premier and episodes 10-12 are based on book one while episodes 2-9 consists of book 2, book 4 and several spinoff short stories. The only problem with this is it causes a character that is not supposed to be in episodes 3 and 4 to be in those episodes…but it is not a big deal, the series flows well, but it might anger some fans of the original novels. By airing the series out of order, it caused the series to have a powerful dramatic ending, which probably improved the overall quality of the series but by doing this the series was unable to show the aftermath of the events that take place, completely skipping the third book in the series.
J.C. Staff is behind the animation and it is one of their better efforts I have seen. The character design is fairly unoriginal, with the character of Alice being the only one who really stands out in a moe kind of way. Despite this every character is well drawn. The backgrounds are all strong but throughout the series there are a lot of still shots, not that this is a bad thing, they don’t really take a way from anything in the series. The music throughout is strong. You can expect to hear everything from light piano to rock and rap.
Heaven’s Memo Pad revolves around a NEET detective agency so you meet some very interesting characters. Our protagonist Narumi at first seems like a typical underachiever, not even bothering to learn is own classmates names. He is quickly swept into the world of the NEET detective agency and he takes on an important role of his own. He is born to lead others, or maybe that is not the right way to describe him. People seem to want to follow him despite his “I don’t care” atmosphere he gives off. He is referred to as someone who could make for a good conman for his ability to make people believe in his causes. He quickly became a much more interesting character than he seemed at the beginning of the series. Alice who is the female protagonist may turn you off to the series. She is a Hikikomori who lives off of Doctor Pepper and ramen broth. She is probably an early teenager but she looks and has the body of a little girl probably due to malnutrition which the show hints at a couple of times. She is soft spoken, embarrassed easily, always wears pajamas and is constantly with piles of stuffed animals. To some this might ruin her credibility as a detective genius. Three of the more interesting characters in the series are Tetsu, Shosa, and Hiro, three NEETS who “work” under Alice, helping here solve mysteries. Tetsu never graduated high school, and now spends his days gambling all his money away, but he proves useful because he is friends with police, and gets good information. Shosa is a military obsessed Otaku who isn’t actually a NEET. He actually goes to university but rarely goes to class. He says he will be in college for 8 years before dropping out. He is an expert for setting up cameras to help spy on people for Alice. The last of the three NEETS Hiro is though of as a gigolo, for his many girlfriends. He is popular and knows everybody, always able to get valuable information for Alice. There are two more important characters that I want to talk about but it is hard to without giving anything away. There is Ayaka Shinozaki who is a cheerful girl who spends here free time working at a ramen joint, and the school’s garden club, both of which are relevant to events that take place in the series. The last important character is Yondaime the leader of a young Yakuza group, adding to a lot of the violence throughout this series. For the most part the characters are a diverse interesting crew and are a real strong point of this series.
Heavens Memo Pad for the most part consists of 4 separate stories and two filler episodes. The 4 separate stories are diverse, tackling many heavy subjects; suicide, drug abuse, drug distribution, prostitution, and gang violence. I am a little surprised that my DVD case for this series only gives it a teen rating. You see people get beaten to a pulp, and watch drug attics overdose. Several parts of this series were difficult for me to watch. The show seems a lot more “PG” than it is for the first 8 episodes and then when I got to the final arc I was caught a little off-guard. The heavy atmosphere of this series may loose its credibility with Alice’s cutesy image; I find it hard to believe someone like Alice could accomplish what she does when surrounded by violence and drug abuse. The first half of the series focuses on drama surrounding outside characters while the second half of the series focuses on drama around the core group of characters. The story gets better when focusing on the core group of characters.
Overall Heaven’s Memo Pad is a short series that is worth watching. It has a great story and characters, with quality animation. It covers some heavy topics well but may loose a little credibility due to the way Alice looks and acts.
Currently everyone’s going crazy over the PS4. Yes, the system itself is great. The games are pretty good, and we’re seeing a lot of ongoing series. Examples include Final Fantasy XV, (Originally Final Fantasy Versus XIII) Kingdom Hearts 3, and the ever so popular Call of Duty. Before you ask, yes I know that Sony is taking shots at Microsoft, and yes the PS4 is currently outshining the Xbox One.
All of that is fine and dandy, but let’s take a break from the hype and examine something that was overlooked. PS4 online multiplayer is not free. What in the world?
In comparison, Sony has always had the advantage over Microsoft in terms of online expense. Via Ps3, you can play online as much as you want, while the Xbox 360 requires a monthly fee just to play. Either Sony is getting money hungry now, or they want to lose a sum of their gaming population.
I’ve been hearing quite a few fans blindly accepting the new change. “Oh, it’s just five dollars a month what’s the big deal?” “Thanks to the change, we will be rid of the trash online.” “If you can’t manage five dollars a month you shouldn’t be playing video games.” Wait one second, if we’re so accepting to this who is to say they won’t increase that “low amount” of five dollars to ten, or maybe even to fifteen, and so on. Again what gives?
Many gamers are young. In fact, a plethora of gamers are still in the educational system. They don’t have money to waste on additional internet costs. Few even have money to their name. So yes, if that small amount doesn’t make a difference, then who does? During the first few days of release I can see the following scenario playing out.
A gamer goes and purchases the new PS4 system. They buy a game along with the console. When they return home, they waste little time setting everything up. They are having so much fun with their game, they want to display their skills online.
Oops, the gamer forgot you can’t play with others without paying. Cough up the cash. That video gamer pays up, gets tired of the game tosses it to the side. They don’t have enough money to maintain PlayStation Plus, and there’s no use for them to pay due to lack of games.
Thus, this creates a lack of income for Sony. I can’t speak for everyone, but majority of the people on my friend’s list don’t have the resources to maintain a membership.
So what does this mean for gamers and producers?
I feel gamers will invest less in multiplayer. The use of the PlayStation Store and other online features will continue as normal, as they are not affected. Certain gaming communities will be damaged by the required pay. Small niche multiplayer titles such as BlazBlue, Arcana Heart, and Guilty Gear (mostly anime fighters) will see a decrease in online players, unfortunately. I predict that large series such as Street Fighter, Call of Duty, Naruto, etc will remain populated.
Judging from E3, it seems like producers were aware of the addition, and games are centered around single player. The pattern will likely continue for most of PS4’s lifespan, unless Sony decides to alter their decision.
The decision may not seem that major, but I found it disappointing. For someone who plays online multiplayer a lot, I will not be paying. If I wanted to do that, I would get an Xbox.
For those planning on picking up the system, is online multiplayer a major factor of gaming, and will you pay to play with others?
The second game trailer for Pokémon X and Y the newest installment and 6th generation of Pokémon came out today. Some very interesting stuff was confirmed. First off the game is set to come out October 12th, I’m going to start a countdown on my computer…I can’t wait. Also an 18th Pokémon type was confirmed, it wasn’t the “Light” type everyone was expecting but it is really close. The 18th type has been named “Fairy” type and it is super effective against dragon types. Sylveon, Jigglypuff, Marill, and Gardevoir have all been confirmed as Fairy type. Also 2 new Pokémon were shown, Vivillon, and Noivern. With excellent looking graphics and some fun new features it looks like Pokémon generation 6 will be a lot of fun. Remember this game will only be out for the 3ds so if you don’t have start saving!
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