Anime in Focus: ninja Nonsense Episode 4

<-Previous Episode

Why yes, we DO wear these masks ALL of the time

The first half of this episode is the all important beach episode.

This anime decides to differentiate itself from every other beach episode by making everybody keep on wearing their ninja masks during the beach episode.

This episode decides to lather on more fanservice than usual, not only by putting lots of focus on the girl’s swimsuits, but giving us the most gratuitous yuri scene in the anime so far. I won’t be so mean as to ruin it with context, and just leave this screencap right here…

After gratuitous scenes of both hilarity and boobies, we get to the second half of the episode, titled “Miyabi in Love” In this segment, we get to see another side of Miyabi, where she does other things besides psychotically stab Onsokumaru. Onsokumaru then sets on a journey to either help or c***block Miyabi, which is never made explicitly clear.

Unfortunately, going into detail removes a lot of the impact these episodes have, which is a really important punch for this series. Meanwhile, the series has been keeping up a consistent standard of providing both humor and boobies. Hopefully it manages to keep it up. Although the fanservice managees to be a bit over the top, it doesn't bother me in the least, unlike SOME series where it distracts from the plot. In this one it adds to it.

Coming soon: next episode…

Anime in Focus: Rozen Maiden Episode 2

Because the talking doll was DEFINITELY referring to physics

<-Previous Episode

I dare say, my updates have become sporadic. I did, however notice that this copy of Rozen Maiden has been sitting on the desk in that pile of things I plan to watch. I WAS planning on watching Lord of The Rings to catch up with normal society a bit, but then I realized I already read the books...

Having already seen this episode at an anime convention, I sort of already knew what happened, vaguely. It starts by demonstrating a bit of Shinku's powers, by showing her repairing the damage caused in the previous episode. The real plot gets going when one of Jun's classmates shows up and attempts to drop off his homework. Unfortunately for Jun's master plan of avoiding contact with people entirely, they run into each other, demonstrating to her that Jun has been doing nothing but sitting in his room and ordering things online, if his sweatpants and posture are any indication. (hey, if he was older, he'd have stubble too. We can only assume he's reached the level cap in WoW by now) Shinku walks in on this, and notices this girl is wearing a ring.... signifying her as being a servant.

We get to see the relationship between this girl and her doll Hina, who seems rather possessive. So possessive, in fact that Hina winds up sucking the girl into a pocket dimension where doll-person relations get entirely reversed. Such a drastic action winds up drawing Shinku's attention, leading to Shinku hunting her down to investigate, leading to... PLOT REVALATIONS

In the confrontation between Hina and Shinku, we learn that the dolls compete in these things called “Alice Games” where they battle to the death in order to eat each other's souls, or something. This leads to a battle in what looks like a demonic toy box, making this show feel like a bizarre Highlander/Toy Story cross over.

Anyway, after a delightfully bizarre fight involving exploding piggy banks, we get to the conclusion, where rather than Shinku eating Hina's soul, she demands her servitude. While some questions are answered, even more are created. The important thing is that this show show promise, and I hope to see more innocent looking toys used as weapons of mass murder. They can't POSSIBLY screw that concept up.

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Coming when I feel like it:

Next Episode!

Anime Conji 2011

Last weekend I wound up volunteering at Anime Conji 2011, a rather small convention in San Diego, the most exiting city on earth.

Anime Conji was definitely the smallest convention I've attended, with a whopping 1700 attendees, less than one tenth of Anime Expo. The convention's location was spread out of a smaller venue than Anime Los Angeles, (Which took up most of the LAX Marriot) a small part of the Town and Country Resort, sharing a hotel with some respiratory research convention.

See, they have THIS in San Diego

On the entertainment side, I wound up getting to see Steam Powered Girraffe, a band of robotic singers from the 1900's. This was exiting, since I had taken my girlfriend to see this band about a month and a half beforehand. They seemed more exiting at this convention than a month ago, since they were the main event, rather than an opening act to Abney Park (Steampunk band from Seattle, totally awesome) Other than that, the only events I attended were the rave and the mochi maid cafe. The Maid cafe was being held by a bunch of girls in maid outfits, where we recieved free food. In retrospect, I feel that I ordered the wrong item, seeing that I ordered the soup, and it was lukewarm by the time it got to me. The waiters were nice though, and we got to see the maids doing the Hare Hare Yukai.

This convention's rave managed to be.... okay. It was a bit better than the rave at Anime Expo 2011 (way too big, not interesting enough) but not as good as Anime Los Angeles' rave (plenty of room, decent music) Here I learned that my girlfriend cannot dance, and that not everything needs a techno remix. On Saturday, one of the DJ's decided to do a techno remix of the “Over 9000” video that everybody has seen over 9000 times. Unfortunately, this is a bit of an old meme, and the quiality of the remix was not good enough to warrant being played at a rave. The rave on Friday was a bit to big for the room that it was held in (capacity 80) making it difficult to get to. The rave on Saturday had enough room, but also contained the annoying over 9000 remix. Best convention rave still belongs to Anime Expo 2010, until further notice. I'm thinking of checking out the gas lamp district in San Diego after Comic con, assuming that my girlfriend decides to learn how to dance.

There were a large percentage of cosplayers at this convention, about the same percentile as Anime Los Angeles. Gatherings were a massive load of fail (Okay, I couldn't make the blasted Scott Pilgrim party, so I don't know how that went) as the Persona gathering and the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya gathering were made at the convention, and both held less than 10 people. I suppose the gathering organization was comparable to the entire convention's organization.

Organization was a mess at this convention, but this will be detailed in the upcoming volunteer report, however, I will note that I had trouble finding the location based on the description on the website. Apparantly it was a lot better than last year (this was only the convention's second year) so hopefully things are more in shape next year

Overall, my attendance at Anime Conji next year depends entirely on my econimic situation, and whether or not I can secure a staff position. I may take a shot at hosting my own panel if I can manage the logistics. The convention makes a nice bridge between Anime Los Angeles and Anime Expo. It should be considered that the convention tickets were about 35 dollars (student, but there were a LOT of available discounts) and that it takes place in San Diego, a city filled with awesome, cheap restaurants, and wonderful theater districts.

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Getting the most out of an Anime Convention

Persona 4 anime announced

While I've been in a bit of a writer's slump, I recently found the news story that I must share with EVERYBODY

Article with info here

Anyway, holy crap, this has the potential to bring in a a whole new wave of Persona fans, which will help me in my unending war with the Final Fantasy fans...

From what I noticed in the trailer, they appear to have made some new music for this. On the plus side, it appears that the person who made the music from the original game will be working on the soundtrack. Personally, I hope “I'll Face Myself” makes an appearance in the anime.

Hopefully, they manage to capture the majority of what made the video game awesome, and allow a wider audience to understand my deep love for Chie. Sadly, the only thing from the trailer we could see was actually less informative than the opening sequence to the video game.

 (starts at 1:48)

More importantly, this will probably force me to bring out my old Seta Souji cosplay. I thought that cosplay was going to be retired, but I guess it gets to come out of the closet again.

Updates will be posted here as I get them, and I would appreciate anybody sending them to Darthsomebody@yahoo.com

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BryAnime reviews the novelization of the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

Last year I watched the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie, and upon realizing that it was the movie that all other anime movies will be judged against from now on, I decided that it would be fun to read the book. While the book was not nearly as good as the movie (Some people say the book is always better than the movie, I say HELL NO) it managed to be an entertaining read.

Since this book is basically gibberish if you aren't familiar with the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya series, I'll just assume that your familiar with it. If you aren't familiar with it, go watch some episodes, read the books, or go read a review more relevant to your interests.

Anyhoo, this book starts with Kyon accepting that his high school life is going to be filled with wacky adventures, and that is his new norm. Until THAT day, when he wakes up to realize that, by some weird occurrence the entire world has gone bonkers. He wakes up to realize that all the insanity with time travelers, aliens espers, and dimensional shifts is gone, and that he is stuck living a normal life. Yes, he got exactly what he's been wanting since the beginning of the series.

In this “normal” life, Kyon notices that the SOS brigade hasn't been formed, and that Haruhi and Ikutski have gone missing. Mikuru is a regular upper-classman, and Yuki has become the most useless person in the world, devoid of any of her universe altering abilities. This leaves Kyon on his own to figure out what exactly what went wrong, and make an attempt at fixing it.

The book sends Kyon on an exiting journey where everything he believes in is put to the test, and where he must use all of his experience putting up with the SOS brigade's madness to put the reigns of the universe back into the hands of a high-school girl. A bit of the suspense was lost, since I saw the movie, and knew what the big revelation at the end was going to be. It's a big twist, and I wish more people in my area knew it so I can argue about the tenants of Haruhiism without blowing the movie's plot.

The writing is pretty straightfoward, is pretty easy to understand, and doesn't take too much out of the reader. It flows pretty quickly, and doesn't dwell on anything too much, unlike Kyon who loves internal monologing. It does expect that you have an in-depth knowledge of the events of the Haruhi universe, so don't pick this up as your introduction.

1000 words are needed to describe this

There were a few differences from the movie, although only one of them affects the plot significantly. The details about the ending are much more fleshed out, leaving less ambiguity about what was going on. The changed perspective causes certain details to get more attention, while downplaying things that were more noticeable in the movie (in the book, Kyon mentions Yuki looks cute. In the movie we get to see every adorable little quirk of her alternate universe self) The movie definitely took the material presented here and expanded on it, making a much more entertaining product. It is much easier to read the book while on the bus though, so it has that factor over the movie.

I'd suggest getting the DVD of the movie when it comes out, or get the book if you wanna know beforehand, and need a Haruhi fix.

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Running the Karaoke room at Anime Los Angeles 2011

While I was at Anime Los Angeles this year, I managed to achieve a staff position in the Karaoke room. Despite what I was afraid would happen, there were no truly bad singers, aside from a few people who couldn't keep up with the lyrics on the screen. During this position, I learned such skills as how to run a switchboard, and more importantly what kind of music is popular in a karaoke lounge. 

The most requested Albums for this year were:

1. Rocky Horror Picture Show
2. Avenue Q
3. Wicked

While I am not surprised by the first two, I was a bit shocked by the last one. The most popular songs were:

1. Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
2. I'll Make a man out of you (Mulan)
3. Sweet Transvestite (Rocky Horror Picture show)

Before this event, I had never heard the song “Sweet Transvestite,” but after the convention I had almost memorized it.

My duties involved managing the Karaoke machine, and announcing who was going to be singing next, along with the occasional munchie run. This managed to a lot more fun than my previous volunteer position held at Anime Expo, less because the job was easier, and more because of the nature of the work.

Being in staff allowed me to meet a lot of interesting people. I got to meet some fellow Pokemon trainers in the staff lounge, whom I managed to curb stomp. I also got to hear some of the con veterans tell me about the various conventions of old, and how things used to be run.

The people I REALLY got to know were the attendees and staff who spent most of their time in the Karaoke room. This managed to be one of the most popular locations for cosplayers to come goof off and show off their costumes. Notable people include Vash, the Organization XIII member with the lovely singing voice, the performer from the Rocky Horror Picture show who sang most of the soundtrack, that girl dressed as Jack Frost, a certain Haruhi cosplayer, and the infamous Hetalia cosplayers.

The infamous Hetalia cosplayers effectively took over the Karaoke room on Saturday night. While I understand that they made it nearly impossible to get on stage and sing due to the half-hour wait they caused, I found that they brought enough energy to the room to make my shift interesting.

Staffing at ALA proved to be about as difficult as volunteering at Anime Expo, which was quite refreshing. The management said they were trying to improve on some of Anime Expo's staffing issues. This was noticeable amoung the management on ALA, as while the manager in charge of Karaoke appeared stressed, the manager in charge of Anime Expo looked like she was about to collapse at any moment.

On a stranger note, actually hanging out the karaoke room managed to be the most interesting part of the convention for me, because it forced me to learn the most, meet the most people, and hey, it's where I met my date for the rave.

I will most likely wind up staffing Anime Los Angeles next year, although I have no idea what department I'll end up in. Hopefully it's one that manages to be as exiting.

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Overview of Anime Los Angeles 2011

^Believe it or not, the guy in the center was a great singer.

This weekend I managed to make it to Anime Los Angeles, the mini convention that exists for two reasons:

1. To give cosplayers and conventon addicts a fix until Anime Expo in summertime.
2. Because Anime Expo has gotten too big and sold out, man

I fit firmly into the first category, since I believe the most people's definition of “selling out” to be silly. Anime Expo wants to make money, and who are we to begrudge a group for making money in a perfectly legitimate fashion?

On the other hand, some of the more hardcore anime fans need something to tie them over until summer's convention's, such as Anime Expo, Comic Con, or AM2. Plus, it's a great place to test a costume, or to meet some convention going buddies. I used to beef up my work resume, so that I can get better positions at future conventions. Hey, con hopping is NOT an affordable hobby.

I spent the majority of my time in the Karaoke room, due to the fact that I was holding a staff position there. This was very entertaining, as I met tons of interesting people, learned what kind of music kids are listening to these days, and met the girl I would be dating for the duration of the con. Full report on the Karaoke room will be posted later.

The Scott Pilgrim gathering.

COSPLAY GATHERINGS: I only attended three gatherings this year, the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Persona, and the Kingdom Hearts Gathering. Normally, I'd say the Persona gathering was the best, but instead I'm giving this award to the Scott Pilgrim gathering. This gathering gets the reward due to having the most complete cast, along with an interesting set of poses. They managed to acquire a complete League of Evil Exes, along with variants of Romona with several hair colors.

The Persona conga line

The Persona gathering lost because a large portion of the people there were also at the Anime Expo 2010 Persona gathering, including the person hosting it. While I greatly respect the man for his dedication to Persona and organizing herds of cosplayers, way too much content was recycled, including poses. Hopefully, the release of a new Persona or Shin Megami Tensei game will make future gatherings more interesting.

I recognized these three

The Kingdom Hearts gathering was interesting, although I am a bit behind on my Kingdom Hearts Knowledge, so I couldn't enjoy everybody's costumes as much. I unfortunately do not own a PSP or a PS3, so playing most of these games is impossible. However, anybody who knows me knows the first thing I'm going to do when I get a PSP is catch up on the Persona series, so the lack of hardware may not be the issue...

AMV CONTEST: The AMV contest at this convention left a lot to be desired. While the AMV's there generally left nothing to complain about, none of them really spoke to me. In fact I would go as far as to say that my little sister could make AMV's like that (Well, she's pretty good at AMV's actually) I was mostly disappointed because I expect the AMV contest at a convention to be a bit more exiting than an AMV contest on Youtube.

THE DANCE: This convention's rave managed to be much more exiting than the rave at Anime Expo 2010, about as good as the rave at Anime Expo 2009 (That rave was so awesome most people couldn't get in.) This rave managed to be exiting, while having a large enough dance hall to accommodate the ravers at the convention. Furthermore, the DJ played a larger variety of music than the DJ at Anime Expo 2010. This managed to be a good rave, that all people could feel free to attend, like a good rave should be.

OVERVIEW: While I feel more at home in the gigantic crowds of a large convention, this convention managed to have it's own charms. That being most of the people managed to be interesting. ALA managed to have a much higher percentage of cosplayers than any other convention I had attended, along with a higher percentage of good costumes. The actual programming could not compare to the programs available at Anime Expo, but expecting it to would be ridiculous. While I overall had more fun at Anime Expo, ALA satisfied my thirst for conventions for the next few months.

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My journey through Anime Expo 2010

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Anime in Focus: Ninja Nonsense Episode 3

<-No context could help this image make more sense.

<-Previous Episode

I’m moving right along with watching all of that anime sitting on my bookshelf. Good news is that I think I’m winning.

Here we have Ninja Nonsense episode three, where more hilarity ensues. Humiliated by his defeat by Shinobu’s little sister in the previous episode, Onsokumaru decides it’s time to consult the faceless army of ninjas to see if they can come up with a plot to get even. After a long time getting nowhere, Onsokumaru decides to join forces with the newest member of the ninja clan, the crocodile that tried to eat him in the first part of the previous episode.

This episode picks up when Onsokumaru winds up in a battle with a doppelganger of himself that he created, who fights using incredibly dirty tactics, such as the duct-tape diaper (shown above)

The second half of the episode revolves around Shinobu overhearing a secret ninja meeting, where she is lead to believe that she is about to be kicked out of the ninja mansion. This leads to her moving in with Kaede for a while, having some wonderfully yuri-tastic moments. Turns out it was all a misunderstanding, but we still get to see more wonderful yuri anyway. Everybody wins!

Overall, a pretty good episode, demonstrating the show’s ability to maintain a good sense of humor. Only time will tell if it’s capable of keeping this up.

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Anime in Focus: Rozen Maiden Episode 1

On my continuing journey to watch all of the unwatched anime sitting on my bookshelf, I decided to start watching this series, which grabs my attention with all of the pretty dresses.

Anyway, this anime takes us into the wonderful world of underground doll battling. This goes to show that if done correctly, anything can be made to be badass.

We start off by meeting our main character Jun, who lives in his room as a shut-in who doesn’t like doing things that involve leaving his room, such as ordering voodoo dolls online and answering chain letters. While normally staying in your room causes you to wither away and die, he has the help of his doormat sister to make sure he eats and that his weird packages get signed off, while taking his verbal abuse and not standing up for herself.

As luck would have it, one of Jun’s chain letters happens to actually work, and he winds up with a weird box containing an even weirder doll inside of it. After screwing around with it for a bit, he learns that the doll is in fact, alive, and believes herself to be the boss of the area.

Suddenly, Jun gets himself attacked by a killer clown doll. Normally, killer clown dolls are not very scary, since you can usually punt them out a window, but we have to realize that Jun has been sitting in his room making purchases off of websites instead of getting any form of exercise. This unfortunately means he has to make a pact with the creepy doll that was in the box in order to prevent himself from being stabbed to death by a killer clown doll.

The rest of the episode is dedicated to showing Jun’s relationship with his sister, and how he copes with owing his life to a weird doll that appeared in his room. Unfortunately, we don’t actually find out what being a servant to a creepy doll actually means, leaving stuff for the next episode.

This show doesn’t show many symptoms of first episode syndrome. It doesn’t spend much time on exposition, and instead gives the viewer an idea of what to expect in the rest of the series. I’m actually quite anticipating the next episode.

Coming soon! Next Episode

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Anime in Focus: Comic Party episode 1

 Hm, today I’m going to attempt to start watching some of those anime DVDs I haven’t watched that I acquired while running an anime shoppe.

Here we have “Comic Party, an anime about the wonderful world of Doujinshi. You would think that doujinshi is a rather mundane topic, but if you’ve ever attempted to put a group together to get something done, it’s a rather Herculean task.

Anyway, our vanilla lead Kazuki gets dragged to a doujinshi convention by his friend Taishi, along with his childhood friend Mizuki. During this he learns that these conventions are crowded, smelly, and have bad cell phone reception. While I have confirmed the first two in reality, I believe the bad cell phone reception is a Japan thing. Also, Mizuki gets kidnapped by a crowd, and Taishi loses Kazuki, presumably so he can buy porn without his friend looking.

While it is obvious that Mizuki is probably having the most entertaining adventure while being kidnapped by a crowd, we instead decide to focus on Kazuki. Kazuki gets crowd shuffled into the front of the line for a mysterious comic artist’s booth, and winds up being held hostage while she makes a getaway while kidnapping him.

While being kidnapped by this mysterious comic book artist, Kazuki learns the true meaning of the convention (I thought it was money, but apparently it isn't), and winds up working at her booth for the rest of the day.

This episode has a major case of first episode syndrome, and the next episode is going to have to do much better to keep me coming back. I personally think the show didn't take enough risks, which made things a bit boring. 

Coming soon: next episode

Anime in focus: School days episode 12

 <- The only thing being exaggerated is the character's expressions

<-Previous Episode 

AHHHHH!

Ugh!

AHHHHH!

*shuddering* I heard about this on the internet. But seeing it is totally different. After watching these characters for 11 episodes, and seeing an ending like this is a totally different experience. I mean AHHH.

*sitting on coach at therapists office*

Oh right, of course doctor, what happened. Uhm well, it was Christmas time, and Saionji had made Itou a nice dinner to celebrate with him. She appears stressed out, but moderately exited to be carrying Itou’s baby.

Unfortunately, he cancels on their dinner. After an intense grilling, she finds out that he’s with Katsura, his first love, once again. Yes, apparently Itou has “feelings” for Katsura, and he wants to come back to her. This is, of course, after he slept with almost every girl in the school, and even got one pregnant.

He comes back home to find the dinner Saionji prepared, smashed on the floor. He seems mostly indifferent to this, seeing the complete monster he’s become. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to get back with Katsura because he wanted her, or just because she was the only one left that hasn’t slept with him (Saionji wasn’t registering on his radar apparently.)

After declaring his undying love for Katsura (BLECH) he texts Saionji telling her about an abortion clinic Katsura knew of. The next day, Saionji asks to see him at his house.

What ensued? I believe it was the most delightful melodramatic mess that I’ve ever seen in an anime. It stuck with me for a couple days, and afterwards I just sat staring at the screen with my jaw ajar. I felt like vomiting immediately after viewing. AWESOME ending, really, beats the crap out of the usual climax in this type of anime.

I seriously doubt I could recreate that here though, hehehe. Nice Boat indeed.

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Maid: The RPG overview

I found this RPG supplement on TV Tropes, and just went… “Wow, this has to be the weirdest looking core rule book I’ve ever seen” Seeing that I haven’t written about any pen and paper RPG’s for a while, and that this might be fun to investigate, since the heavy anime influences make it quite suitable for this site. (What’s that? Articles about Ancient Greece have nothing to do with anime? SHUT UP!)

This forced me to acquire it immediately. I could tell this was going to be interesting when in the “things required to play” section, it lists that you probably should leave your shame at home.

Also, it uses the term “roll 1d666,” or roll three 6 sided dice.

My first impression is that this looks like a great game to bring to an anime convention or a forum meet up (Play with my regular Dungeons and Dragons/ World of Darkness Group? HA!) for a possible play-by-post or something. Obviously, I’d be willing to do a LARP (Live-Action Role Play… a bunch of people in costumes playing a game like this) with a bunch of sexy females in maid outfits calling me master.

I do like the table for determining special qualities for your character. These are things that set you apart from your peers, such as wearing giant glasses, being an albino, or being a dude (!!) Other fun qualities include having a weird fetish, a weird accent, always wear sunglasses (even at night) or have a strange tendency to enjoy stabbing people. All of these traits are rolled randomly, ensuring that this game is as much of an improv act as it is an RP

Rules for this game are relatively simple, and can be kept on about one page. You have a bunch of attributes, you roll a dice and multiply it by that attribute, and your enemy (or obstacle) makes an opposed roll. Whoever gets a higher roll wins. The loser takes damage (or stress in this case) until they reach there limit and have a breakdown (they player is then forced to act in a specific manner, such as binge drinking or being a jerk for an amount of time, in minutes based around the damage they took) I presume that rules were kept light for the sole purpose of keeping the game playable while drunk.

In order to increase insanity, the dungeon master has stats and is subject to insanity to. Also, to make things easier, there is a rather large table detailing random encounters. It requires you to improvise, but any dungeon master worth his salt can do that. This table includes all the staples you’d need to get the creative juices flowing such as rolling the dice to find out the mansion has had a zombie outbreak, or if Cthuhlu has decided to make a quick visit.

Although I do not believe that this book is very suitable for a serious role play,(Hey, if you want to do a game with a bunch of killer maids, almost any system will do.) it looks like it would satisfy boredom for a night. The majority of rules take about 10 minutes to learn, and are incredibly easy to teach to a newcomer. Most importantly, it appears that if your adventures don't turn into a chaotic mess where hilarity ensues, your probably playing the game wrong. Simplicity works for and against this book in that regard. The real meat in the book is the flavor text and the random tables, which are top notch. I may wind up using some of the random event tables in my next Dungeons and Dragons game, just to give it a shot. Unfortunately, I haven’t field tested this book yet, so I would need to do a follow up report on how the actual game plays…. I’d be willing to do a play by post, or I’m willing to meet a group at any major convention I attend...

Oh yeah, the book isn’t available on Amazon, so you have to order it from the company website. Seven dollars for the PDF is pretty nice, but the physical book would be necessary to use it at conventions.

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Merits of the dating sim genre

Well, I write about what’s on my mind, and since I’ve been playing a dating sim a lot, guess what’s on my mind?

What is a dating sim? The best way to describe it would be an RPG without all the violence. Instead of leveling up stats like attack and defense, you level up stuff like intelligence and charisma (although being buff is helpful, it’s not nearly as important) and the goal is (usually) not to save the world, but instead win the affection (well, some NC-17 versions exist, but I don’t really play those) of some (or all, for the pimp machines out there) person in the game. While this is not as action oriented as a lot of games out there, it plays quite similarly to the talking portions of games from Bioware (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur’s Gate, e.t.c.) or like the non combat portions of Persona 3 or 4. It should be noted that a well crafted game in the genre should top sitting around and chatting in those games, because you usually can’t take out a longsword and bash some skulls in because you’re bored. If you feel that desire in most dating sims, that’s a strong sign that game isn’t very good.

Anyways, there are a lot of things that make the genre unique. Most importantly, it’s the blend of anime and video game elements into a unique experience. While the story telling is similar in style to an anime, the video game elements allow a bit of interactivity, preventing the mind from stagnating and just letting the screen do all the talking (not that I object to that, that is what makes anime fun) while not being too demanding on the reflexes.

This makes the genre great for non gamers as well as beginning games, as the play style does not actively demand knowledge of how to play video games or tons of technical ability, as many video games do (Alright, I’ll admit, I remember learning to play video games as well as I remember learning to walk, but some n00b gamers I’ve met have trouble with some of the most basic things…) meaning that a new person can pick one up and know what their doing quite quickly. Most of them require the reading ability and comprehension of an online chat room anyway.

This is not to say that advanced games cannot have fun with the genre. I know that although I’ve survived some of the most hardcore games and told tales about them, the lack of difficulty doesn’t bother me.  This is due to the anime esque aspects, which take focus away from the gameplay which might not be very challenging. From this perspective, the genre becomes more like an anime you have some control over.

Well, if you’re interested, this site has a link to download a lot of freeware to try the genre out. If you want to commit to something, professional companies work on games with higher production values. I wanted to write at one point (Well, it was going to be less of a dating sim, and more of a Captain Kirk sim) but am actually being a beta tester for one at the moment… Pretty fun, I posted a review HERE.

Note: Ren’nai is just the Japanese word for visual novel, dating sim, or whatever. I feel that the English terms suffice and are easier for my tongue to pronounce.

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The Big Review: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2

<-This has nothing to do with this season at all. I just like gothic lolita a lot. 

Ugh, this will definitely go down as the low point in Haruhi’s history. I’d say they couldn’t do worse if they tried, but the problem is I know they TRIED to do a bad job with this. (more on that later) I’m going to assume you’ve seen the first season of this series and are familiar with the characters because this one is not going to attract any new fans.

This season consists of approximately 3 arcs, two of which are good, and one that is so horrible that somebody needs to be fired for green lighting it. The season starts out nicely with an episode where Kyon winds up being sent into the past in order assist Haruhi in a prank she pulled at the school 3 years ago, which for some reason affects the time space continuum in a way that Mikuru (from the future) approves of. This is a nice episode that shows promise for the season, and had me exited for the next ones…

I highly recommend you just watch the first episode (Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody) then go watch the movie, since it discusses critical plot points in the movie. When people discuss the rest of the season, I suggest you cover your ears and go “LALALALALA I’M NOT LISTENING” until they shut up.

The next eight episodes consist of an endless time loop known as “Endless Eight.” They don’t call it endless eight for nothing. This is an entire eight episodes of the cast being stuck in an infinite time loop doing the same thing again and again. 

The next eight episodes consist of an endless time loop known as “Endless Eight.” They don’t call it endless eight for nothing. This is an entire eight episodes of the cast being stuck in an infinite time loop doing the same thing again and again. 

The next eight episodes consist of an endless time loop known as “Endless Eight.” They don’t call it endless eight for nothing. This is an entire eight episodes of the cast being stuck in an infinite time loop doing the same thing again and again. 

The next eight episodes consist of an endless time loop known as “Endless Eight.” They don’t call it endless eight for nothing. This is an entire eight episodes of the cast being stuck in an infinite time loop doing the same thing again and again. 

The next eight episodes consist of an endless time loop known as “Endless Eight.” They don’t call it endless eight for nothing. This is an entire eight episodes of the cast being stuck in an infinite time loop doing the same thing again and again. 

The next eight episodes consist of an endless time loop known as “Endless Eight.” They don’t call it endless eight for nothing. This is an entire eight episodes of the cast being stuck in an infinite time loop doing the same thing again and again. 

The next eight episodes consist of an endless time loop known as “Endless Eight.” They don’t call it endless eight for nothing. This is an entire eight episodes of the cast being stuck in an infinite time loop doing the same thing again and again. 

The next eight episodes consist of an endless time loop known as “Endless Eight.” They don’t call it endless eight for nothing. This is an entire eight episodes of the cast being stuck in an infinite time loop doing the same thing again and again, until Kyon figures out how to break the loop. For some strange reason, the studio decided that they would blow most of the budget on this, by taking the time to re-animate every episode with extraneous detail, even thought it’s the same plot and events over and over.

Anyway, after the studio established that they have enough money to smoke their top grade weed in rolled up hundred dollar bills, (No really, think of the animation costs, production costs, and network backlash… that took serious spine to pull off) they get to a few episodes regarding the creation of the movie shown during the first episode. The first couple of these are boring as hell and not much happens. The last three have some back stage drama and philosophical lectures that flesh out some characters. Some of this is quite interesting to watch, and almost made up for the rest of the season. Almost. The plot doesn’t get advanced that much though. Overall, there are about 4 good episodes in this season, making it an overall disappointment.

Oh yeah, I should probably mention that the ending and opening songs for this season pale before the ones in the first season. I’m probably biased because I actually know how to do the Hare Hare Yukai, but it’s a noticeable downgrade. Thankfully, they wised up and used “Bouken Desho Desho” for the opening credits to the movie. Animation quality is very high throughout this season, even during episodes that really don’t deserve it.

Should you watch this season? No, probably not. If you really insist, watch the first episode and the last five, and if you’re really hardcore, the first and last episodes of Endless Eight. The only good part about this season was that it laid some groundwork for the movie…

Speaking of which, the movie manages to prove that the people behind this project still have their artistic talent that made the first season good, they were just holding out on us this season.

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Anime in Focus: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 episode 14

<- The last episode of a season is always a great time to introduce a talking cat

<-Previous Episode

Well, we end this season of Haruhi by having the characters discuss philosophy and the finishing touches on that movie plot that’s been going for the last few episodes.

This episode starts with Haruhi picking up a cat to be Yuki’s familiar in the movie project the SOS brigade is working on. Unfortunately, Haruhi’s powers cause the cat to talk, leading the cat to engage in conversations about philosophy, kind of like Brian from Family Guy. It’s rather interesting as we attempt to see Kyon try to convince the cat that it’s special that he can talk, and that he isn’t just creating an illusion of language.

Like a lot of philosophical lectures, neither side is really convinced, so they just wander off and buy cat food. Kyon explains to the cat that cats say “meow” and wonders home. We then learn that Mikuru’s and Nagato’s factions both hold theories that oppose Itsuki’s, creating a aura of tension among the SOS brigade members. Furthermore, Itsuki explains that the movie is creating issues with the space time continuum, causing reality and fiction to meld. This leads to Itsuki suggesting that they do something to ensure that Haruhi KNOWS that this is a movie, and prevent her from subconsciously causing the movie’s reality to meld with the real world.

Then there’s a montage of the character’s finishing off the movie, which is the least exiting part of the episode. The interesting part about this ep. is that if you pay attention to Kyon’s mannerisms you’ll notice he doesn’t really seem to care about the reality warping as much as everybody else. While everybody else is panicking, he seems to just take everything as it happens, not seeming to care, as long as Haruhi lays off of Mikuru. This is really interesting, as the mindset is what leads into the movie’s plot, where we see some actual growth in Kyon’s character.

Although a good episode, this is a very weak climax to a weak season. If more episodes are produced, I certainly hope their better than this seasons. If I hear anything about it, I’ll report it here as soon as possible.

Although this is the end of the show as of now, there's still The movie

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Anime in focus: School days episode 11

<-Previous episode 

Almost to the conclusion of this series. This episode shows some flashbacks giving us a general idea of just how far the series has gone since it’s first few episodes, and how it went from a cutesy high school love triangle to the most depraved drama I’ve ever seen.

Ah, well, Itou hasn’t slept with everybody yet. There’s still Katusara and that girl on the basketball team. There were a few other gilrs, but he sleeps with all of them at once in this episode, just to show us that he’s going to grow up to act like Glen Quagmire.

Meanwhile, Itou’s actions start coming around full circle in this episode. To start Saionji reveals that she missed her period…

DUN DUN DUN

On the other side, Katsura’s been talking into a dead cell phone while in a rather creepy trance.

And while it is implied that Itou had a filthy foursome in this episode, his various flings start ignoring the bastard after word about Saionji gets around. Poetic justice really. Itou’d grown cold and heartless over the episodes, and no longer cares for the women he sleeps with (still don’t see what they see in him.) At the end, we’re given a flashback of the beginning, back when he cared. It’s kind of sad really. Not sad enough to make me emphasize with somebody who gets that much sex, but you know, sad. I’d punch him in reality of course. He has turned into a major dick after all. Like Light Yagami from Death Note, but instead of becoming numb to killing people, he’s become numb to sleeping with them.

Now then, I’m going to watch the last episode. Can’t wait to see the climax to all of this, because there is no way this will end well.

FINAL EPISODE ->

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BryAnime Presents: My top 10 AMV's

<-Previous top 10: Top 10 most attractive Video Game Females

After attending a few AMV contests, I decided that AMV’s would be a relatively solid place to go for my “Top 10” segment, because there are many things I can rate besides the attractiveness of fictional women. While I do know this is not a comprehensive list, I do not accept arguments that do not come with evidence (links)

10.) Chibi’s that kill: This one gets a lot of concept points, just for having a bunch of cute characters beat up some more serious ones. Also, the edits look nice.

9.) Mindless self Indulgence: Warning, lyrics aren’t safe for work. This video’s biggest merit is the simply concept that it explains how hardcore Pikachu is. Indeed, this kind of silliness is a great way to get my approval. It should be noted that the author probably had to go all over the place to find all these clips, and Pokemon has a lot of episodes.

8.) Be a Man: One of my favorite Gurren Lagan AMV’s based solely on how in character everything is. Makes me wanna go watch that series because of how manly the AMV is. Unfortunately, this one’s not on youtube, so you’ll have to use this link.  

7.) Skittles: Classic AMV right here. Famous mostly for the lovely effects and bright colors. Also, has a lot of really nice editing.

6.) Setsuna of Arabia: A finalist from Anime expo 2010’s AMV contest. Although I voted for Alchanum to win, I still found this one to be quite exiting. Sadly though, I haven’t seen the Gundam this AMV is from, meaning I should probably watch it again later.

5.) Code Roll: No, I haven’t seen Code Geass yet. I might, someday, when I feel like it, and haven’t seen a raving fangirl for three months or so. This is from the time during the 2009 AMV contest when a person had the iron resolve to attempt a Rick Roll on the AMV contest. The fact that it managed to get so far really says a lot about the video’s quality, and how the characters match the song.

4.) Robots: One of the better AMV’s to come out of the contest back in 2009, this one tells about what robots are going to do after they slaughter humanity. It contains the best version of the song I’ve heard, and the animation compliments it very nicely. I give in an entirely unemotional sign of approval.

3.) Bustin’: This one’s main sales point is the news articles that appear throughout the course of the video. Without those, this AMV would be just good, but with them, it provides a near constant stream of laughs, just because of what they say. It helps that they crafted a logo for this one. I first saw this one at the AMV contest at AX 2008, and had a major struggle inside of me whether to vote for this or “The Harrassment of Kyon”

2.) Alchanum: Winner of best of show at the 2010 AX AMV contest, and the one I voted for best of show. Notable for being epic and being a rather interesting retell of Full Metal Alchemist. Unfortunately, I was unable to locate the version shown at AX 2010, alas, if you skip the ending portion, this one contains almost as much meatiness.

1.) The Harrassment of Kyon: While I do hate yaoi fangirls, I do not in fact have that much of an issue with Yaoi. This leads me to this AMV that I saw at Anime expo 2008, which I find both well made and highly amusing. Also, from seeing the series, seeing these scenes taken entirely out of context adds to the fun greatly.

Another thing that makes this AMV great is that I normally LOATHE the song “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavine, but in this context I find it catchy and amusing. Furthermore, it further stamps in the conclusion that everybody in the SOS brigade want’s Kyon, even the guys. Sorry Yuki, I haven’t seen any Kyon x Yuki videos that beat this one. Kyon x Haruhi? GET OFF MY INTERNETS!

After discussing this with some people, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are enough solid AMV’s to do a follow up report on this topic, so I’ll be glad to consider any recommendations for the next edition. All rankings are solely my own opinion.

Please Comment and Subscribe!

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