Climax of Small Press Idol round 3

Well, sad news. The people I was pushing to win Small Press Idol round 3 did not win. The cure came close though. In light of this, I have decided instead to attempt to continue to manipulate the poll results in the little way I can, despite not knowing any of the people running. I will now take the same stance as the judges and push titles based solely on how much I think they would sell if they were in a comic book shoppe.

Curse of the Vessel, The People that melt in the Rain, and Clown town were both featured in my previous small press idol post HERE

Personally, I’d prefer Curse of the Vessel or The People that melt in the rain to win, for I feel they have the most potential for a good plot in comparison to the other plots. However, reading on the Small Press idol forums, Clown Town may or may not have some good potential. Alas, to decrease Bias, I will discuss a new contender, Monkey quest:

Monkey Quest: This project managed to steal third place from The People that Melt in the Rain at the last minute, putting it in a weakly held spot. The story follows a group of thieves who have achieved a map that leads to a relic that will spell the undoing of some empire. While this premise has been done to death, this project has a respectable spot in the competition, probably due to character designs being very clean, and everything being very easy on the eyes.

Overall, while the original projects that I was pushing for did not achieve a position in this contest that would assure victory, since I have done all this research, I feel compelled to see the contest through to the end, and possibly have an effect on the results. Hence, I may attempt to get a look at the material released for round four, and at that point, I will report my opinions on who I think should win. MAY THE BEST COMIC WIN!

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Anime in Focus: School Days episode 7

<-Previous Episode

Today’s review brought to you by the FREAKING ZOMBIE CAFÉ!

Now serving freshly baked brains!

This episode isn’t nearly as interesting as the last one. I will admit, this show’s been heating up a lot, so it’s REALLY hard to keep up with the pace.

In this episode, Katsura is deluding herself into believing that she is still dating Itou, despite him and Saionji mostly ignoring her. Itou still lacks the spine to properly dump her.

This episode shows us how unattractive a harem lead really is. Itou has no spinal column, which prevents him from stopping Saionji’s friend Setsuna from pushing him around. He still won’t admit to anybody but Saionji that he’s done with Katsura, and sits by and watches while Katsura’s classmates make fun of her for being loyal to him. On one hand, it’s really ensickening to watch, but on the other, it’s fun to see the usual laws of harem anime get inverted. It is both delicious and amuses me

Instead of having two girls fawning over one guy and still being friends for some reason, Saionji and Katsura stopped hanging out over this fiasco. Not once do we hear them act like their fine with him hanging around the other girl. I like this because of how much sense this course of action makes.

Oh yeah, in this episode we see Saionji in an awesome maid outfit.

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Next Episode ->

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Opinions on Anime Expo 2010

Okay, Anime expo is coming up in about two weeks, so I feel it’s time to build up the hype machine over here. I am both exited and nervous regarding this year’s convention for various reasons.

First and foremost, I will not be just an attendee this year, for I plan to volunteer and actually contribute to the convention. This does get me a free ticket, and I feel that since I’ve been attending Anime expo for so many years, maybe I should really take some time to get to know it. It’s unfortunate that they did not accept me for a staff position, but I heard their cutting back. Not good, since I heard their cutting back on the registration staff, which means

THE LINE! WHY MUST THEY DO LESS TO CONTROL IT?

On the bright side, I will be done with the line on day 0, before anything interesting actually happens. Hence allowing me to enjoy the convention without wasting half of day one on some stupid line.

I know that I will probably be taking efforts to attend this year’s masquerade and AMV contest. This is because I have been told that MoonyMonster will probably be making a skit in the Masquerade, meaning attendance is pretty mandatory, AMV contest is usually exiting, and only suckers don’t go.

It is relevant that everybody knows that I will take great effort to avoid volunteering at 6:00 PM on July 2 (day 2) in order to attend the Persona gathering. (details HERE) I will be attending as Seta Souji, (Persona 4) or as I’ve been referring to myself, “The Brotagonist,” and I will be the one wielding a wiffle bat instead of a sword (I’d go get a golf club, but weapon policy blows. It appears that this year most of the cast will be showing, although I am very disappointed that there is no Rise Kujikawa, and that nobody has taken up to cosplaying Adachy-baby (as Teddy refers to him.) I will be attending other cosplay gatherings based on what I feel like, with a moderately high probability of me attending the Haruhi gathering right after the Persona gathering, based mostly on how interesting the Persona gathering is.

In other news, I will most likely be attending the dance, because I am awesome. There is a 75% chance of me cosplaying on any given night at the dance, although odds are much higher on day 2, since I have to be in costume for the Persona gathering. I do not have an actual date for the dance, and I will be accepting applications for a date from now to approximately five seconds before I get to the dance. Applications will be incredibly biased, and everybody does not have a fair chance of being my date. Winner will be selected based on timing, attitude, luck, costume, and whether or not I like your face.

At the moment, all I have left to do for the expo is wait, since I have made most the preparations, aside from extorting money from a few people in my hotel squadron. Other than that, I am ready to rock. How about you guys?

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Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess review

           Allow me to say this first: I loved this game. It was stupid hella fun, and provided hours of entertainment. I only seem nit-picky because of a few minor details. 

        Anyway, here we are playing as Link again, in another generic village, when he encounters his heroic destiny AGAIN! This was driving me nuts until his home village was finally attacked by Orcs, and Link was dragged into another realm, which caused him to transform into a werewolf. Aside from the Werewolf thing, the plot to this game was essentially Orcarina of Time all over again, but I'd like to ignore that. Anyway, this game gets good about the time Link turns into a wolf, as stuff starts happening there. At that part, you feel like you've been taken from your life as a rancher, and thrown into something big. It even was a bit difficult for a while. After that though, things went wrong. Once I got used to the Wiimote, (first game using it >_>) the difficulty went straight down by a large margin. Aside from a couple of sidebosses where I didn't find the weakness in time, it was essentially shooting fish in a barrel. Anyway, I don't wanna give away all the fun stuff, so we’re going to move on

       Best part of this game was the dungeons. And the dragons. By Dragons, I mean bosses. These were all incredibly epic, (except none of them were as tough as they looked.) however, I really wanted more of a fight from them. If I'm trapped deep underwater, being attacked by a giant sea monster, I wanna feel like I'm gonna die. Instead, I was able to sit down during some boss fights (not good when using a wiimote hehe) The sidebosses were great. Although I liked to take on giant monsters using wits and crazy tricks no human could feasibly perform, the sword using bosses felt more in-depth. The giant things, although awesome, just felt like another puzzle in the dungeon, only with a timer. By timer, of course, I mean your health. Also, I'd really like to see an end to flashing weak points. They make things WAY too easy. The side bosses were quite fun, and I loved the mounted combat bosses (There should have been more.) because they felt epic. Sadly, although the fights appeared epic, I felt less like "Yes, I finally killed it!" and more like "lol n00b! Learn to fight" Anyway, other than the bosses, there was more depth to this game, despite the fact the main rason I played the game was for the really epic boss fights.

        The Dungeons. These were great. They had all kinds of weird stuff. Also, you get AWESOME equipment. The Wiimote makes aiming quite easy. This makes the hookshot even more fun to use than usual (I want one!) and making aiming the bow easy. Some of it doesn't get as much use as I would like (GIANT WRECKING BALL!) However, the dungeons all had their unique twists and turns. However, if you've played any other Zelda game, you will see a lot of it coming. On the other hand, some of it will make you go “ohhhhh…” It's all really entertaining. I especially liked the tomb, and the volcanic mines. 

Outside the Dungeons: Overworld looks nice, and there are lots of little secrets. After you find a new toy in a dungeon, you'll definitely want to go try it out across the land. One thing I don't like though is the money, for there is way too much of it, and nothing to use it for. Sure, there's one suit of armor, but that's about it. It really just sits in your wallet , which is now full, while you just keep finding more of it. However, this game has a rich over world, if you take the time to explore it.

Overview: Buy this game. Seriously, it has a lot of gameplay, and a lot to explore. I wish it was more difficult, but it is fun. And quite epic. Furthermore, it is quite cheap now. You should go try it if you haven’t already.

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Anime in Focus: The Legend of Zelda Episode 12

Episode titled “The missing Link”

This one was suggested at a party to be watched. It should be noted that this show was not made in Japan, but America, hence making it a cartoon rather than an anime.

Unfortunately, we did not have enough alcohol to partake in “The Legend of Zelda Drinking game” (every time Link says “excuse me princess” or “How about a kiss,” take a shot)

This episode was aired as part of “Super Mario Super Show” which I watched as a little kid. I however never saw the Legend of Zelda segment, suggesting that I repressed the memory.

This episode starts with Link and Zelda loitering around Hyrule castle, when Gannon attacks. Based on how long it takes Zelda to prepare a counter attack, we can infer that this is a very common occurrence. For some reason, Link relies on his swords ability to shoot laser beams way more than its ability to be used in melee combat. This makes sense, because the sword is freaking tiny. Apparently, he never picked up anything bigger than the Kokiri sword from Orcarina of Time.

Anyway, Link gets killed towards the beginning of the episode, and his ghost seems to get attached to Zelda for whatever reason. This leads to Zelda being forced to go down to Gannon’s castle to go retrieve Link’s body to help resurrect him.

It was during this time that it really sunk in that Link’s voice is SO off. He sounds like a 20 year old wannabe playboy that thinks he’s a total ladies man. Makes me wanna vomit.

Anyway, rest of the episode is about Link’s ghost assisting Zelda in using his equipment. She’s no good with laser swords apparently. Also, she’s able to save him because of the power of love or something.

This entire affair was dreadfully painful, and would not be fun with other people to watch suffer. The whole affair made me want to go play Twilight Princess until my hands felt clean again. It erased all questions about why Link had no voice actor in the games, for if he sounded like this, game sales would have dropped significantly. Ganon seems to act more like Megatron from Transformers than Ganon from the games. This cartoon definitely would not have been made without a license to back it up, and there are no questions about why it only had 13 episodes.

On the other hand, this show is kind of fun to watch with friends, just because of how horrid it is.

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Artist Profile: ArionHawk

Today’s artist is ArionHawk, on DeviantArt

Previous Profile: Shira Oka: Second Chances

Well, now that I started advertising with project wonderful, I get full and complete dictatorship over a couple adslots on my site. Furthermore, I can go investigate the people that advertise me with no chance of retribution from google, leading to a much better connection with the community and type of people who sponsor the site.

Upon realizing that I now can research my ads entirely, I occasionally use this ability, ESPECIALLY since webcomics and such are actually quite ripe for making posts about here. This lead me to discover ArionHawk, the perfect person for a new artist profile segment.

ArionHawk is an artist who mainly works with pencils and photoshop, but also does some CGI stuff. While he has some interesting shots, there is a small lack in quantity. Fortunately, I believe there to be enough to write about. Let’s start with his most recent picture….

Looks quite nice, good choice to be placed first on his ad on this site.

Second shot is definitely my favorite picture he did,

Because I think platemail is awesome, and Legend of Zelda is awesome, so the obvious combo makes its appearance. It should be noted that Link wear chain mail under the tunic, so this outfit would probably be VERY difficult to put on/take off.

Finally, I’m going to exhibit one of his CGI pieces of a dining room

Looks really nice.

It should be noted that ArionHawk DOES do commissions, and would probably do one for you if you went and requested on his page.

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Coming soon: I’m thinking of this one artist I met on Digg.

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Anime in Focus: Devil May Cry episode 3

 <-Previous Episode

 This episode is available for FREE on Funimation's website HERE

Well, after an okay first couple of episodes, This show has managed to do nothing but make me wanna go play some video game that features Dante and go dish out some real carnage against some demons that don’t die in two hits. Alas, part of being in an anime club is that you are never 100% in charge of what you get to watch.

Well, we get to episode 3, which starts out with me thinking this is some shoujo. We meet some guy, who meets some girl, they fall in love in like 10 seconds. Hopefully one of them turns out to be a demon and eats the other one, or maybe they’ll die horribly, right? This is supported by the fact that the dude has magical powers, lending itself to that type of plot.

Meanwhile, we cut to the girl’s father, who has hired Dante to assassinate the dide, because he doesn’t like him. Dante is hesitant, because he sees no convincing evidence that the guy is a devil, and Dante doesn’t kill humans. Dante goes out to confront the guy, which leads to a lot of chit-chat, until they finally go into a back alley. Is he going to attempt to attack Dante? No, because he knows who Dante is. While this does mean the man is smart, it does not lead to a fight. He then asks Dante about his parents, since Dante is half demon half human, wondering about the possibility between devils and humans.

Realizing that this guy is neither a very good devil nor a threat to humanity, Dante then reports to his boss in order to give him the finger. This leads to a fight with the great demon Belphegor! He, I recognize that name; he must be really powerful and will probably put up a good fight….. nope, wait, he’s dead already. Shoot, and I was all exited upon hearing such a recognizable name.

Well, episode was kind of cute, but demon slaying was disappointing. Unfortunately, the overall presentation seems to lack the badassery that the source material delivers.

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Next Episode ->

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