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!

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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Anime in focus: FLCL episode 6

There comes a time in every boy's life where he must become a super powered energy beam and use a pair of guitairs as a weapon.

Alright, now for the thrilling conclusion to a borderline incoherent series. It ends in the fashion that it started, crazy, fast and interesting.

At the start of this episode, the entire town has been covered by fog, much in the same fashion Inaba was covered in fog at the end of Persona 4. (FLCL came out first) This creates an aura of things not moving forward. Furthermore, Haruko and the TV headed guy vanish, as implied in the beginning of the episode. According to Naota, things have gone back to normal. This realization causes that guy with the huge eyebrows to congratulate Naota and give him a pair of gigantic eyebrows. He then explains to Naota about the great space pirate Atomos and what he was planning to do with Haruko.

This goes on until Haruko comes back, and they do that weird animated manga thing, and ask Naota if he’s figured out what fooly cooly means. I suppose they were going for the “ending in the same fashion it begins” approach. After this, Naota goes on this weird trip thing were he meets Atomos, and winds up in a lot of fights.

As an ending episode, this one wraps up things quite nicely. While I am not entirely convinced that weird stuff will quit happening to Naota, it does give a nice climax to this chain of events. Granted, while I cannot quite express what happened into words, due to the nature of the show, it emits a sense of completeness. To put it bluntly, watching this show is akin to listening to music without lyrics, while you may be getting meaning from it, the meaning is quite difficult to fully express. I’d say the only way to truly understand this series is to go out and watch it yourself.

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Anime in Focus: FLCL episode 5

I just felt the need to point this scene out. Look at the size of that.... cell phone.

<- Previous Episode 

This episode’s theme appears to be hyper violence with a dash of Looney Toons.

This all starts out when Naota’s dad realizes that Haruko is paying more attention to Naota than himself (isn’t this familiar) and demands a gun battle with Naota. This garners the attention of the guy with the gigantic eyebrows, who winds up sending out his henchperson, whose shirt gets ripped in wonderful places. Still got no idea what these people are actually doing besides spying on Haruko. Anyway, these guys get into a rather large fight with Haruko, which winds up with nobody with a name getting killed. Clearly, everybody in this show has the aim of a stormtrooper. This suggests that every bit of violence was metaphorical and representing the characters internal struggles, or something.

Anyways, some giant thing that gets pulled out Naota’s head winds up attacking the medical building, but thankfully Naota has accepted his fate and fused with that TV headed robot in order to fight it. Haruko joins in, wearing a bunny girl outfit for some reason. While this is weird, it isn’t really enough to make me bat an eyebrow at this point.

Anyway, I’m not really sure if all of this is leading up to a finale, but there’s only one way to find out, right?

NEXT WEEK: FINAL EPISODE!

Anime in Focus: FLCL episode 4

<- As it stands, this man puffing up his eyebrows is on the level of a teenage girl stuffing her bra

<-PREVIOUS EPISODE

After the almost comprehensible third episode, I am given the proper head trip I was hoping for in the fourth episode. I’m not really sure if I had more questions answered or if more new ones were spawned. Frankly, I’m not even quite sure what was a delusion or what was really happening in this episode.

Anyway, this happens to be FLCL’s baseball episode. This one seems to use swinging the bat as its theme, where Naota can’t seem to find it within himself to swing a baseball bat like his brother did. Meanwhile, he’s feeling jealousy issues as Haruko is paying much more attention to his dad than to him.

Furthermore, Naota is being watched by some guy with pieces of seaweed for eyebrows that seems to want him to stay away from Haruko. During the episode, we see Naota hitting things with a baseball bat, presumably in order to vent his frustration about Haruko paying less attention to him. Throughout this ep, I’m not sure if his father is dead, alive, or what. I’m sure most of it’s metaphorical. Furthermore, while watching this episode, I’ve come to the conclusion everybody has super-advanced teleportation abilities, based on the places they wind up at throughout the episode. This is especially likely, since in a previous episode it was established that the medical building has no doors.

While this episode is filled with weirdness and hitting things with guitairs, I’m not sure whether to treat this as an actual anime about growing up and stuff, or a big music video by the Pillows. While it is thoroughly confusing (well, it manages to make more sense if you don’t look at everything at face value) it manages to tell a story, in a very abstract manner. This it to say this show reminds me of the weird sculptures outside the college art building.

Well, I’m more than halfway through the show now, there’s no turning back at this point!

PLACEHOLDER FOR NEXT EP LINK!

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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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Batman: Under the Red Hood REVIEW

I decided to watch this title because it was at my local Red Box and because I happened to have read this story arc in the comics. Due to reading the story arc, I was piqued at how they could make a story that relied on reading so many books and required such a great deal of knowledge of continuity to understand.

Thankfully, they decided to take out most of the convoluted stuff that plagues comics these days and kept it to the batman universe. While knowledge of the comics is helpful, it is not nearly as important as it was while reading the book.

While the details in the story are drastically different from those shown in the comics, the major twists are mostly the same. Unfortunately, while I knew the identity of the Red Hood from the get go, it is very obvious who he is throughout the movie, so I’d know about it 10 minutes in. This wouldn’t be an issue if the commercials didn’t make it look like it was a big mystery.

For the uninitiated, what is the plot of this movie? Batman, 5 years after the trauma of having the second Robin (Jason Todd, not Dick Grayson, who grew up and got his own spin off series) beaten to death by the Joker. This side plot is told mostly in flashbacks, where we see Batman’s relationship to Jason. The main plot revolves around the new vigilante in town, The Red Hood, who is trying to stop organized crime by both regulating it and blowing the heads off of people who disagree with him. This pisses off the current head of crime in town, “The Black Mask” who seems to serve the purpose of having a comic relief villain that isn’t nearly as awesome as the Joker. As seen in the nearby picture, The Joker wasn’t amused by his antics.

I'm sorry, this bag of chips is more interesting than you

I can’t really decide whether my favorite part of the movie was the fight scenes or the scenes of the Joker being a jerkwad. While during the first half of the movie Mistah Jay doesn’t do much exiting stuff, in the second half he really shines. I love it when the Black Mask tries to deal with him. Plus, the way he likes to remind Bats about what he did to Jason reminds just how much of a sadistic bastard he is. On the other side of things, the fight scenes are fast paced, and manage to recreate a lot of the parts shown in the comics. We get lots of awesome bro fights, including a fight where Batman and Nightwing team up and a fight where bats and the Red Hood fight some of the Black Mask’s thugs. The presence of Nightwing in this movie amuses me, seeing how he’s my second favorite DC character outside of Hal Jordan.

One thing that miffed me was that during this movie, I had a lot of trouble believing that the characters were not super powered. During one fight scene, bats and the red hood are slamming each other into walls hard enough to smash the ceramic tiles or to bust through a sink and neither of them gets a scratch. During this I was going “wait, WHAT?” since I know that any person would at LEAST have their face smashed up, but these guys actually shrug it off and keep going. It separated me from the movie a bit, since Batman is taking hits like Superman.

Voice acting is good in the movie, although Nightwing has some cringeworthy moments and gets a bit annoying. Mark Hamil is still the Joker, despite how much the current cast tries, but the guy who plays him does a solid job delivering lines.

The movie is worth a rent, but not nearly as great as other Batman animated movies such as “Return of the Joker” While the plot lacks mystery like the commercials say it has, it makes up for it with nice fight scenes and the Joker providing some twisted jokes to keep the mood dark. While it works for the PG-13 rating, I really wish it upped the gore factor, especially in scenes where a person is BEING BEAT TO DEATH WITH A CROWBAR, or when somebody is being slammed through the kitchen sink. Although nitpicks like this exist, it is a fun ride, and that easily makes it worth a rent, especially if you’re a fan of the Bat.

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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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Anime in Focus: FLCL (Fooly Cooly or Furi Kuri) Episode 3

 <- In this episode we get a bit more focus on outside characters, like this chick in the front.


<-PREVIOUS EPISODE

Well, this episode wasn’t quite as good as the last two, which were pretty solid. Unfortunately, this one keeps up the same pace, which is bad, since I’m used to the pacing of the show by this point. Furthermore, there are fewer surprises throughout the episode, which makes it much less interesting.

In this episode Naota has started growing cat ears for some reason. While they do not appear nearly as phallic as the horns that have been growing out of his head in the last couple of episodes, he is aroused when people touch them, ensuring that they remain just as prone to double meanings as the gigantic horns do. While he has these silly cat ears, he is required to play Puss in boots in the school play, while being bossed around by the class president who appears to have a crush on him. Or maybe it’s all symbolic of something. I can’t really tell.

The characterizations in this episode manage to be relatively easy to understand, making this one the oddball of the episodes I’ve watched in this series. While it has not turned me off from the series, it does not get me as exited for the next episode. However, I would like to believe the next episode will pick up the pace that was left behind in this episode in order to allow in more craziness.

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Shira Oka: Second Chances: REVIEW

<- You remember your first time you woke up about 5 years in the past with an Angel sitting next to your bed? Yeah, I was pretty freaked out about that too...

Demo for this game can be downloaded HERE. I’m trying to get the torrent hosted from my comp as I write this.

Oh yeah, Mac users should be happy to know the game is just as readily available for Mac as it is for PC!

Oh what’s that? The game isn’t out yet? It just so happens that I’ve acquired a beta version of the game through some rather… interesting… means (Okay, fine, I just applied to become a tester, and I’ve been helping test it for about two weeks now) While they are still ironing kinks out of game and debating mechanical issues such as balance and stuff, the project is, for the most part, functioning properly. They creators are really trying to avoid creating a project like Morrowind (love that game to death but GAH, the bugs) where even the most casual of players wind up tripping into game breaking bugs.

While I haven’t quite done everything in the game yet, I have clocked in a good chunk of time, and have managed to get a couple of the endings, first for Alice:

Clearly, I’m so American that it seeps through to my in- game avatar. IN AMERICA!

And the second time I got Rena’s ending

I actually found her ending to be much better, since the main puts in more effort towards his goals in that one. What's really interesting is the stark contrast between my predictions on what girls I would like, and who wound up liking me.

It appears that no matter how hard I try, Yui doesn’t seem to notice me. Jerk. At least Alice and Rena appreciate me XP

Anyways, let’s discuss the actual gameplay. The majority of the mechanics have been revealed in the demo… you work on your stats while events occur that make use of those stats. You then use these abilities to interact with the world, whether using your awesome mathematical skills to become an expert mechanic, or using your physique comparable to Zeus himself to defend your school’s honor. Like stated in the demo review, imagine Persona 4 without all that violence.It should be noted that after you manage to learn all of the actions to level up your skills, things get more interesting since the game loses some of the downtime the demo possessed.

What I really like about this stat layout is that focusing on different things tends to cause events to unfold very differently. While this game has a very large cast of characters, working on different stats causes different ones to notice you, giving a different perspective on the game, greatly increasing replay value. Also, it should be noted that stats are actually very difficult to balance, unlike games like Persona 3 / 4, where by endgame everything was maxed out. In this game, I find myself having to dump a couple of stats in order to keep up the ones I want. This means that each playthrough will wind up going very differently. Furthermore, these differences will keep you on your feet during future playthroughs, preventing you from just allowing yourself to stagnate.

Oh yes, the plot. You’re a guy who managed to be a total failure in life, who has been sent back in time back to the beginning of high school in order to start over, which leads you on a more enlightened set of adventures. However, what the demo DOESN’T tell you is [sorry, posting this part violates my non-disclosure agreement. Oh well. ] … and then… yeah. This left me exited to check out another ending.

Should you buy the game? It’s not out yet, silly. But sure, go for it. The replay value is exceedingly high, and most of the game is very interesting, and a lot of it is incredibly multi-faceted. You can really screw around and have fun learning more about the cast of characters, jerking them around, getting to know them, and whatever you want. Lots of the subplots are really interesting, and some you won’t even notice until a second time through or so. So you get a lot of bang for your buck, assuming you can’t afford to buy too many video games (like me, *sigh*) you’ll definitely get your money’s worth out of the game. Also, it isn’t very heavy on system requirements, and most computers should be able to handle it, even if you’re a Mac user. It’s every gamer with a budget’s dream!

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Anime in Focus: FLCL (Fooly Cooly or Furi Kuri) Episode 2

 <-Previous Episode

Well, this episode manages to cram in just as much weirdness in as the previous episode. I believe this makes sense in a six episode series, as time to sit around and stare off into the distance is quite short.

It should be noted that the pillows soundtrack is played quite prominently in this episode. Their borderline incomprehensible music manages to compliment the series quite well, since its insanity manages to fuse with the utter lack of grounding in the show.

 Anyway, in this episode, Naota has another gigantic phallic bump sticking out of his head. Also, the 8-foot tall robot with a TV for a head that crawled out of his head in the previous episode has been living with him and Haruko in his house. Furthermore, Mamimi has picked up some weird game about arson. Like Jack Thompson predicted, this game has been causing her to go out and commit arson for some reason. Also, a bit about Naota’s brother is thrown into the mix, just to force you to comprehend more.

Episode ends with that robot thing that came out of Naota’s head duking it out with another robot that crawled out of his head, with the help of Haruko. While I have no idea why anything is happening, I’m just going to assume that all will be explained later.

I wound up at the end of this episode with a headache, my eyeballs spinning, and having the pillows (the band) stuck in my head. I would say watching this show is akin to having your head sawed open, your brains removed and put into a blender, then put back into your head. Thankfully, it manages to evoke this emotion in a good way, if that were at all possible.

I believe this show has managed to prove itself interesting enough for me to commit to, and maybe by the end I’ll come out understanding a thing or two about what’s going on.

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NEXT EPISODE->

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Anime in Focus: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 episode 13

 <- This picture isn't NEARLY as exiting in context

<-Previous Episode

Hey, this episode managed to recapture a bit of the former season’s glory! If only I didn’t have to drudge through about 10 of the series worst episodes to get to it, I might have had a bit more faith in the series at this point.

This episode continues the arc about making the movie from the first episode of the first season, but rather than focus on the actual filming, (which is kinda boring, like episodes 10 and 11) it instead focuses on the behind the scenes drama, developing the cast a bit.

In this episode, we start by seeing the filming of the scene where Yuki sends a bunch of side characters to attack Mikuru. This is going well until Mikuru starts shooting lasers out of her eyes again, and we get a lovely image of Yuki taking measures to stop it. See above picture for details…. You done? Got that as ingrained in your memory as I do? Ahh yeah. ANYWAY, things get a bit awkward as Haruhi demands that the evil zombie whatever henchmen need to throw Mikuru in the lake. This looks fine on film, but the cast then realizes that this lake is probably polluted as hell. Nobody seems to mention the damage it could do to the battle waitress outfit, but nobody seems to care about that sort of thing.

The second part of the episode takes place at Tsuruya’s house, where they finish filming for the day. This is the part where Koizumi’s character takes Mikuru’s character to his house for some reason. While they are at the house, Haruhi has Tsuruya lace Mikuru’s drink with liquor, in order to enhance Mikuru’s acting skills. Unfortunately, Mikuru can’t hold her alcohol very good at all, which leads to her almost passing out. Haruhi gets pissed about this, and starts yelling at Mikuru.

Then finally, we see the moment I’ve been waiting for since about 3 episodes into the first season. Kyon gets fed up with Haruhi treating Mikuru like her plaything, gets his fist ready, tells Haruhi she’s an annoying jerk, and gets ready to whack her… But then Koizumi intervenes, and stops Kyon from smacking Haruhi. If this was back in my days of Kyon x Mikuru shipping, I’d be so exited about this. However, the movie converted me to Kyon x Yuki. Still, I was quite exited to see Kyon finally stick up for Mikuru.

Oh yeah, for the rest of the episode, things are a bit awkward between the brigade members, for obvious reasons. Koizumi gives out a speech about the nature of the universe to Kyon, and discusses his opinions on opposing Haruhi with Kyon, and we get a bit on the plot.

Episode manages to be very solid. I wish more of the second season was like this. While I thought the music felt a bit off in some scenes (Do they only have one dramatic track?) for in some parts, the music didn’t seem to suit the gravity of the situation, particularly in a segment at the lake. Thankfully, the fleshing out of the characters made up for this flaw. Believe it or not, I’m actually EXITED about the next episode, which hasn’t happened since the first episode of this season.

Coming soon! Episode 14

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Anime in Focus: Retro edition- Captain Harlock (1978)

This show is available for free legally on funimation’s website HERE

Well, after seeing the most badass trailer ever at AX, I decided I should do some research on this show from the 70’s.

The first episode is actually kinda bland unfortunately. I was pretty disappointed. The show starts out with an exposition about how humanity has dried up the oceans on earth and turned to the stars for hope now. Then we zoom on over to our protagonist on his space ship, combining the medieval wooden pirate ships with a Star Destroyer. Clearly the ship belonging to a man of good taste. We then see our lead, a man with both an eyepatch and a huge scar running across his face. Clearly, the potential for massive amounts of manliness is here. Sadly, this does not appear in this episode. In this ep, we see the ship fire off a bunch of space harpoons at the evil empire’s ships, freezing everybody on board. They then take their food, and dump out the loot. This is all done effortlessly and with almost no confrontation.

The second part revolves around Harlock keeping a promise he made to a little girl. However, in order to fulfill this promise, he has to appear publicly, and infamous space pirates are usually not popular in public places. Harlock’s sense of honor, however, seems to compel him to see this little girl, on what we are shown is the anniversary of somebody’s death.

Unfortunately, the issue with the military is solved in the most boring fashion possible, with almost no suspense about what is going to happen.

Hm, with this first episode, I’m quite weary about watching a second one.

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FLCL (Fooly Cooly or Furi Kuri): The big review

Well, it’s time to review that anime that everybody wanted me to watch because it offended them on a deep level for some reason.

Since this series is only 6 episodes long, I decided it was imperative that I watch it, if only get everybody to shut up. Fortunately, I actually enjoyed the series, which managed to be a plus.

This series is about a boy name Naota, who after getting run over by a lady named Haruko, who rides a yellow vespa, and his life is never exactly the same. From this point forward, weird robots start spouting from inside his head, which he must then combat with another robot that spouted from the inside of his head, along with Haruko hitting them with her guitar.

The whole thing plays like a big music video by the Pillows, the band that does the soundtrack for the series. This is to say that the plot flows with the style and consistency of a music video, along with the animation effects mimicking the style of one. The narration is all over the place, explaining the story in an abstract fashion that relies mostly on the viewer’s brain to put together. Basically, it’s not an experience that translates into words very well. It’s kind of like a painting. It’s definitely something that the artistic type needs to watch, just for the weirdness.

In order to understand the series, one can’t really analyze it at face value. It all makes more sense if you just zone out a little and watch as it goes by. It all makes more sense if you watch it that fashion. Watching it is like having your head sawed open, having your brains put into a blender, then put back in your head. Thankfully, this manages to feel good. Oh yeah, and apparently the series is about puberty and growing up, but by that logic, everything is about puberty and growing up.

Should you watch it? From what I’ve gathered, you probably have already. If you haven’t, go ahead and do it. It’s only six episodes, reducing the commitment factor. I will admit, it is very difficult to find the series legally, but maybe a friend has the DVD, or maybe they will show it on Adult Swim again (I don’t have cable)

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Anime in Focus: Gankutsuou (The Count of Monte Cristo) episode 1

Well, I was feeling pretty random, and decided it was time that I watch that show about the Counto of Monte Cristo… IN SPACE! This is part of a relatively small genre of shows that revolve around taking those books you were forced to read in English class, and making them awesome.

This show starts out in a rave ON THE MOON on the same day as a holiday in Rome. We then see our main character, Monsieur de Morcerf entering an Opera featuring a singer wearing a bloody dress.  Out on one of the expensive balconies, a strange man with blue skin and fangs goes and throws her a bouquet of roses in the middle of the play. We learn that this man is none other than the count of Monte Cristo, the new self appointed noble that has all of the aristocracy talking.

Strangely, Morcerf notices that the count accidentally drops an incredibly fancy gold watch, and tries to give it back to him, unsuccessfully. Even weirder, Morcerf and his friend Franz have been invited to dinner with this mysterious count. During this they learn a bit about the count’s philosophies, and are invited to his private balcony to watch an execution. While Franz objects to this sort of thing, it inspires the rebel within Morcerf in order to go check it out, as he seems to greatly admire the count. Unfortunately, this admiration causes Morcerf to learn a bit about the Count’s sick sense of humor that he really wishes he hadn’t taken part of.

This show gets off to a pretty solid start, introducing a few characters and showing some of the more interesting facets of their personalities. The art in this show likes to take liberties at almost any chance it can get, as shown by the character’s clothes, which manage to appear borderline holographic. Furthermore, these clothes seem to react to light in ways that most modern fabrics would never react. Thankfully, it is quite obvious that the artist’s intended to use this style in order to spice up the visuals in the show, in order to give it its own highly recognizable style.

I will most certainly be watching more of this show sometime later.

Coming soon! Episode 2

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Anime in Focus: K-On episode 3

<-Previous episode

Well, I had a relatively large hiatus on this series, but I managed to get back to it.

This episode revolves around everybody’s ADD and Yui screwing up on a midterm. Thanks to this, Yui has to take a midterm, and this causes a major problem, seeing that she needs to pass the midterm before she’s allowed to pursue club activities. This is a problem, because the lite music club needs four members to operate, and Yui getting canned would cause them to get booted.

Unfortunately for the group, Yui has no attention span, and studying leads her to study her guitar when she should be studying algebra. While this is good for the club, in the short term, nobody is amused at how helpful it is in the long term.

Towards the final act, the group decides to get together and help her study, which according to Yui is akin to being stuck in a snowstorm. This leads to an interesting scene, but I never really got any feeling of suspense from the episode.

This episode was a bit boring towards the beginning, but got much more exiting towards the end. I certainly hope that the show gets more exiting as it goes along, because not much has actually been happening. I was promised cute girls with guitars, and they haven’t been spending nearly enough time with guitars in their hands Also, I hope to see more of the rest of the band, because we've spent plenty of time with Yui

Coming sometime: episode 4

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