Tekken: Blood Vengeance in Review [8/10]

So I saw this torrent and had no clue what to expect going in. I was surprised to see it was full CG movie as I picked it up off Nyaa torrents. I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw even if the ending seemed to not make much sense. I guess not having any real background in the Tekken universe didn't help. My only real exposure was Tekken 3 that I played long long ago and I didn't take the time to learn all their stories back then.

Mirai Nikki Ep08 - New Friends, and Enemies

I love how Hinata's friend takes pictures here

This episode starts off two weeks after the death of Rei, with Yukkii and Yuno attending a new school. I just want to point out that I totally called it, Kurusu ended up handling the death of Rei, and it seems they decided to leave out Yukkii by not telling him about Rei's death. It was a clever way to hide his death from Yukkii and his mother, although I had a feeling it would turn out this way, but did not expect Yukki to be left out.

Will he still die if his diary is destroyed in the hands of this third party?

The episode was much better than the Rei arc, and sets up for an unexpected number of diary holder's to appear. It feels a little rushed with two new diary holders appearing so suddenly, but I am very happy with the limitless possibilities that may occur next episode with no clear trust between the so called friends.

I was pretty shocked at the return of Yukkii and Yuno's classmate Kousaka. I initially thought he was going to spurt some nonsense about the Uryuu arc and cause a scene, but it was nice to see Yukkii end up making some friends instead, of which quickly shut up Kousaka from saying anything. I really enjoyed and understood Yukkii's decisions to try and trust his new found friends, since he has never had a friend before. Yukkii is an awesome character who doesn't try to be someone he isn't, we get to see his development slowly through his trusting of others around him. I really feel sorry for Yukkii, It sucks not having any friends, and it isn't the safest way for him to make friends as a diary holder. He doesn't have much choice in the matter, if he wants to survive and remain sane, he has to try and trust somebody.

I thought she was standing idly, but she's actually writing "DIE" over and over in regards to Yukkii's new friends.

Plenty of disapproval from Yuno's part this time, with her Yukkii suddenly making friends and openly trusting them, going against her wishes. Yuno clearly wants Yukki to herself, and I am willing to bet my money on her killing anyone who comes between them.

I kind suspected it would turn out like this. Blind trust sucks.

The best part of the video was the betrayal that occurred, as well as the several moments where I kept switching my opinion on who the diary holder might be. As it turned out, at least two of Yukkii's new found friends were in fact, diary holders. I don't understand how Hinata is able to control her father's dogs with his diary, but I guess we will have to go with it, since there was no description of Twelfth's ability to use mind control either.

Akise Aru is a mysterious investigator, and my favorite of the new diary holders.

Once again these new diary holders were not after Yukki, but after each other instead. It seems Yukki has walked into yet another crossfire. I don't think Hinata and her friend know about Yuno being a diary holder as well, so this may end up being a similar episode as the Uryuu and Kurusu's action packed episode.

So apparently these dogs all have metal jaws, I find it a little over the top in terms of randomness. It's shaping up to be a very interesting arc with the additional diary holders. I only hope this arc will last more than two episodes, as I think these new diary holders deserve more screen time. Can't wait till next Sunday.

~Djr7

Gundam Age 08 - Gear Carried Gundams

This episode started off on a terrible note. They spent the first seven minutes redoing the last one minute of the last episode. Did we really need to see in detail the other pilot losing and his Gundam's transformation sequence? At least we got some good scenes with White Wolf's nice entrance in a mobile suit that looked much better then this trash Gundam.

Ben-To 08 - The Product of a Fanservice Anime

The fanservice levels in this episode was off the charts! Too bad it felt like a step back after that awesome episode last week. This episode just lacked the fighting it has had in every other episode. Without it, it just didn't feel right. Btw. is it just me, or does those twins and the ice witch look identical? I should stop remembering characters by their hair colour D:

Last Exile 07 - Slice of Fam Life arc over?

Oh shit, that wasn't cute girls doing cute things with airships! After last weeks episode with the pace picking up, they are really raising the bar with another crazy episode and promise of another action packed episode next week. We are finally done with watching Fam go around fan faning around and hoping we would enjoy that.

Fate/Zero 09 - Lancer's Curse

This episode was just awesome. You can't help but feel bad for Lancer's eventual fate. An emotional rollercoaster as we watch Lancer's development and more of how Rider is just awesome. It is sad all the awesome servants are going to be taken out first (excluding Caster, he can burn). Definitely made for an amazing episode especially for a bridging episode that ended up being just as good as the fighting.

Penguindrum 20 - The Truth of the Takakuras

Slightly late with this post due to being overworked at work and trying to beat Recettear which is addicting as hell, I'll do a review that later. So, we are finally shown the truth of their family as things start to connect together. With only four episodes remaining, it is clear the direction they will be taking this anime now. Just as I predicted last week.

Phi Brain Kami no Puzzle - 08 - The Resort's Friendly Puzzle

The episode was actually called "Crab! Hot Springs! Puzzle King!", but it should have been called the "Meh, it was OK" episode. This episode was one of those side episodes, meaning it wasn't your fan-based episode, but it also wasn't really a plot driven, or character revealing episode. If I were to explain the episode, I would simply say it was a wake-up call to some of our own issues in the real world. The episode explores the beauty of nature and the invasion of construction and human development. I just realized I said "episode" 8 times in that paragraph; I deserve to given the look of disappointment from my fellow bloggers.

This guy always cracks me up

It was a somewhat funny episode with the return of the self proclaimed "Puzzle King". The only kick I got out of this episode was the humor between Kaito and the "Puzzle King", as well as the lesson learned about nature and true beauty.

This week's installment of Phi Brain was as much of a character revealing episode for Anna, as last week's episode was a character progression for Nonoha; meaning that it really didn't tell us anything we already knew of Anna's character.

This week's Sage puzzle turned out to not even be a real Sage puzzle in the least. There was absolutely no danger whatsoever, aside from Kaito falling and being saved by the forest animals that Nonoha and Anna are riding.

Super happy crabs, me want

Another Nonoha clip of her developing feelings of Kaito. This time, Nonoha explicitly shows a connection with her heart and Kaito, except Crabs fills her mind immediately. I am actually pleased that the show doesn't seem to try any serious relationship drama issues, and instead takes light of these portrayals of love from Nonoha.

More screen time for Anna, the episode had plenty of emotional connections between him and nature. Anna was somehow able to paint a landscape that she not only never saw, but the painting's content didn't even exist at the moment. He is a pretty weird individual, and no matter how many times I look at it, he still looks like a girl to me.

There really wasn't much to say about this episode, I want to return to Kaito solving dangerous puzzles with more screen time from Rook. I've had enough of these pointless and rather boring non-plot installments.

~Djr7

Guilty Clown 07 - Back to School to Create a Harem

So they decided to not even pretend this show wasn't just selling fanservice. I guess it should have been obvious from what Inori walks around in all the time. We finally get some real screen time for the mother and some new student council girl that have both fallen for our main character. His harem seems to grow without him even trying, no different from my other harem anime.

Mashiro-Iro Symphony 08 - MIU route get!

Oh ya baby!! MIU ROUTE CONFIRMED!!! Well I guess I get to eat my words now, I was pretty certain that Miu would play zero role all season and BAM, she ends up being the one to be picked. This just shot this anime up in my books. I am still a bit in awe that the anime turned so suddenly towards her, definitely didn't see this coming at all.

C Cube 08 - What is Love?

Five days after its airing, I finally got around to doing this post. Unsurprisingly, this episode concluded the Sovereignty/Shiraho arc. As expected, there was a battle in the first half to resolve Sovereignty's conflict, though it went differently from what I thought it would. The latter half was pretty much putting the finishing touches on the arc, as well as hinting towards the next arc.

Yeah! Fear's crazy faces make their return. I just love how she looks completely opposite from her normal moe self. Shiraho said something about Fear not caring about humans after all, which may have caused the viewer to doubt whether or not Fear is actually in control of herself. Indeed, it turned out she was. Their idea was to lure out Sovereignty by using Shiraho as bait. After making him (I'll just refer to Sovereignty as a guy from now on, since there are less guys on the show and just makes it easier) reveal all his Killing Organs, all that was left to do was to destroy them.

I thought that the arc was solved rather elegantly. Based on the previous episodes, I automatically assumed that they were going to try to lift his curse, but they simply just removed the harmful aspects of it. It was actually a pretty intense scene with some tremendous voice acting by Chiwa Saito. And the running theme throughout the episode was love. Erasing Sovereignty's curse also meant that erasing their love for each other. As long as the Killing Organs were removed, just your regular gender changing moeblob.

The latter half of the episode was really looking more at Shiraho's character. Same voice actress aside, I feel that Shiraho's character is eerily similar to Senjougahara. She has comparable mannerisms and possesses the same type of tsundere qualities in that lashes out verbally, yet not in a malevolent way. Though not as a student, Sovereignty is conveniently placed at school. Thus, it is likely that they will both be recurring characters.

You're probably tired of me repeating the same thing over and over, but Silver Link has really got it going artistically. The above and below screenshots are prime examples. Another good one was when Chiwa Saito was voicing that emotional plea with the blue cracking pieces. Something that was pleasantly surprising is the background music during the casual scenes in the school setting. It was just really upbeat, and I think that it fit perfectly with resolution of the arc, with the students that got energy drained recovering quicker because their crushes visited them and all.

I think I said this on the previous post, but Fear is really growing as a character. There are two instances that I want to point to. First, when the group was talking about how to solve the problem in the beginning of the episode. When Shiraho said she didn't want the curse lifted, Fear apologized for not understanding the human emotion of love. Near the end, she feels like she's beginning to understand what it is. I hope to see more of this in later episodes. So, sports festival next week, eh? And a new character, too? I'm game.

-Bern

Kimi to Boku Ep05

I forgot to mention it in the last episode, but I've dropped Yagami and picked up Sage for this series. Yagami started really lagging behind after the first few episodes, and they've yet to catch up (have they just dropped it?), meaning that Sage is a much better choice. Given that it's essentially the same subs, the only loss is the font colour.

This episode began during the month's worth of summer vacation (I thought it was only two weeks in Japan?), and followed Chizuru's attempts to get the gang together for some hanging out. His personality still sticks out even though it's been a while since he's been introduced; I wouldn't say that he doesn't "fit in", because I feel like his character is not meant to fit in. Even so, I do tend to feel a little sad about his role sometimes. The twins turned him down right away in order to continue their video game together, and Kaname turned him down simply because it was Chizuru. The only person that accepted him into the house (the "true" reason for the earlier rejections being the intense heat outside) was Shun (which gives me hope that Chizuru will soon get Shun to cut his hair!).

At least he caught it before he started growing out his hair.

Shun's girly ways were at a high during his scene, as he was baking treats (perhaps to take to the others?). Chizuru displayed his typical "caught in the the flow" style by turning just as girly as Shun, before freaking out at what was going on. He reformed quickly and began running out the door, probably worried that hanging out with Shun would be detrimental to his "manliness". Once again showing how Chizuru doesn't fit in, Shun offered to ask the others to the festival that evening (and they all seemed to readily agree). Once again though, it didn't feel that bad because I really think this is Chizuru's character; he proposes outrageous things and I'd like to believe that, should any legitimately good ideas come around, the others wouldn't be spiteful enough to turn him down anyway. It's kind of like Ouran.

Masaki really thought it was a one-on-one date? Shun sucks at wording.

This episode continued the love triangle theme from the last episode (with Kaname, Shizuna and Hisako) by introducing a third point for Shun and Masaki - Chizuru. I can't say I didn't see it coming, but I was probably in a little bit of denial. I still want to be, because I just don't know how to feel about this. On the one hand, I want Shun and Masaki to be together. On the other hand, I don't actually dislike any of these characters, so it's hard to pick just one pairing. This is one of the first times this has happened - probably because this triangle was introduced so early, whereas Ouran's situation with Tamaki, Haruhi and Hikaru came long after I became a Tamaki-Haruhi shipper.

The man knows what he wants.

The festival played out with Chizuru running around excitedly, convincing the others to pool their money and share snacks so they could try everything. When he found out that Masaki liked Shun (since Kaname decided to share, essentially), he was pretty flabbergasted, but attempted to brush it aside. When Masaki lost Shun's present (a giant teddy bear hanging off a keychain; of course she was going to lose such a thing), the group got together to attempt to find it (while Shun headed off to get fireworks with Hisako and Shizuna). The love triangle became completely set-up when Chizuru was the one who got it back for her (from an unscrupulous vendor who had found it and decided it was a prize for his game), and he felt a little put-out that Masaki didn't thank him nearly enough (instead fawning over Shun, of course).

I'd like to see more of the twins in the next episode.

This was a very typical episode, right down to the fireworks at the end of a festival. I'd like to see a festival episode one of these days that doesn't follow this trope; I'm sure groups of friends (and couples) exist out there that don't enjoy all of these things as though it's coming off of a checklist. Anyway, the group played with fireworks before the larger ones burst in the sky, and minor scenes hinted to future turmoil - the two love triangles, for one thing. I wonder what Shizuna's deal is; it seems like she's had some things happening in her life (that, or she feels like she's "old").

How could you hate that, Kaname? No soul.

My interest in this show isn't waning, despite its slow pace, because I think I was prepared for it to be slow after the first episode. I don't know what I want to see in the future; a setting of an all-male cast in shoujo slice-of-life is still new to me and I think I have way too many expectations and desires to be able to voice any of them.

~Aaro

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon 01- 04 & Story Explained

Ok so I'll be going through each Horizon episode with the first impressions I had when I first watched them. Then at the end I'll give out a conclusion of how I see the series so far.
 
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Important! Need to knows: I watched from a few different sources and found out that there are different subbs with different translations. So depending on what subbed version you watching will determine wether you understand it or not.

From the trivia I'm reading in wiki, most terms, factions, families, names and other stuff are directly taken from Japans history. Which is a given since the series has based itself on the future race reenacting history.

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First off, I'll assume that you don't really understand the basis of the entire story. So I'll explain it. And since the story is quite complex, feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me if any of my explanations are unclear or wrong.

 
This story is set in the distant future where humans decide to leave a devastated earth for space. But due to some phenomenon they can't get to space. So they go back to earth only to find the entire place uninhabitable except for Japan which is now called the Divine States. And so accommodate all humans they create Harmonic Divine States. Now in order to get into space, they decide to "reenact" human history from the year 10,000 BC using the book Holy Book Testament. All goes well till the year 1413 of the testament era. Where the nations of the Harmonic Divine States invade and conquer the Divine States and divide the nation into different factions. The original inhabitants of the Divine States flee to a city ship known as Musashi.

The Flying City Ship, Musashi

 
Testament Union is the authority that runs the re-enactment of human history. But then they stop revealing what happens after 1648 which sprouts wars and rumors of an apocalypse.
Now our story begins in Musashi, the flying city ship with our hero, Aoi Toori.


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Episode 01

This episode is more of an introductory episode where we get to meet the important characters. Oddly enough we meet our hero in the final scenes of the episode.

The first scene opens with someone singing a song that I find myself liking a lot. Based on the trailer and opening songs, she seems to be our heroine.

Aoi Toori comes in late in the episode but none the less he is the chancellor of the Academy and President of its Student Council. He seems to be a very lax and carefree character, one we don't see all the time. Hopefully we get to see his awesome side which is hinted by the first scene of the opening song.

Aoi Toori

Need to know: Apparently he is gonna confess his love for someone named Horizon. Now it looks like this confession thing is quite an event to them since Horizon died ten years ago. Now how is he gonna confess to someone who isn’t there? Well, I’ll assume he’s just gonna confess in front of her grave.

 

 

Conclusion: Like I said, the episode is an Introductory episode to the important characters. But character wise, they've got a good list of unique and colorful characters. Which is awesome, I don't get to see this much diversity all the time! We've got our ninja with his eyes on his hat, a grey-ish haired chick with hair that defies Bayanetta, two winged-witch chicks, a woman with the arm of a gundam, a money man, bucket head, fat dude, curry man, pink naked guy, a freggin poporing and some others. I do find too much "bounce" some of the female characters "boings". Which is nice if they didn't make them the size of melons bigger than their heads...

 

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Episode 02
We got a few of things going on in this episode.

 Masazumi Honda

Shocker when I found out that Masazumi Honda apparently has had to become a guy to get into some place. But she only lost her breast since the surgery was stopped halfway. Yay!
 
Other than that we got Aoi and his firends decide on how to do his confession.

And we got Musashi landing on Mikawa, the capital of Far east. Also some new characters. Guess these scenes are to just build on the story and whats coming up.

Need to know: Our heroines name is P-01s. She’s an automaton whom the Blue Thunder shop keeper found with no memories. And apparently Aoi was a regular guest of the Blue Thunder shop till ten years ago but started coming back since P-01s arrived. So I guess P-01s is someone who means something to our hero. They also mention the path of remorse, so I guess that place is something to keep in mind.
 

P-01s, our Heroine

Conclusion: Overall this episode seemed to be a supporting episode which can be a good or bad thing depending on what the director is trying to portray. Hopefully we can get the story moving though.
 

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Episode 03

This episode ended up to be another supporting episode.
Aoi's classmates talk about the festival they're gonna have, Aoi's confession and his relationship to Horizon.

 
Masazumi Honda decides to go to the path of remorse to learn more of Aoi and everyone. There she meets her father, Masanobu Honda and Konishi.

Masazumi meets her father

Testament Union's Muneshige Tachibana and Gin Tachibana land on Mikawa. This hints that the plot points are going somewhere. Gawsh! That Gin has some arms! You'd think that those things are just side armor or something but no, they are her armz... wow...

 Muneshige Tachibana (right) and Gin Tachibana (left)

After this scene we see some place going to be invaded by some people. Guess they're gonna leave the details of that event for the next episode. Oh well, at least we get to see some action in that next episode.

Need to know: Masanobu Honda and Konishi explain that Aoi is the master of the path of remorse and that it's very hard for him to be in the path since it where his beloved Horizon died. Horizon was a member Matsudaira family and so her death was a big deal.

Conclusion: This episode is more of a supporting episode and a prologue to a war episode, which I guess is good. Still waiting on the "awesome" plot point to pop out and the action to really get grinding.
 

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Episode 04
 
Some action in this episode and a number of things to know.
This is the turning point of the story, the part where our characters are sucked into a war and lose their normal ways of life (Though it still would've changed if Aoi confessed to Horizon).
 

Need to know: So we got three factions here right now. The Testament Union, who are the guys in red and are led by Muneshige Tachibana.

Muneshige Tachibana

The Mikawa faction, aside from their human leaders they've got automatons maids as soldiers. They are led by Motonobu Matsudaira.
 

Motonobu Matsudaira

Our third faction is Musashi, which is where are main characters are at. The faction is led by Tadatsugu Sakai, well kinda, he's really just the principal of the Academy.
 

Tadatsugu Sakai

So we got the Testament Union visiting Mikawa but Motonobu Matsudaira has got a surprise "fireworks display" for them and a plan called the Genesis plan. The purpose of the plan? Dunno yet.

We also got Sakakibara trying to warn Tadatsugu Sakai about the genesis plan. So Tadatsugu Sakai tries to stop his long friend Tadakatsu Honda but fails.

Sakakibara (Left)

Also Futayo Honda trying to stop the genesis plan to save her father even though she is of Mikawa.

Futayo Honda (Right)

Conclusion: Nice turning point episode. Things pick up and we got to see some awesome action! Really if an anime is to have battle scenes, they should invest more money into those like this episode.

Awesome fight scenes FTW!

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Overall Conclusions: I blame the director for not giving out a proper explanation on things. They did explain the important parts but it wasn't clear.
 
I guessing the creators of the series assume we know Japanese history. Cause like I said, this series seems to be based heavily on Japans past history.
 
Ep 01-04 Rating: If they did better in explaining then this would be a good anime series.


~OkamiSan~