Another 04 - Guilty by Association

Super short post as I am busy this week and hard to right anything without spoiling. While reading manga I knew the nurse was too good to be true. Leading up I was thinking "Wow she is so cooperative and a great girl, I sure hope nothing happens to her." I knew the moment that thought came in my mind she was fucked. Here is to making you like characters and crushing (pun intended) your dreams in the same episode. It should catch up enough to the manga chapters scanlated for me to have some real speculation next week. They are moving at an awfully fast pace.

~Pearz

Ano Natsu de Matteru 04 - Alphabet Love Comedy

So what's the best way to respond to a confession? Run away of course. Cue the ensuing awkwardness that usually follows when the answer to said confession is stuck in Limbo. That just adds another staple for romantic comedies to the list. The thing about this show is that it really doesn't add anything innovative to the genre. The execution of the various genre cliches are neither poorly nor extremely well executed, but it's definitely watchable, especially if you're just a sucker for these kinds of shows.

Last week, I said that misunderstandings are the bread and butter of the genre. If you call last week bread, this week is definitely butter. It follows the typical route of: girl sees guy with another girl, misunderstanding initiated -> girl follows guy, misunderstanding even further -> confrontation, not doing this because she likes him or anything -> misunderstanding cleared. I guess it's to be expected for them to use such a well-worn tool in a genre already over-saturated with unoriginality.

To sum it up, it turns out to be Tetsurou's sister who dragged Kaito to be her bag carrier as she vented her husband's misguided attempts to stop her from watching the horror that is j-drama. And by dragged I mean "it can't be helped." Now that the misunderstanding is all cleared up, will we finally get the answer? According to Dante's Inferno, that reply will remain in Limbo for all eternity, or at least until episode 12. Ichika definitely likes Kaito, but is well aware that her stay in the town is temporary, thus complicating her answer.

It's probably easy to get that things won't end well for Kanna. She's doomed to be another childhood friend that doesn't get with the protagonist. As with most characters of the archetype, she's cute, nice, and doesn't have any really outstanding traits. I'm sure she's well aware that Ichika is her love rival, yet Kanna pushes for Kaito to make up with her. I can't help but feel sorry for the poor girl. Something that I really enjoy, though, are the little interactions between Kanna and Tetsurou.

Now that school is finally over, the bunch can get on with their movie-making. Judging from the narration, we'll have a relatively mellow couple of episodes followed up by a more drama-filled finale. I can already see Remon trolling around with her directing, and Kaito the cameraman's lens lingering a but too long on our resident alien. Looks like we'll get more into the meat of things next week.

-Bern

Gundam Age 16 - Balance Hammer Time

So after our climax last week, we get our long awaited WTF time skip. This time skip was purely to balance out how broken Flint had become. They nerfed him with no explanation as to why nothing happened in the 25 years period. Guess he was to busy crying over Yurin to do anything productive. I guess it isn't all bad, the new main character is much better then Flint is.

Ice Cream Sandwich on my Nexus S

So with a bit of fiddling around, I finally decided to work on upgrading my phones look. I ungraded my rom from Cyanogen 7.0 to the new 9.0 that uses the ice cream sandwich as core. Not much has been changed from the stock ICS version being released so quickly but that is no problem.

Last Exile Fam 15 - Millia`s Resolve

Sigh, I hate when they build up some suspense and then skip the best part and go to the resolution. I was looking forward to the Exile V Exile fight, instead we skip the action and go back to the talking. It was nice to see Millia finally acting more like a leader for a second until she loses her composure again. I should have knew better then to expect awesome stuff in this anime D:

Nisemonogatari Ep03: Senjougaharas Wrath

Ok as you may have noticed, this post only comes out every Saturday. Well, that’s really just because I can’t find any other day within the week to write this post. I’ve got my hands full with college and stuff. And “OkamiSans Weekly Rants” will come put every other week instead because as I’ve mentioned, I quite busy.

Moving on… We’ve got a few things going on in this episode. I don’t know about you guys but in the first scene we got to see how much of a blockhead Araragi is. We’ve also got a new OP, well kinda. Then we’ve got a new character, Kaiki. I did some research on him and his appearance is quite significant in the entire monogatari series. And last but not the least we got a good look at Senjougaharas jealousy.

So Araragis conversation with Kanbaru confirms the fact that Araragi is a blockhead. He can’t seem to feel the love that the other girls in his life are trying to get across. And that’s not something very impressive. I mean, a MC being that sort of blockhead is already overdone and we see in a ton of other series. With the different character types and styling in this series I expected the MC to be quite different as well. But in the end it works out quite well. That blockheadedness of his creates a sort of boundary that separates him from the girls and allows for a longer and more compelling story where each girls tries to capture him while another main story is being told (I.E. Sengoku trying to seduce him while the story “Karen bee” is going on).

I’m sure you know that each seasons series come out with only one opening song. But in this Nise series and with the Bake series, you may have noticed that its got three or more opening songs and animations. This just means that the series has been given a BIG budget. If you watched Carnival Phantasm (and I highly recommend you do) you will find that one of its episodes talk a bit about how more fluid animations equals more money. And if you watch the series carefully you find that its got really dynamic camera angles, and a ton of animation. Couple this with the number of cut scenes and you’ve got a series in need for a lot of money.

So we’ve got a new character, Kaiki Deishuu. I’ve done some digging on him but I’m not gonna say much to spoil it for you all. All I’ll say though is that he, Oshino, and this Guillotine Cutter guy went to the same club in University and so they are quite adept in the supernatural. Now this Guillotine Cutter is someone we will get to know in the Kisumonogatari series.

I asked for more Senjougahara air time and they delivered. So here we get to see wrath of Senjougahara when she’s jealous. And I’m amazed at how much Araragi can take. They are quite the “S and M” kind of couple, don’t you think? I don’t know about you guys but I still love Senjougahara, her character is just so well made. And her character type is not something one can easily describe. She is somewhere between a tsundere and a yandere. Despite how harsh Senjougahara can get, the way things go in the episode are so well done that the romance and chemistry just click and I can’t help but love the couple. One of the best romance scenes that I’ve yet to see in the series is the part where Araragi receives a text message of help from his sister. And in that scene Araragi and Senjougahara are willing to fight each other just to protect the one they love and the fact that they are will to do so is also the reason they love each other. There are quite a lot of things I love about the couple but I’m too lazy to analyze what exactly it is.

We end the episode with a big thriller where we see Senjougahara in quite a panic trying to stop something but it just turns out to be Hanakawa. Hopefully we get to see her in the next episode. So this episode seems to have ended without anything concerning the main story “Karen Bee” but that’s not so, there is significance in the intro of the new character, Kaiki. Just as he is described by Senjougahara, he will be stirring up quite a fuss and help create a story in this series.

OkamiSan~

Symphogear 04 - Suicidal Tendencies

What a rollercoaster of an episode. I was extremly happy to see the battle between the Valkyries wasn't just another fake cliff hanger like they have done every other episode thus far. This made for a good episode to finally unlock a bit more of the past between Kanade and Tsubasa as well as set forth the road to what we are to expect. It was a pretty good episode even if they had very forced attempts at pulling my heart strings.

Guilty Crown 14 - Tsugumi Overload

Well that was an episode I was screaming nope the whole time. This is quickly becoming one of the anime I look forward to every week. Not because it is good, but because it is just so bad it is good. Nothing like a good laugh at this show, I am always wondering what crazy new ass pull they will attempt while trying to remain serious. At least they ended strongly this episode with this Tsugumi end card.

Ano Natsu de Matteru 03 - RomCom Bread and Butter

A couple days late because of school stuff, sorry. Well, I think it's pretty obvious what the bread and butter is: misunderstandings. I don't really like how the device is used most of the time, because it really doesn't lead us anywhere. Here, I didn't mind it as much because of what we got at the end. Romantic comedies in general are extremely character driven, and I think it's something that this show does well for the most part.

For the previous post, I wrote that the almost-confession at the end was sort of a cop-out, and well, it sort of was. The fact that it was a misunderstanding didn't even cross my mind for some reason. He thought she rejected him, and she thought he figured out she's an alien. And this is what basically what the entire episode ran on: events leading up the misunderstanding being cleared up. In fact, I think Kaito put it quite nicely himself, "We don't understand each other sometimes."

Something that I like about the characters of this show are that they are a lot more preceptive than they may seem. Mio is well aware that Tetsurou likes Kanna, and understands what he's trying to do. Yet, she doesn't want to seem him hurt himself. I think that wanting to preserve the status quo friendship rather than trying to actively pursue love that might ruin said friendship is a common dilemma in many romantic comedies. I guess this can make the viewers empathize for the characters because many people may experience similar internal struggles.

People do some crazy things when they're drunk, don't they? I think one of the more telling lines of the episode, or perhaps even the first three, is Remon's lines, saying that teenage love can be ephemeral, if you really want it, you need reach out and grab it. When she says that, Mio successfully reached out and grabbed Tetsurou, though she wasn't able to say what she truly felt. Kanna on the other hand had no such luck; when she was about to grab Kaito, she was interrupted. Could this be foreshadowing?

So after an entire episode of running the misunderstanding to the ground, they finally clear things up, but decide not to talk about it. However, Ichika hits the nail on the head with her playful inquisition. How will this play out next episode? Surely it won't be another misunderstanding. Also, TV-sized ED get!

-Bern

Xbox "720" Rumors and Random Gaming Thoughts

I know i'm behind on my weekly show postings, but I haven made any gaming related posts in a while, so I figure it's time to post another edition of my random thoughts. 

For starters, the WiiU is the only console revealed officially out of the three main gaming systems, but we have some info on the next gen Xbox system.

After browsing Gamespot and IGN, I found that the new Xbox will have up to 6times better graphic performance over the "360". They also go on to state that this will be 20% more than the WiiU's graphic capabilities. Now lets stop and think critically for a second here, they are saying that the WiiU will be 4.8times MORE powerful than the "360". This is huge news to Nintendo fans, and game producers; this will allow Nintendo to finally step onto the HD stage and get some attention from third party game studios. Now lets look at the "360", just how many games out there are actually able to reach the systems limitations? I know of a lot of games that do not utilize the amount of hardware the system gives them, whereas the Wii pretty much limited the graphic quality to that of cell-shadeing for most of it's games, since it lacked HD. This seems more like a boost to Nintendo than the Xbox. The Xbox is also rumored to have smaller controllers and utilize BlueRay discs, it will be interesting to see what the WiiU will use for disks.

With that being said, there's a rumor that the new Xbox system will not allow buyers to play "used games", meaning that you can't let your friend borrow your game before he goes out to buy it himself. This would be a huge blow to business's such as EB or Gamestop, where they generate (I imagine) a lot of sales with the selling of used games or game-trade-ins. 

Some info on the PS Vita has surfaced with a huge lack of sales in Japan last week. Apparently the 3DS, Xbox 360, and PS3, each individually outssold the Vita. The boys at Sony declared that "this is a usual trend and it will make sales down the road". When we look at it a bit closer, there are practically no games out for the Vita, much like when the 3DS was first sold. The 3DS made the right choice to ship out earlier than the Vita to; A: eliminate competition, and B: they have a ton of awesome top quality games being released very soon and there has already been a price reduction for the handheld.  

Moving on to Games in general. 

Z.W.E.I                New Blonde Taki              Maxi pants                      Ivy   

Soul Calibur V is set to "replace" some of the existing characters from Soul Calibur IV, such as Taki, Cassandra, Xianghua, Kilik and Sophitia. There is however quite a few new faces, mainly due to the replacements, which I am not too thrilled about. There are currently 20 characters but I figure this number will jump to around 25-27 with the addition of special unlocked characters and perhaps some others that have not been released to the public yet in wait of its January 31st release for N.A. 

And finally I want to touch on Capcom's Resident Evil EXTRAVANGANZA!!!

there are 3 brand new Resident Evil titles coming out between now and next year.

RE: Revelations for the 3DS only.

RE: Operation Raccoon City.

RE 6. 

~Djr7

First look at Tera Online

So I didn't make it very far in JP Tera but enough to get a good feel for it. I might put some more hours into the game this weekend but I don't think so. Currently I reached level 10 where you need level 11 to leave the nubby area (or so I think) and I hit a point where I need to grind out that last level. Here is the guide to playing JP Tera online, only a few days remaining to try it out. So here are my thoughts so far.

Chihaya Furu 15 - the conclusion of Omi Jingu

Due to my genetic composition and inherent ADD, I can't seem to maintain a schedule. Unfortunately due to high levels of Aaro exposure, I have developed a partial need for consistency. Therein, I feel the need to finish this series, since I do like it a lot and still watch it, just not on a weekly basis.

I will try my best to succumb to brevity.

Look at the geometry!

The reasons I like Chihaya Furu is because it reminds me of other series I enjoyed and still cherish. The two main ones are HikaGo and Nodame. The soundtrack in this episode was really reminiscent of Nodame with upbeat, mischievous tones and well-placed symphonic grandeur. So far the directors and producers have made sensible choices in this production. Although, in some parts of this episode I felt the melodrama was a bit dense. Luckily these moments were concise in their dramatic flair.

This episode could be split into three "arcs" if I may. The first concluded the Shinobu-Chihaya match with Chihaya's crushing defeat. It was nice to see that she has not lost her enthusiasm in the wake of her defeat. It's been a while since I've seen anime churn our a female protagonist that can look happy while crying where my immediate reaction is not scoffing at her foolish naivety. That may also be because the romance in this series is kept subtle and minimal without being completely lost in the backdrop.

I wonder if Naruto paid for that product placement...

The second arc followed Taichi, who has probably undergone the most on screen character development. Since the understanding of Karuta is developed via Chihaya who has a relatively simple, optimistic personality, Taichi fills the necessity for the deep, somewhat dark character thus far. His personality goes through the final stages of a turning point in this episode, which should indicate a more positive Taichi herein. Of course, with the reintroduction of Arata, I surmise the love triangle with fill the drama void of the pessimistic brooding Taichi of yesterepisodes.

The final arc is transitional; it sets the stage for the third (or fourth, depending on how you count them) arc of the series. There is nothing worth summarizing but for reiterating that Arata is back in the game and therefore the series. Considering this is already episode 15, I look forward to seeing how they bring this series to fruition without a rushed ending.


/envy

Another 03 - Pointy Umbrellas

Super late post, I blame playing Tera online, the DDL sites all being gone and Chinese new year family stuff. In Canada, all p2p internet is throttled leaving for slower torrenting during peak hours D: Back to the episode, they quickly picked up the pace quite a bit this episode as things just start rolling down the stairs (har har har). I admit I spoiled myself when I had to know what was under the eyepatch.

Gundam Age 15 - The Journey to Become Shin

Being random mechs sucks

We finally reach the conclusion of the arc with the destruction of the base. We are finally revealed to the truth of the UE's unknownness. So will they be referred to as KE (known enemies) now? Or are we gonna call them scum because they are Vegans lulz. Regardless, we are clearly steering Gundam in the emo like Shin Asuka route for Flint. He is almost a replica by the end of this episode.

Brave 10 - Ep 2 - Still watching it

He ain't kidding.

It looks like Sarutobi will get a a lot of screen time next episode, in what hopes to be an epic battle between him and some sort of snake mistress that can make exploding giant snakes.

Well I must say I was not entirely sure I would keep watching Brave 10, but there is one thing about the show that I do enjoy.

Although the fighting is OK and cast of characters is decent, what I really enjoy is that the perspective of the show is really focused on the main character Saizo. Unlike Phi Brain where the perspective is all over the place and consist of a disconnection between Kaito and the events that surround him. I find that there is a unique connection between Saizo and the world of Brave 10. I really think I understand Saizo as a person, and I'm only 2 episodes in. I guess my personal connection to Saizo is what I enjoy about Brave 10 thus far.

Run Saizou RUN!!

This episode was pretty decent, there were more subtle events showing Saizo's personality which I enjoy. On the other hand I think I am annoyed by Isanami. I find she is almost too attached toward Saizo for no real reason at this point. I am hoping for some explanations of her odd powers she displayed in the previous episode, as well as her headpiece that emits some sort of strange aura at times.

Ana was introduced as the childhood friend of Saizo, however she appears to be very independent, unlike Isanami. There is no doubt that Ana will play a role in the bullying and making fun of Isanami, which I look forward to see. Isanami sees Ana as someone who would take away Saizo from her, not that Saizo wants anything to do with Isanami mind you. With the arrival of Ana and her ice powers I really hope this show doesn't depend on a lot of magic for the fight scenes.

Hanzo is the villain at this point, I'd say he has enough baddassery, yes that's my word don't steal it! 

Withe the additional characters and revealing of the super powerful ninja Hanzo, I am pleased with the pace thus far, and I can say I will be watching this show weekly.

The humor is there, and it 's subtle enough to be enjoyable

I will continue to watch and blog about Brave10 at the moment, as it is quite enjoyable with it's cast of characters and interesting time period.

~Djr7

Mirai Nikki Ep 13-14 - Total Psycho

I have high hopes for Akise's role.

Well it has been a while since I have posted anything and hopefully I am able to get back on track with all my shows I am covering.

Well for starters, I would consider the recent episodes as a new start for Yukkii, now that Kurusu is gone. With all the attention hogging that Yukkii, Yuno, Kurusu, and Uryuu had in the last little while, it felt nice and fresh to have 2 episodes dedicated to Yukkii's friends.

At least they know when production quality isn't necessary.

Hinata, Kousaka, Akise and Hinata's friend (the name escapes me) were the focus of the episodes and I must say it was a nice change of scenery as they run around trying to figure out where Yuno has taken Yukkii. Normally Yuno is one of our main characters, but this time we get to see Yuno as an enemy and threat to Yukkii through his friend's point of view.

Kurosaka was quite funny with his sudden diary powers to foresee his "awesome" moments such as his "awesome kick" and other lame moves.

Yuno has once again gone completely insane, this time towards everyone, including Yukkii. She even has this mental problem where she can forget things, such as murdering her parents. While I enjoyed these two episodes with the shift of character focus from Yukkii to Akise, the ending just doesn't fit, and I fear things may go downhill from here (Pearz also mentioned this to me). Normally, if Yuno was a regular enemy, she would have died in Kurusu's fashion, but because she is one of the main characters, she will end up tagging along for the rest of the season and either die or once again return to normal. After being denied by Yukkii, the only reason any of Yukkii's friends escape is due to the fact that they all received notification of the other diary holders coming to kill them. And so the hostage scenario is called for a cancellation as everyone vacates the premises.

I can't say I'm all too thrilled to find out that the remaining diary holders are "lending" their powers to a bunch of what seems to be mercenaries. Unlike the uncertainty that Kurusu carried whenever he was helping Yukkii and Yuno, I cant help but fear some sort of dumb character conflicts with the mentally broken Yuno as Akise is the only interesting and capable person left in the group imo.

~Djr7

Guide to Playing JP Tera Online!

Take that Boring Moretsu Pirates this week D: 

So I came across a guide to play JP Tera but it would only last for 40 hours and limited to January. It is a good chance to try out the game before the CB testing starts for NA and Europe. Official english launch slated to come out in May 1st. You can sign up for the CB for NA here and Europe here.

Last Exile: Fam 14 - A Product of Advanced War Tactics

Well it was an episode filled with explosions from start to finish. Too bad the episode was spewing with terrible tactics that I could not ignore. It was like they were rushing to show more explosions with little care of how badly the battle was fought. I guess this is what happens when you sell your show with a full female main cast. Who needs logic when you got lolis just flying around everywhere.

OkamiSans Weekly Rants: Too much good anime for 2012

So this is where I’ll go ahead and rant about anything that came out within the week and catches my interest. Though some topics might not really be from within the week… However, I’m not gonna talk about Nisemonogatari here since it’s got its own posts.
Here we goes~

---Anime--------------------

Another: I’ve always admired how the Japanese make their horror and thriller films. They know how to build suspense and know the perfect time to scare you. “The Ring” and “The Grudge” are a statement to that. It’s might still be too early to say this but “Another” is a series that knows how to do the same.

So far the series has been a great experience. Its art, backgrounds and sounds complement the mood and feel that bring up a good horror series. The pacing may seem slow but is perfect for building up the suspense and this episode ending was just an awesome build up. I just love how Mei slowly takes out her eye patch only to stop and end the episode. Also love how they place photos of freakishly scary dolls between cuts just to give you a bit of a scare. Really looking forward to this show!

Highschool DxD: Fan service in this series is just WAY too much for me to handle. There’s just so much that it’s overdone and downright outrageous! I’m sure there are a lot of other anime series that take the same path but this series took every overused trope one could find and put it together it scotch tape. The series story in itself leaves much to be desired though it could still come out well. But on the other hand the series just seems to focus itself on worthless boobs. Also, provided that the animations and art aren’t well done, I’d say that this low budget series has nothing to show for itself. Except for boobs… (-.-“s)

Gintama: Now this is just something I want to make sure you guys are watching and if you ain’t watchin’ this series yet then you don’t know comedy even if it dumped on your face!!

But seriously, this series just brings comedy to another level placing every plot, every punch line, and any random thing together perfectly to make you laugh like never before. I can’t exactly put to words the awesomeness of this series comedy but, just watch if for yourself and you’ll understand.

Another great feature of the series is that once in a while they bring out a very serious story arc with blood and gore. Now blood and gore plus level 9000 comedy may not go together but here it just does. The creator of the series knows exactly how to meld both genres together so that they complement each other to create a flawless ride.

Guilty Crown: For the peoples consideration and information - I know some are saying that the series was made by the same person who created Code Geass. But that’s not the case, Guilty crown was written by Hiroyuki Yoshino while Ichiro Okouchi was the associate series compositor. In Code Geass however, Ichiro Okouchi was the writer while Hiroyuki Yoshino was the associate series compositor and screenplay.

Series itself has got a huge budget leading to some awesome scenes and great artworks along with some famous music but let’s be real here the first half of the series was just crap. Crap because of the ass-wipe main characters and a stupid way to end plot points. So we got Shu, our an indecisive wimp of an MC, accidentally getting an awesome power then blindly following Inori into the “Undertaker” organization simply because he likes her!?!? He never even considers the fact that he will have to fight and may have to kill people, but noooo~ he like her so he blindly follow her, yeah? Inori on the other hand is just this sex figure always wearing this revealing suit even in battle just to lure both Shu and a bunch perverted viewers. On the other hand they just keep glorifying Gai, why didn’t they just make him the MC?! I was just like “FACE PALM” for every new episode they brought out.

BUT, yes that’s a big BUT, I don’t think producers are dumb enough to put in a ton to cash into a crap story right? So despite my hatred and rage for this series, I’ve always had hope that this too shall pass! And I’m talking about character development and change. As soon as I knew what type of character Shu was and the amount of money put into this, I knew that he is to develop into a good character. So yeah, much like Simon from Guren Lagann, Shu will change from an ass of an MC into some bad ass after having experienced a really-really bad ordeal. In this case, Gai dies and that event was quite obvious. Now things are going well, the story has picked up and has gotten very intriguing, Shu is changing and is on his way to glory (sort of~)!!

So for now, though I’ve hated the series a lot, I’d say this series is going extremely well and is worth watching. Kudos to the writer for making me ride this insane story and making me both hate and like (not love) the series.

---News--------------------

Eureka Seven: Astral Ocean TV series was announced a while back and I just thought you guys might need the heads up. Sources say it will be aired this April 2012 and will center on a boy named AO.

Tasogare Otome X Amnesia TV series was also announced for April 2012! Lol, the Author of the manga is a Hentai writer as well. None the less, I read the manga and is definitely worthy of an anime make.

Zetman TV announced for April 2012, too! Now the manga itself is very controversial and very mature with blood, gore, sex, violence and the like. Now I suspect that this anime adaption of a manga that is very mature could get its features, genres, and themes (i.e. blood, gore, sex, violence and the like) toned down to meet regulations and such. Now whether that’s a good or bad thing is… debatable. Still, a series to look forward to!

Medaka Box TV series announced for Aprill 2012, as well!! AWESOME~ hopefully they do their best and keep the art style as close to the manga style as possible. Because as you might have noticed some if not most anime adaptions of a manga lose their art style. This is a must watch, well kinda, the more interesting arcs are after the first one and this series will likely just end with the first arc in the manga, me sad face. Fun fact: the story was written by Nisio Isin, writer of Bakemonogatari and Nisemonogatari!

Code Geass: Boukoku no Akito is a movie not a series! Quite a bummer not so much, as long this story is good then I’m happy face.

According to Yoshitaka Kawaguchi, producer of the Code Geass anime franchise, a Movie adaption of

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion is being planned. I’m not too hyped up for this one as well since movie adaptions usually get their stories changed, much like Gurren Lagann. Just hope that if they do bring this out then they stay true to the legendary story of the anime series.

So yeah~ Thats all that i care about for the week, hope you liked the post! And it looks like this years anime is gonna be somethin'!! News courtesy of “The Akiba” and “ANN”

OkamiSan~