Finally Got My Hands on Fate/Extra

So I haven't gotten very far in the game, I just confirmed it works. I got my hands on a PSP from Rho on Friday.

Here are the 2 links to download Fate/Extra. Part One  Part Two

I just know my first run through will be with Caster! Hopefully this won't delay my weekly posting stuff. I'll have a final review probably a week or 2 later when I finish. Expect random comments about this through out all my posts!

~Pearz

Mashiro-Iro Symphony 05 - Being a Maid is Suffering

Well, this episode was centered around the maid of this episode. I felt the maid was pretty boring character, but it could be because I am sleep deprived atm. I guess I am judging her mainly by her green short hair, which isn't one of those hair colours I like. I think I am just biased against her because she has zero character and dislike that archtype in general.

Un-Go - 04 - Paper Bag Family Part II

Do tell.

This week's episode was much better than I had imagined. I half expected a long series of explanations to further explain the mystery behind Kazamori and the Sasa family. As it turns out, the mystery deepens with more questions being raised, with a fair bit of surprising events, showing us the truth instead of bluntly telling us.

How do you arrest a refrigerator?

Directly continuing from part one, part two of the masked mystery begins with Yuuki pointing out that Sasa Kazamori isn't human, and thus, not dead. Almost immediately, more questions are raised as to what information the uncle and mother were hiding.

Kinky robot sex, that is all.

As Kazamori turns out to be a RAI, I immediately wanted to know what the mother and uncle had to do with this, as well as who was the one burned in Kazamori's place. Ultimately, the entire episode is dedicated to finding out who was killed, as well as informing us about the RAI. With the small info dump of the robots with RAI, we learn they were mainly used for personal pleasure and thus a bad influence on the youth. The real reason RAI was outlawed was to allow the military to take it and manipulate it for military use, which made a lot more sense and was also linked to the messed up war-torn world this show takes place in.

Why do people dressed in black suites and shades have to appear so angry and serious?

We are introduced to a new group involved in the crime, the Public Security Force, which is a militia operated by the military. Komamori, being alive, knew that the military was out for his research and special RAI. Komamori chose to fake his death to make it impossible for the military to steal the RAI, however a spy for the Public Security Force managed to infiltrating the Sasa house. Komamori, who had already killed the real Dr. Taku and used his body for his own death, used his Robot Taku to find the spy and burn him to death. This would allow Komamori to forever hide Kazamori, however Kazamori is able to imitate human behavior and is able to process "what is right", by exposing it's self at the moment where the uncle and mother were about to be arrested for Kazamori's "death". Kazamori chose to reveal it's self in order to clear the mother and uncle of the crime, and help Yuuki find Komamori.

It seems all of Inga's special powers are purple.

It was a very interesting episode with a lot more info to cover than I expected. In this episode we take a break from our usual routine for Inga, as he/she seems to freely change his/her form at will during the episode. Inga also showed off some cool moves in the child form against he public security force. We don't get to see what happens, but Inga somehow removes the threat before going back to the Sasa house.

Everyone already knew that.

We finally get to see Izumi's partner speak and have some character screen time. It appears that Hayami Seigen is a very serious police officer, however is somehow very stupid while acting so serious. I cant help but feel sorry for Izumi who has to work with such an idiot, at least he provided some early entertainment with his stupidity.

Overall I was pleased with how the mystery was solved. There was more to the mystery than initially thought with the military becoming involved and Komamori's faked death being explained. There was mention of Yuuki being on a battlefield, as well as Inga saying she eats the emotions of humans, so it will be interesting to find out more about our two heroes. Judging by the opening and ending credits, there are still a few more characters to see, as well as it appears that Kazamori will play a role in the show through her female child body, as indicated by her appearance in the intro and ending credits.

~Djr7

Penguindrum 17 - The Major Turning Point

Well I hope this episode wasn't the spark of a downhill slide for this anime. They have done such a good job with introducing  the story with so much foreshadowing but everything seemed to have went to shit in this episode; The teacher's random about face was way out in left base. I seriously pray they have some good explanation for this but I have a pretty strong feeling this is going to continue down this pattern for the rest of the season.

Guilty Crown 04 - It's a Gravity Beam, I Ain't Gotta Explain Shit!

Tsk tsk, profounding sounding questions with simple answers

I just couldn't get over the epic laws of gravity within this anime. I guess this is to be expected with people leaping tall mechs in a single bound. The episode did end on a strong note with the main character showing he isn't completely brain dead. Also pretty shitty screen caps this post since it is web rip that was upscaled D:

Pearz' Random Economics 101

Generally, I have no posts mid week with all my posts centered between Thursday - Sunday when all the shows air. With the recent turmoil faced in the EU over Greece, I decided to make a random post about this topic, it is my blog after all! Being very in-tune with worldly economics, I just feel this topic had to be talked about. Maybe I'll continue having random economic posts mid week if I have enough time and big events occurs. BTW: Tons of unrelated pics I have stored that I felt like posting.

Phi Brain Kami no Puzzle - 05 - Invitation from a Nightmare

I want to turn this into a meme.

This week's episode was, in my opinion, the best so far. We finally see the POG as a real threat with their dangerous puzzles and rather sick joke they play on Kaito, forcing him to recall the incident with his past. All the previous episodes at this point appear as introductions to the characters, and now it looks like the actual plot and battle between Kaito and Rook is about to begin.

More mention of the Phi Brain, I almost forgot about it, mainly since we still have no idea what it is. The Divine Puzzle appears to be the ultimate puzzle, perhaps the Phi Brain could be the reward of such a puzzle. After a surprise visit from one of the top members of the POG, Bishop invites Kaito and co. to meet with the head of POG and ask whatever questions they have. It seems this is a pretty ahrmless situation, so there has to be a catch.

Surprisingly enough, Jikugawa and the principle had nothing to do with the events of this episode, which I acknowledged as a step towards the real story of Phi Brain Kami no Puzzle, since we have enough knowledge of our characters to proceed. I still think that Jikugawa was Minotaur from the first puzzle, since we have seen the end result for each Giver so far besides him.

Oh Gammon, no matter how hard you try, you will always be a side character. The episode was full of Gammon trying to get Nonoha's attention, except he was ignored and forever shall be, since Nonoha was already baking cookies for Kaito back when they were little. I was happy with the amount of side humor from Gammon, we didn't enough of him in the last episode and he is growing on me as quite the amusing guy.

Those spotlights don't make up for it's lack of presentation.

We actually get to see the Divine Puzzle, well, actually we get to see a box with the words "Puzzle of God" on it, which didn't appear very secretive or all that special. It was almost as if the POG didn't know where to put the hyped-up puzzle, and decided to just leave it out in the open in their base.

Who relaxes with puzzles? 

I would demand something more extravagant than some puzzles to help me relax. Carrying on, We find out that not only did Kaito study at some geniuses only school in England, but the principle at his current school is his legal guardian! As the first two puzzles appear to be the same ones Kaito solved back in England, Gammon puts his skills to the test to hopefully win the praise of the POG, but also to impress Nonoha.

At this point I already knew a trap was imminent, judging by Kaito's expression and Rook's use of puzzles. Kaito appears to be confused as to why these exact puzzles from England are here, as this would lead to a traumatic breakdown from Kaito. I was very close to yelling at my T.V. that it was Rook from Kaito's past who was behind this, of course that would only make me look stupid and raise questions about me.

Kaito's breakdown was pretty serious.

When they introduced the final puzzle, Kaito has a flashback of his parents attempting the exact same puzzle, only to fall and perish. Kaito has a breakdown at the sudden recollection of his parent's death, blaming himself for not realizing it was a puzzle soon enough. Luckily, Gammon and Nonoha are able to survive the sudden death trap while Kaito's true feelings emerge about hating puzzles. There was mention of this in the last episode with Ana pointing out his inner hate for puzzles. We get to see a side of Kaito that is very much human, his true feelings for puzzles are revealed which explains his desire to solve the murderous puzzles that also took his parents' lives. Unfortunately for Kaito, the mental shock of this puzzle forces Rook to cancel their meeting. Kaito suddenly looses all desire to solve puzzles as he is taken back to the school.
Wow, this was a very powerful ending, Kaito's breakdown shows a much more personal side to him than his tough genius exterior.

Evangelion! 

This was a great episode that showed us more of Kaito's character and past. All this ties in nicely with Rook, although I still feel like we need a better introduction to him with all his screen time. Gammon amuses me quite a lot and I was happy with his abundant screen time. I was pleased to see the principle, and Jikugawa's reaction to the POG, showing us that they might not be a part of the POG as I had initially thought. I look forward to Phi Brain from now on is it will most likely develop the relationship between Rook and Kaito, as well as some side story events for the other characters to gain some screen time with possible Nonoha relationship. The next episode looks to build from these events. Kaito's resolution and help from Orpheus will no doubt break him out of his mental bind, to probably save his friends from a deadly puzzle.

~Djr7

Mirai Nikki Ep04 - Handwritten Input

Why does she cover her right eye?

This episode was much better than last week, an intro to two new diary holders was a nice way to shift the attention from Yuno and Yukkii. I was quite happy with the progression of the story, as Yukki, Yuno, Kurusu, Uryuu, and the other 2 diary holders all received some screen time. There was a healthy balance of mindless murder, psycho Yuno, and crazy new characters, all wrapped up with a good amount of info for each scene. The majority of the episode was mainly focused on the newest diary holder, Tsubaki Kasugano, with more insight to the crazy manipulative Twelfth.

I doubt it since she's too busy stalking you.

A great intro to the episode as Yukki renews his distrust towards Yuno, while we renew our love for the return of the psycho yandere. The episode continues from last week with Yukki curled up in his bed, too afraid to sleep, with images of the dead bodies in his head, along with Yuno stalking him. Yukkii is really in a bad situation with the Yukiteru Love diary telling Yuno of every single thing Yukki does, or how he acts. I've come to realize that if Yukki managed  to piss off Yuno in anyway, he would be pretty screwed.

Harem full of psychos? Sign me up! 

Following Kurusu's investigative diary entries, the trio discover Uryuu's location and begin to investigate. The episode is entirely located at the Sacred Eye cult's property, where Uryuu is being held. It was a bit tense learning that the Sacred Eye herself, Tsubaki was a fellow diary holder with the trio just walking right into her lair. Thankfully, Tsubaki has no interest in killing off the other members, although she could have easily done away with Yukkii and co. using her many followers. Tsubaki seems to have a special interest in Yukkii, but she quickly judges Yuno to be a threat, and even warns Yukkii about Yuno leading him to his death. I smell an awkward harem beginning, with some pretty murderous intentions.

Best moment in the episode when Yukkii tells off Yuno.

Tsubaki's diary is the Clairvoyance diary, allowing her to prohpesize about future distant events, giving her the greatest range at which her diary foresees, even trumping Uryuu's escape diary. The diary however has a great weakness, in which internal sabotage renders it useless if her followers can be controlled. Leading over to our new crazy diary holder, Twelth, it seems he is able to control people with hypnosis, he is also super cool, as you can see below.

I wish I was that cool

Twelfth seems obsessed with some sort of rock-paper-scissors logic behind the diaries, however as Uryuu points out at the end of the episode, you can't tell what Yuno will do to foil your brilliant plans.

While Yukki appears as the center of attention for all the diary holders, Yuno is definitely the most troublesome and strongest with her obsession of Yukkii. Yukki may have his moments of intellect and determination from time to time, but Yuno is the one keeping him alive, and helping him deal with the survival game. The episode was a great lead into what will hopefully be an even greater episode next time. It seems like this episode was determined to be an info dump, however it was woven into the personal issues of Yuno and Yukki with plenty of action so it didn't seem like an info dump at all. The show is shaping up nicely with a range of interesting characters who all seem to have a different end goal for the survival game, and different uses for Yukkii. I'm not all that interested in what each diary holder wants in the end, rather, I am more interested in what each diary holder wants to do with Yukkii.

~Djr7

Sales for Anime Summer Season 2011

Hey look, a nicely compiled version where I don't need to do anything!

Awesome unrelated pic

1, 24,383 Uta no☆Prince-sama♪ Maji Love 1000%
2, 11,116 Natsume Yuujinchou San
3, 10,552 Yuru Yuri
4, *6,896 Ro-Kyu-Bu!
5, *5,468 No.6
6, *5,464 The iDOLM@STER
7, *5,216 Mawaru Penguindrum
8, *4,485 Mayo Chiki!
9, *4,189 Usagi Drop
10, *4,100 Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni!
11, *3,521 Nurarihyon no Mago: Sennen Makyou
12, *2,068 Sacred Seven
13, *1,822 Blood-C
14, *1,550 Kamisama no Memochou
15, *1,487 R-15
16, *1,486 Ikoku Meiro no Croisée
17, *1,437 Kamisama Dolls
18, *1,343 Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi
19, *,909 Morita-san wa Mukuchi (TV)
------------------Anime saving line -------------------
20, **,843 Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel: Kyun Kyun Tokimeki Paradise!!
21, **,667 Dantalian no Shoka
22, **,336 Nekogami Yaoyorozu (vol.2)

These are the first volume sales which is usually used to base how well a series did.

I am surprised Idolmaster and Penguindrum sales are so low, I would think they would be much higher. Other then that, nothing really out of the ordinary for sales.

~Pearz

Chihaya Furu Ep 04

They're fighting for Arata's attention! ><; When will they fight for Taichi's?

Ah, they stopped my heart with the first minute of this episode. I was torn between whether they were staying in the middle school timeline because they were going to follow Chihaya's initial growth step by step or because Arata had decided to stay by securing some kind of enslaved residence at the home of a distant uncle. The former option would have made me sad, probably, unless some very interesting characters were introduced at the Karuta school. The latter would have made me so excited because of my shameless love for these kids.

The time traveller's aide

Fortunately (or unfortunately so) a Sakura petal carries us into the now. This episode has two focuses: one develops the heroine and the other sets the stage for the first major arc of the story. The writers took the relationship between Chihaya and Taichi and made it less emo than the very first episode did and I appreciated this direction. From what I understand, this episode continues exactly where the first episode cuts to the middle school timeline. Chihaya and Taich are riding the train to meet Taichi's girlfriend. (Why is Chihaya going along? I think this is unnecessary and weird. But then, Chihaya's character is strange enough that such actions do not contradict her personality just to stir the drama pot.) The girlfriend calls Taichi "Ta-kun" which gets Chihaya very excited and she wants to share this news with someone, specifically, Arata. It seems neither Chihaya nor Taichi has kept in touch with Arata. I wonder why? Chihaya at the very least seems like the types to make random calls and chat on and on for hours while Arata listened patiently. It is not difficult to believe that Taichi and Arata never kept in touch.

And I'm flirty. Look at the sparkles! Clearly there is a lesson for all girls to be learnt here.

Obviously, seeing Chihaya with Taichi makes his girlfriend jealous. I think, this was the only reason to send Chihaya all the way to the random train station that Taichi was going to. She adamantly insists that if she gets into the A Class of the Karuta school, that Taichi should help her form a Karuta club at their high school. Of course, Taichi refuses with equal vigour and then puts on a toque and sneaks into the Karuta club to watch her play.

The next line it "I bet they're still not as bushy as your eyebrows!" XD Sensei, da~isuki.

The sensei is as eccentric as ever. I really wish I had a teacher like him growing up. I think I can equate him to my current workplace mentor. He spews a lot of balderdash, but he is a good, sound teacher with a lot of wisdom to share and support to offer. Through his narration of Chihaya's gameplay and personality, we learn that she hasn't matured much in the year's she's spent under his care. Chihaya has grown leaps and bounds as a Karuta player but has not taken too many steps forward in terms of personal growth. I have a feeling so far she's been unknowingly riding on the coattails of her talent; but from now we should see her personal growth make her a better Karuta player.

The animation was all over the place in this episode, but scenes like this were still pretty.

The one thing this episode solidifies is Chihaya's need to move on from that moment in her past in which she's frozen. She still lives believing that Arata, Taichi and she are bound by Karuta and she needs to break free from this naive thinking to truly harness her capability in this game. After the tournament, which Chihaya wins, if not dominates, she calls Arata to fill him in on the news. It's difficult to tell how long it's been since the last time they spoke, but Arata is quiet and hunched over. I predicted correctly.

Called it. Well, part one. We'll eventually find out why.

Chihaya tells him everything she wants to tell him: She's in A Class, Taichi is in her high school, Taichi's girlfriend calls him Ta-kun, oh by the way how strong are you Arata? Chihaya is so cute and excited, and this enhances Arata's frigidity when he tells her he's out of the game. To turn the knife in your back, they flash all the cutest imagery of Arata from the previous episodes. Chihaya is shocked, truly, truly shocked. And then she realizes how her life has been frozen in time for so long.

Losing three kg by playing non-active sports seems to be the theme of the Autumn line-up. I swear Phi Brain Ep 02 has a similar screen shot.

I wonder where Chihaya will spring to from here.