Deluscar hits another milestone, and this time it hits 3000 comments. Indeed, happy 3000 comments to me! The 3000th comment goes to Seinime, so congratulations is in place for him too.

I would like to specifically thank all the commenters of my blog. Deluscar was able spruce up it’s activity so much as compared to when it was just started, and it’s all thanks to all of you relentless commenters. Of cause, all the rest of you lurkers and readers are just as awesome as well. I will continue to write (hopefully) more interesting posts as an answer to this milestone and to all of my commenters.

As a bonus, here’s my top most recent commenters. Congratulations to me once again Overlord-G for commenting the most, I would give you a cake, but I don’t have one at the moment.

Update: Maybe some of you had noticed, but I had also made a side blog recently on tumblr. It’s just purely for fun though, and it also served as a place to express my more random, unstructured, jumbled up thoughts. Feel free to have a look around.

Backlogs, who wouldn’t have them? Especially with time constraints, backlogs tend to grow overwhelmingly huge over the long term and before we know it, we are faced with an almost unbreakable wall of piled up unwatched anime.

During the winter season, I decided to pick as less anime as possible since I want to catch up on some old ones. For better or for worse, there are more good 20+ episodes anime then I thought from the previous Fall season, where I was forced to contribute more of my time for during my “winter session.” In the end, I wasn’t even able to finish through halfway of the anime in my backlog but either way, I’m still happy with my progress, which I think it’s a pretty good achievement considering how restricted my free time is nowadays. Here are some anime I finished, and my impressions on them (Note: For all these shows, I mostly finished all of these, and even multiple seasons if available, I however didn’t watch any bonus episodes, OVA, etc..)

Sayonara Zatsubou Sensei (season 1 to 3)

I marathon all of them in a row, and I can only asked myself “Why didn’t I watch it earlier?” It’s definitely not Gintama, but it’s still a great anime, and portrays jokes in a manner quite similar, yet very different then that of Gintama. Philosophical humors are always present as you follows Itoshiki Nozomu, a young man who even the slightest negativity causes him the urge to commit suicide. Such a man became a high school teacher, instilling his extreme negativity and despair to his own students.

While being a comedy, each episode Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei mostly talks about minor but intriguing concepts and themes, and I’m sure if I were watching anime earlier, and chances are, if I’m blogging earlier too, I would write tons of posts on them. “SZS: Trivial Details instead of Main Subject – A Study of Aesthetics of the Human Eye”, “SZS: A “Duty” To Serve Expectations”, “SZS: The Aspect of a Third Choice”, “SZS: Optimism and Pessimism” and so on. Just look at all the cool titles I can come up with, I would totally write them just from these cool titles alone.

There are a lot of great soundtracks too. From some literally despair-instilling track, to some oddly peaceful ballads and even some piano and violin solos, the albums of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is noteworthy. Of cause, the anime is by Shaft, and they are most known for their interesting symbolism, vague representations and dialogue-focused sequences. If you like Bakemonogatari, I’m sure you would love all these aspects of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei too.

And I heard the manga had a shocking ending too, so shocking that it left all it’s readers in despair. I’m going to read it soon too, so that I can attain an even higher level of despair…
 

Natsume Yuujinchou (season 1 to 4)

Natsume Yuujinchou is one of those anime which I had weirdly left out in my backlog for a considerable long amount of time, despite the popularity the franchise had. Natsume Yuujinchou tells the tales of a young boy who can see youkai, and the best part of the anime is his interactions and relations with both humans and youkai. As a “special” person acting as a boundary on both sides, how much burden he had to shoulder is unthinkable. He had no one to console with too, as most humans wouldn’t believe him. As the anime progresses however, he begun to make more and more friends from both sides, and his values in them evolved over the course of the series.

Of cause, the best character in the series, is Madara, or Nyanko-sensei. He is huge and cute – a furry ball of white cat, in the form of a “lucky cat”. He is Natsume’s bodyguard and protects him from quite a lot of crisis, though their relationships are interesting to say the least – complicated, but, comedic at times.

In the end however, under all the youkai fiasco, Natsume Yuujinchou is still a relaxing, soothing and gentle anime that tells how a kind boy who can see youkai, grow up to accept himself and those around him, and how others react to his extremely kind personality, humans and youkai alike.
 

Cowboy Bepop

Space and Gintama – I think that’s one of the way to describe this anime. The bounty hunters struggle with any kinds of missions, just so they could put some food on their table, reminds us of a certain Yoruzuya, no?

The depth of their own characters are one of Cowboy Bepop’s strong points. Former mobster, Spike, former cop, Jet, gambler, Faye and hacker, Edward; the four of them does sparks off a weird chemistry. Most of the anime are in episodic format but the main characters underwent gradual developments along the course of the anime, and also a majority of their past are also shown.

The quality of the animations are certainly way ahead of it’s time. Ironically, being “space themed”, the characters fight in a very realistic physical manner, with no superpowers at all. Weapons of choice are also mostly the good old classic guns; classic firepower. The realism of the actions does create some fancy fight scenes however, and it’s certainly unique from other superpower action anime of that time like..

Then, there’s also the music. Perhaps it’s because I watched Sakamichi no Apollon, but I feel that Cowboy Bepop’s Jazz soundtracks are great. In fact, when I’m craving for anime Jazz, Cowboy Bepop is always one of my main choices, the others being Baccano! and of cause, Sakamichi no Apollon.

Unlike Gintama however, Cowboy Bepop ended at 20+ episodes, in a dramatic and spectacular way too, I might add, though a bit tragic. As Cowboy Bebop is a classic, I wondered if it will actually feels different if I actually watch it when I’m younger. I do feel that some “magic” seems to had been lost when I watched Cowboy Bebop, considering how much anime I had already watched before this. This will be a discussion for another time anyhow.
 

Kannazuki no Miko

Yuri. This is the one word that attracted me to watching it. However, it goes to show that I shouldn’t be so easily influenced. Kannazuki no Miko isn’t as good as I made it out to be. The story I would say, actually had quite the interesting premise – Mecha and Shintoism. Contrast sometimes manifest the best of creations, and religions versus sci-fi in anime is something I always like to see. Kannazuki no Miko however didn’t use the premise they created themselves as creatively, and just use their mecha just for “the sake of having fights.”

It doesn’t help that the characters aren’t really likable – they are too generic, and even the antagonists don’t look appealing, they don’t have the slightest impact. Not all, but most of them feels like Pokemon’s Team Rocket, a joke of a group of bad guys. After all, they had a pop idol, a catgirl and mangaka acing as antagonists, how will we even take them seriously? Chikane and Himeko themselves, especially the latter, remains a damsel in distress for the majority of the anime too, and always had Souma coming to save the day. Either way, all the characters feel too dull, no developments and exposures, and they are already fundamentally overused archetypes too.

Whatever yuri scenes the anime had however, becomes a saving grace for the show (more of my own subjective opinion), though I’m still not sure if I would recommend this. If you can get through the painful cliched storylines, bland characters and melodramatic romance (yuri is lovely though), why not?
 

Hidamari Sketch

Hidamari Sketch is an anime I wished to have watch in a better and slow-and-steady situation rather then rushing everything through. Perhaps I could watch them when my life is actually less hectic, but there are just too many seasons for this that I just decided to marathon all of them through.

Yuno managed to enroll in Yamabuki Arts High School, and while she had to move away from her family, luckily, her neighbors, who are also her schoolmates, in her new Hidamari apartments are just as friendly.

Hidamari Sketch is fun, and it is interesting for Shaft to mingle with the “cute girls doing cute things” formula too, something KyoAni is more accustomed with. Of cause with a slight twist of “Shaftism”, the anime also featured animations with vague, symbolic representations. I would say heavy dialogue as well though the interactions they had aren’t as major as a topic you would find in Saynoara Zetsubou Sensei nor the Monogatari series. It’s just “cute girls doing cute things” aforementioned, and it’s just “girls talk”. It’s certainly fun and relaxing, especially considering the fact that the anime almost always end with Yuno bathing in the end (in slight cases, other girls are shown bathing too).

Like I said, I would had prefer to watch this anime when I’m in a less hectic mood, and think I would had enjoyed it more. Guess it goes to show that even mood or time affect our enjoyment in watching anime as well, though this is a discussion for later on.
 

Baccano!

I had always wondered how Baccano, which was wrote by the same author who did Durarara would fare, and it doesn’t fail my expectations. Bright, colorful cast of characters and vibrant but mysterious settings. Of cause, the most unique thing for Baccano is it’s unique way of establishing it’s stories.

When I was writing my Order of Watching Anime post, I didn’t include it in my post though there were mentions of it in my comments. There are a lot of anime which aired in non-sequence manner, and Baccano’s storytelling is one of the most messed up ever, especially in terms of order. Anime like Haruhi shift the order of the episodes but in Baccano, even scenes within a single episode is all jumbled up. All the scenes keep jumping back and forth that you might even had problems trying to figure out just which time that particular scene is supposed to unfold.

That ironically becomes one of Baccano’s highlights. As said in my Order of Watching Anime post, it’s best to just watch anime in the order it was laid out, and I believe it’s the best experience one can get out of watching a particular show by doing so. Of cause, with such a heavy-content anime like Baccano that deals with gangs, immortality and alchemists, it’s weird that the anime is able to fit in so many contents in just a 10+ episodes, but with the chaotic way it executes them, all the contents oddly fit. Baccano is definitely one of those anime with the most unique way of presenting it’s storylines, and I like how all the branching storylines which doesn’t seem relevant at first, are actually part of a larger plot.
 

Tamayura

Luckily, I managed to finish this anime earlier just before the upcoming second season start. Directed by the same person who did Aria, I was interested to see if this anime had the same “healing” abilities that Aria had – and it did, though not as strong.

Sawatari Fu, the main character in Tamayura took up photography in place of her father’s death. Moving back to her homeland, she meets some of her old friends, and starts to form many memories within the small magical island, and Fu tried to catch all these magical moments with her camera. The aspect of death may be misunderstood that this may become some sort of dark familial drama, but it really is a “healing” anime just as advertised – relaxing and soothing: empathy of serenity.

It’s not Aria definitely, but the anime is still a relaxing and pleasurable ride towards the end, and I will be sure to check out season two when it’s out.
 

Arakawa Under the Bridge (season 1 and 2)

Arakawa Under the Bridge was an anime I watch solely for more Sugita Tomokazu, the man with thus husky voice behind Gintoki (Gintama), Kyon (Haruhi) and Usui (Sket Dance). Little did I notice that Kamiya Hiroshi, who did voice-overs for Araragi (Monogatari series) and even Itoshiki Nozomu from aforementioned Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, was also involved in the overall seiyuu cast, with him voicing Ichinomiya Kou, the main character of Arakawa Under the Bridge. This heightens my interest to new bounds: Sugita Tomokazu who did so many voice-overs on comedy-type characters and Kamiya Hiroshi who voiced certain characters from philosophical anime, how much chemistry would these two seiyuu and their respective characters clash with each other?

The anime also set the perfect stage for them. Ichinomiya Kou who found Nino near the Arakawa river, and while the anime makes them an almost canon couple, the hilarious “Hoshi” always come meddling in their affairs – a love triangle. And indeed, Hoshi is voiced by Sugita Tomokazu as opposed to Ichinomiya Kou being voiced by Kamiya Hiroshi. The two always argue and fight with each other, always leading the situations to very hilarious atmospheres. That’s not saying that the other characters aren’t as attention-grabbing, in fact, they are just as wacky, or perhaps several times more. A kappa, a cross-dressing war-torn Sister, a super strong loli with morphing abilities; “Under the Bridge” of the Arakawa River is lived by one of the few most bizarre bunch of people ever to be found.

There are also bounds of parodies to be found, and like Gintama, I find the way they execute parodies flawless. Arakawa Under the Bridge is a very hilarious anime, and now that I had watched it, although it’s definitely not quite there in comedy values as compared to Gintama, it’s close. Did I mention the anime received the “Shaft treatment” as well?
 

Kodomo no Jikan

Googling Kodomo no Jikan and searhing it in MAL, sometimes it led me to a certain hentai, but I swear I didn’t watch that. Instead, I watched this. Kodomo no Jikan follows Aoki Daisuke, who was just recently assigned as a 3rd grade school teacher. He ended up making the worst first impressions in school, accidentally opening the classroom when the girls are changing. It’s an extremely bumpy ride from there, trying to get the little kids to understand while teaching them, yet still trying to have fun with them as much as possible.

Kodomo no Jikan portrays some interesting aspects of parenting. It also had some interesting points of views from the kids themselves too. Kokonoe Rin for example, wants everyone, and especially Daisuke himself to see her as an adult, and while there are some “funny” moments, I would think Daisuke could only see her as a kid ultimately. Some of the kids also has a justified reason as to why they are scared of adults but vice versa, some adult, especially Kokonoe Renji, are extremely protective of Rin, despite a bit twisted.

Kodomo no Jikan isn’t Usagi Drop definitely, but it’s still a somewhat good anime to watch, though the comedy slice-of-life moments might get bland and repetitive to watch over time.

School uniforms had always been one of the most identifying outfits in the world of anime. Using the powers of imagination and escapism, school uniforms had evolved to the point that they had became a fashion in a sense. Some anime has very unique uniforms and some games like Persona, even had different variations of the same uniform within the same school.

School uniforms are one of the most important costumes in the world of anime, especially since most lead characters in anime tend to be of teen age, and would be no doubt donning on such an outfit. Each costumes had their own individualistic sense and style but by having every students wearing the same uniform, it prevents solitary and also induces oneself the feeling of belonging to a familiar group of society or organization, which is the school in this regard.

The above shows how a typical school uniform looks like. The “sailor” uniform is definitely the most normal look. A school girl would don on a regular sailor uniform, with ribbons tied around the collar. Of cause in some cases, the ribbons can be replaced with a neck tie, or a bolo tie. The students also wear uniforms with varying designs, depending on the seasons. The picture above definitely shows a summer version of a particular school uniform; in colder seasons, the uniforms would be long sleeves, and would probably be accompanied with a blazer of some kind.

While school uniforms are objectively important, people obsessed over them for different reasons. First would be that it maintain a girl’s innocence. School uniforms are outfits worn by students, as such, it is immediately assumed that they are worn by teenagers. School uniforms symbolize innocence, youth, education and is a representative of the younger society. I guess this is why so many anime seem to have a high school setting with characters in their teens. This creates a condition where the characters are “almost” adults, yet, are still kids who are nearing graduation and almost hitting that “adult age”. Especially in slice-of-life, this concept creates a solidifying development for their characters.

The school uniform is one of the most widespread clothing-oriented fetishes and as such, aside from various anime, they are highly sexualized in hentai as well. The clothing, when worn on a girl, projects a youthful, childlike disposition. In contrast, the girl’s partner in hentai is usually one of adult – an older brother, a teacher, a man and so on. Being an innocent child, the more adult partner shows a more extensive sexual knowledge as compared to the girl, who is more ignorant. As such, the partner slowly shows her the rope, leading her, thus breaking her youthful and virginic appearance – superiority and sadism, pleasures in which the male demography is accustomed to.

Persona 3 – One of the most diverse and best school uniforms designed yet.

Another aspect of school uniform, is the creating of identification by “modifying school uniforms”. Most of us wear school uniforms already at a very early age and as such, we begin developing our own in-school persona. Aside from casual costumes, school uniforms are something worn from “blank state”. Just before, I mentioned that they are games like Persona, which even improvise different variations of their uniforms, with the use of additional accessories like belts, headphones, or via uniforms modifications like with uniforms not tucked in, open blazers or shortened skirt. Metaphorically, this shows that students had already begun developing a persona in school, graduating from their blank state.

If you’re the diligent type for example, you will probably buttoned up all your blazers, if you’re the wild type, you will probably open up all the buttons of your blazer. For the girls, the length of their skirts is a debatable idea. I heard that some Japanese girls in real life even deliberately fold up their skirt so that they look better and more individualized, perhaps long skirts seem more old-fashioned, though I’m not sure if the guys prefer short skirts in a similar fashionable mindset or just perversion in general. I’m the former myself. In that sense, when girls pick their school of choice, the design of the uniforms and their tastes in fashion surprisingly comes into play as well. That, and also long skirts in Japan seem to be associated with female delinquents a lot, as you can see from so many “female gangster” girls wearing long skirts in Japanese media.

School uniform is one main aspect of anime culture, be it as a form of philosophy, fashion, art or even adult entertainment. What do you think of the school uniform?

Note: This post is inspired by one of AOIA’s older posts, Analysing: The School Uniform. Also, this is part of a series of posts where I talk about various anime outfits, so this post on school uniforms, will be just the beginning.

Kara no Shoujo, is a visual novel by studio Innocent Grey, The game is an investigative interactive visual novel, and implemented gameplay with traditional visual novel elements.

Set just right after World War II in Japan, it follows Tokisaka Reiji, a former cop, now a private detective. An old friend in the Tokyo metropolitan police force requested his help in investigating a case of brutal serial murders. He was also requested by an all-girl school to investigate a missing person case and was also requested by a mysterious girl from said school, Touko, to find her true self. Bizarre chain of events, but little did he know that all of them are connected much more then he thought – they are even related to one of the case six years ago where it caused the death of Reiji’s fiance.

Extremely mysterious, alluring yet grotesque at the same time, the story tells the tales of adults, unlike the usual high school settings. The slow foreshadowing script reinforced the mystery of the visual novel – The vague introduction to the series for example: giving us a quote out of an in-game fictional book is quite an interesting way to begin the series. Through playing the game, the way how each revelation manifested another mystery, and how each body counts keep increasing no matter how much you investigate, while brutal, is a chaotic beauty. The way how more questions arise no matter how much you investigate keep your eyes peeled as you attempt to figure out who is the mastermind behind the mass serial murders.

I also find it interesting how the story and some of the murders are based on several motifs; Dante’s Divine Comedy for one, and also some fictional in-game ones like the in-game book, The Egg of Neanis, and the painting, Kara no Shoujo itself. Kara no Shoujo tells a story of obsession; it becomes an omnipotent mindset for some of the characters, especially the antagonists.

And in order to let players immerse into the investigations of these chain of murders, it also has a fun interactive gameplay to boot, and it’s investigative mechanics remind one of the Ace Attorney series, as the gameplays are immensely similar.

During investigation moments, you will be prompted to move around the mouse and try to find evidences that will help you get closer to the truth. At times, you will be examining a room, and at times, you will be examining corpses. Reiji also has a notebook, where he will update any new information he finds, including any new incidents happened around the characters he interacted, list of evidences and testimonies and so on. There’s even a map; during certain point of the game, it will give you “free investigation periods”, so you’re free to choose a place of your liking to check out, triggering some side stories or to find out more clues for your cases. Needless to say, will also effect the story and ending to come, depending on the encounters you made during these periods.

One slight difference, is that Ace Attorney will not go along with the story unless you obtained all the needed evidences, for Kara no Shoujo, it’s possible to miss some significant clues and the story will go on regardless. The difference in clues possession will also lead to a different story or ending, or perhaps even a bad ending. In that sense, when playing Kara no Shoujo, a lot of factors can influence the ending, from something traditional as dialogue choices, to the encounters during the free investigation periods and also the evidences obtained. At that end, it’s extremely complex, and without checking the walkthrough, it’s very easy to lead to a bad end unnoticed.

Not accounting for the earlier endings and bad endings, the main ending and the true ending (which is basically an extension of the main ending with better closures) possess quite the shocking plot twist, where the main character decided to seek more of the truth caused an explosive amount of revelations. With a chaotic plot like the one Kara no Shoujo had, it’s surprisingly how well the unending questions and mystery are all tied up conclusively in the ending.

I said earlier that Kara no Shoujo is grotesque, and I meant that quite literally visual-wise. The corpses all die in gloriously brutal and bizarre ways – limbs dismembered, head twisted, eyes plucked and so on and so forth. The bizarre condition of the victims when they died, are there any special meaning in that? It’s of cause, for our detective to find out. And of cause, as a detective, you are forced to look at these nasty corpses straight in the eye, examining the piles of blood, flesh and even interior parts for any clues possible. In a way, the nature of the corpses are “visually stunning”, and at the same time, true to its R-18 rating, this is one of the games where it’s best to leave minors out of it.

The other graphical aspects of Kara no Shoujo is satisfactory. Being a visual novel with adult characters, it has graphical designs with dark and realistic outlooks akin to the atmosphere of the visual novel. Character designs are good enough, although the amount of sprites for each of them is lacking. The backdrops are detailed and beautiful, a majority of them are CGs of nostalgic traditional-styled Japanese houses and is a great reflection to the setting, since during 1950s, I would assume a lot of Japanese are still clinging on their older cultures – their housing for example. At times, the beautiful backdrops also create a contrast to the current disturbing scene at play.

The total amount of soundtracks Kara no Shoujo had is little disappointing; at certain points of the game, you can’t help but feel the repetitiveness of some of the songs. Whatever songs Kara no Shoujo had though, is good. The songs, composed by MANYO, all have simple melodies but each of them brings the atmosphere needed at the time.

The title song “Kara no shoujo”, a simple yet sorrowful piano ballad, is a great introduction track to the game: empathizing a sense of mystery and sorrow, perfect for the story soon to be unraveled. The track “Moon World” is a relaxing track fitting for the relaxing atmosphere of the cafe. The more upbeat “Pursuit” gives the realistic sense of rush that you are actually giving chase to the suspects, though the track is also cleverly used during some other exciting moments as well. As Kara no Shoujo is a mystery murder story however, the list of soundtracks isn’t complete without some dark, mystery-instilling songs like “Cruel night”, “Egg of Neanis”, “Despair”, “Discord” and so on. At that end, other then the meager amount, and the extremely simple naming of the songs, Kara no Shoujo has a great, satisfactory soundtrack.

Kara no Shoujo is fascinating tale of mystery, obsession, sins, religion and truth-seeking. While it’s not for everyone, especially for ones who prefer a more lighter story. One who loves mystery, dark and gore however, will definitely be stroke with a sense of intrigue and entrancement. If so, do try it out, as Kara no Shoujo is quite the unique, but great visual novel.

Rating

Final Score

The original Hellsing TV series was horrid – following an original plot different then that of the manga, with terrible visuals, low quality animations, but worst of all, it’s a degradation of characterization, which ruined the exotic appeal of the characters, which were obviously so much more then what was shown in the TV series.

A good remake is what the Hellsing anime badly needed, and fortunately, they actually made one, in the form of “Hellsing Ultimate”, a series of OVAs at approximately 50 mins long each.

Hellsing Ultimate first follows the leader of the secret organization based in Britain, Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, who uncovered and awakened the legendary vampire known as Alucard himself. Since then, Alucard had joined the organization “Hellsing” fighting off against ghouls and vampires. That’s not all the organization had to fend off against however, as there is another rivaling faction, the Vatican and also Millenium, a group of supernatural undeads and vampires controlled by a psychotic, enigmatic individual. Staged in a triple-faction war, who will survive in this vampiric battlefield?

I stalled Hellsing Ultimate for a long time, and decided to watch it after all the episodes had been aired, and it had been quite a maddening pleasurable ride throughout the badassery. The guns, the swords, the vampires, the devilish smirks – all is an epitome of badass. Actions in Hellsing Ultimate is one of the best, fast, fluid actions, paired up with gore limbs-cutting scenes. Having characters comparable to the legendary Alucard in strength is also a boon to the action scenes. His encounters and fights with Alexander Anderson is always one of the highlights of the show, and they also displayed one of the best rivalries ever.

Story may not be the most original since themes of vampires had been overused but the execution is amazing. Mixture of both vampires and military is a refreshing combination in an otherwise, overused idea. The story also makes use of certain themes to heighten the philosophical wonders of the show, specially themes like religion and Catholics, social hierarchy of monsters and humans and so on.

The complex presentation of the characters are another highlight. At the surface, characters like Alucard and Anderson are nothing but psycho killers, despite their legendary status. However, deep exploration of their characters proved that they are more then their facade exposes. In the TV series, the characters are only mostly shown at an exterior level, the cause of bland one-dimensional characters. New antagonists like the Major who reinforces the massive military impact and showed the extreme insanity and atrocity even “humans” can achieve, after all, he even led a huge army of artificial undead!

Hellsing Ultimate reminds me of Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, in the way that both are remakes of their respective predecessors, which follows the stories of the manga more strictly. They are of cause, a lot more superior then their predecessors, and likewise with Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, Hellsing Ultimate had pretty much earned the right in my list of 10/10 scored anime. Truth to it’s name, Hellsing Ultimate is definitely one of the best, an ultimate of it’s kind.

Note: I didn’t watch the original TV series, so my limited knowledge on it originated from other reviews, comments and wiki.

There are a lot of factors that effect our enjoyment in watching anime, be it internal factors like the appeal of the characters or the settings of the anime world, to external factors like the time and place in which we watch them, quality of the video and so on. One of the most important external factors is our current mental state, and how it effect our enjoyment of anime.

A human is capable of vast emotions, and since humans are such emotional creatures, it gets awkward, or perhaps even irritating when we are doing something in a contrasting mood. Attending courses while immensely ill, going on a vacation with lots of unsettled problems at home or work and so on. It will be alright if one had perfect mood when doing something, but as a person grows older, so does his responsibilities – which means being free of obligations when doing something is next to impossible. So, how do we fit anime in? Likewise, it can’t be helped that sometimes, the experience of watching our favorite anime can be a little awkward or unsettling due to one’s current mood, and learning to cope with that is essential.

Obviously, I myself tend to be okay with any types of anime whenever I’m feeling fine without stress or pressure. Since my mental state is okay, it is more open to anything. When I’m feeling depressed however, my choices of anime is a bit complicated. At times, I choose a lighter anime to soothe my mind, body and spirit: Aria, K-ON and Natsume Yuujinchou for examples, are all great anime for their thematic relaxation and gentleness. Some of them may be a bit awkward to watch due to their exaggeration of happiness, but that exaggeration is just what I need at the time.

However, there are also times of depression where I think the complete opposite. At times, I can’t relax properly, as my mind keeps wandering back to the future tasks and obligations I need to commit myself to. At such times, I embrace the darkness. Oddly fitting with my dark, depressing feelings, I finished anime like Elfen Lied, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and more recently, Hellsing Ultimate. Not limited to anime however, I never forget to impose myself on other violent medias, catching up with all 300+ chapters of Berserk (the anime is less gore from what I can see), and some time later I also finished one of the most disturbing visual novel of all, Saya no Uta. Quite recently, I also finished Kara no Shoujo in a similar fashion.

What goes into my mind as I watch anime? As you can see from the above, I go for the two very different sides of extremes, it is either I went for the more lighter, yet positive and meaningful anime – extreme optimism, or to the heavier and darker anime – utmost pessimism. However, both sides are a different kind of escapism. Watching light and peaceful anime awarded me an obvious route of escape for all the problems of real life and when watching dark anime, it also counts as an escapism of sort in a way that I can regard the dark world in the anime as a reflection of my real life societal enemy, and seeing the characters fighting against such a world gave me strength.

How does this relate to our overall enjoyment of anime? I feel it is important to know how to cope with one’s negative emotion, and to choose anime that you feel most comfortable with at one’s current mental state. Everyone will have their own ways of dealing with them however. Do you still watch anime when on a negative mood? Or do you prefer waiting for a better time?

Some time ago, I described about my local anime community, and how lacking Brunei is in terms of things related to anime and Japanese visual culture. Brunei isn’t known to be the best anime country out there after all. No Japanese performers ever, no anime events, and a severe lack of figures and merchandises on sale in local shops.

However, I’m glad to say that Brunei is slowly improving – all the problems mentioned above, are slowly being remedied even before I knew it. Over some periods, I managed to join a few of these Japanese culture events which I noticed recently I haven’t share with everyone besides a few mentioning of it here and there, so I decided to share my experiences and compile all the local events I had been participating in one post.

1. EACon 2012

Expressive Art Convention, or EACon for short, is probably the first ever anime convention to have emerged in Brunei. The event officially started in 2011, a year I didn’t even notice it’s existence. In 2012 however, I finally found out about it and joined it in December of last year.

The event took place on Saturday, starting from morning, and ending in mid-afternoon. I need to work on Saturday mornings so I wasn’t able to join the morning sessions, which is unfortunate, considering there are official cosplay performances in the morning. When I get there by afternoon, it’s already the closing sessions, though there are still a lot of people there. It’s more about walking around, checking the booths, and asking the still-not-leaving cosplayers around for some photos at the time.

Remember how in my new figure posts, I was talking about how a store close to my town actually started selling figures? Before that, it’s either an one hour trip to the city, or the plain old online shopping for my figures. The figures booth they set up, is probably my most favorite one. Aside from figures, they also have a lot of other merchandises on sale, ranging from calenders, posters, and so on. I actually bought another new figure from their booth, which I will save it in my future figures post.

Aside from that, other miscellaneous stuffs are also on sale from other booths, ranging from notebooks, keychains, comics, manga, cosplayer costumes, Vanguard trading cards and so on. The neko headband is definitely one of the highlights of the event, though cringeworthy when I saw random people wearing them.

Sad. That’s the only total amount of cosplay photos I was able to take.

Another one of my favorite booth, purely just for the sake of nostalgia. Games had been graphically improved nowadays, and seeing games like these on display once more does reminded me down the memory lane when I first started playing Super Mario on the Nintendo.

In another corner of the event, some game competitions were still taking place, Street of Fighter and League of Legends most notably.

Last but not least, there are tons of Gundam models on display, I only managed to take photos of a small portion of them however.

I think that’s about it for EACon. The event, although is a small event compared to true genuine convention, I had quite a lot of fun with it. I would had love to join the event in a less awkward timing however, since I wasn’t able to get the most out of it. In the end though, I won’t let this take my “virginity” of anime events yet – I would rather prefer my first one be a more major one. I guess EACon’s a good “practice” in that regard, before I go about with the real thing.
 
 

2. Japan Festival

Original name.

Anyway, the event this time isn’t that much related to anime, but still related on the Japan Culture majorly as a whole. This event actually took place from the 21st to the 24th of March. In each day, there are demonstrations introducing and showcasing Japanese culture, technology and lifestyle, ranging from Wadaiko (Japanese drum performances); to martial arts demonstrations like Kempo, Kendo, Aikido and Karate; and cooking demonstrations from chefs of established local sushi stores and a chef from the Japan Embassy and so on. Others like origami and furoshiki (cloth wrapping) demonstrations, cosplay are also part of the events.

As this is a 4-day event, like before due to awkward timing, I was only able to join one day of it. I missed out on quite some major things like the Wadaiko and the martial arts performances. Though I was able to join in the cooking demonstration by the Japanese chef, Tamaki-san, teaching us the art of making sushi rolls.

The origami display booth, though my eyes are attracted more to the Vocaloid nendoroids and plush dolls. Looks like it’s going to take a lot of work to do these however, especially the intricate designs of the black swan.

A Doraemon papercraft they put on the floor, had the urge to kick it for some reason.

The one and only figures I see in the event, at least, on that particular day. Obviously not for sale though, more for decorative purposes.

One of my favorite part of the event is definitely this however: the chance to wear yukata. Two workers will help out whoever wanted to wear it. I think it’s pretty much impossible to wear it by yourself after all, especially the tying of the obi. As you can see, the dressing area is “open”, so obviously, the girls don’t strip (will be a sight to see however). Instead, the yukata were worn over the clothes they were wearing at that moment, probably not the proper way since from what I know, yukata are meant to be worn directly on the skin. Not much to be done, since I can’t expect the girls to strip in public anyway.

The process of wearing it takes quite a while to complete, and had to be worn step by step to be able to don on it properly. It was pretty amazing, how a seemingly piece of cloth can be wrapped around and tied, and then be worn with such elegance. They don’t even need sizes as well, from the ones with a more shorter height to the ones with a taller height, the same piece of clothing can fit just fine – I guess the secret trick is the still the tying of the obi, tying huge bundles of cloth to suit a person’s shorter height, or perhaps loosing a few bundles for taller people.

This is an “artificial sakura trees area” where you can take photos on the girls after they had worn the yukata. Pretty nice, though a larger area would had done it more justice. The area is too narrow, and not much photoshoots can be done without actually clashing with other people. Fortunately, we were alone during our photoshoots, and made it just in time before the next group of people were done with their yukata.
 
 

3. Hanamas’s Concert in Brunei

For those uninformed, Hanamas is a duo of two young Japanese female musicians – Chie Hanawa and Natsumi Okimasu: a shamisen player and a violinist respectively. Here’s some background information on them:

“Hanamas” is a Japanese – Western unit formed in 2009 by Chie Hanawa (Tsugaru-Shamisen player) and Natsumi Okimasu (Violinist), graduates from the Tokyo University of Arts. Both have been playing active roles in a variety of music genres by bringing out the best characteristics of each instrument. “Hanamas” received the Prize for Encouragement at the 1st Neo Classical International Competition in 2010 and has been actively performing in Japan as well as at overseas.

On 14 December, they performed a medley of folk songs featuring the Tohoku region such as Tsugaru Jongara Bushi, Yagi Bushi, Akita Nikata Bushi and original pieces, LIFE, Kanon and Mozar-tokotoko -Koshinkyoku （A Variation of Turkish March） with the guitar and drums in the back.

Anyway, the concert took place at a particular school auditorium in the city. The whole performance was splendid, the two girls, backed up by a drummer and a guitarist, has great chemistry with each other, resulting in an excellent wave of harmonious melody between sounds originating from the East and West. There are some funny moments as well, especially when the girls are trying their best to speak in English, only to run frantically and shouting “Tasukete kudasai, translator-san!” moments later. Cute. When the guitarist and the drummer also made their introductions, I like the drummer’s sarcastic comment when asked about how he feels about Brunei. He replied “Brunei is hot on the outside, and cold on the inside.” Perfectly describing Brunei’s weather in one line, and got us a few laughs.

I’ll provide links to their official blog and also their live concert in Brunei here. Please note that for the latter, the videos are not taken by me. It was regrettable but I wasn’t able to take any photos or videos, since I hadn’t even bought my Galaxy Note at that time. I noticed someone took some videos for the concert and uploaded them in Youtube though, so I compiled all of them I can find in a playlist. Credits to spunkynazz, the one who took these videos himself.

Hanamas’s Official Blog
Hanamas’s Concert in Brunei

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, by J.C. Staff, is one of the anime of the Fall 2012 lineup – and a great one at that. Easily mistaken as another generic harem comedy anime, it actually speaks of inspiring tales of success and failures of the characters as they strive to achieve their dreams.

Sakurasou follows main character, Kanda Sorata, a second year student of Suiko. Due to breaking the school dorms regulation and keeping a stray cat, he was forced to transfer from the ordinary school dorms to the Sakura dormitory (aka Sakurasou), where the most oddest and wackiest group of students live. Although a bunch of weirdos however, all of them possess incredible talents; he met Jin, a scriptwriter, Ryuunosuke, a programmer, to even the more otherworldly talented people like Misaki who run an original anime and becomes a big hit and later on, and Mashiro, a world-renowned artist who decided to learn drawing manga out of the blue. Last but not least, Sorata’s long childhood friend, Nanami, an aspiring voice actress, also joined the dorms later on. Being surrounded with dozens of talents and inspirations everywhere, Sorata was influenced, and thus, begun to re-evaluate himself and started trying to grasp his own dreams.

Sakurasou reminds me of Bakuman, in more aspect then one. Difference however, is that Bakuman, being a shounen, focuses more on the process of the chasing of dreams, with the characters retrying, retrying and retrying no matter how much they failed. For Sakurasou, it is more about the philosophy of dreams; and how these dreams, aspirations and inspirations effect a person and his interactions with other people. It is more character-focus.

Being a character-driven story, character developments are carried out exceptionally well. At the base, most of the characters can easily be fitted into certain archetypes, and can be pretty bland especially at first glance. However, the anime did a really good job in exploring all the main characters in more depth. Shiina is an airhead; simple act of taking care of herself is out of her reach as she had sacrificed her whole life in art; her lack of emotions and her ignorance are justifiable, so she isn’t just an airhead for show, and this side of her changes as the show progresses too. Misaki also, isn’t just a comic relief character either: she also has her depressing moments, especially when her romance doesn’t go well. These two are just a few minor examples of how the characters in Sakurasou are more deep and detailed written then one initially thought.

Talents and hard work was also a theme heavily explored in the anime, as the otherworldly talents of the students of Sakurasou, seems almost too dazzling for the more “normal” people like Sorata and Nanami who need more hard work, in hope to attain the same level of result. Sorata’s constant change in his perspective on his dormmates, and especially on Mashiro, can be frustrating to watch at times, but such frustration perfectly reflects the bumpy road of dreams Sorata was undertaking. Likewise, the other characters underwent similarly significant changes along the show too, and those changes are most obviously shown in their romance relationships.

Romance transitions feel smooth, and like before, it was also interesting how their dreams and ambitions seem to effect their romance relationships. The most prominent one is Sorata and Mashiro’s case. Sorata’s dreams and commitments forbade him from regarding Mashiro – perhaps the main source of Sorata’s inspiration and motivation – as a love interest. Likewise, Mashiro’s ignorance and lack of knowledge towards everything, including love, added fuel to fire in an awkward relationship between the two. In one side, Sorata is endlessly, relentlessly trying to keep up with Mashiro’s out-of-this-world talents and in another side, Mashiro didn’t know what to do with Sorata’s constant frustration. Aside from all this mess, even comes Nanami’s feelings towards Sorata, chaotically turning it into a love triangle.

The other prominent couple in the anime is Jin and Misaki, and in this case, theirs is also a reflection of one’s dreams. In their case however, their romance in my opinion actually had the best conclusion then the rest: Jin’s passionate ambition, actually turning their romance relationship into something positive, despite having a lot ups-and-downs to get there in the process.

The visuals are more then satisfactory. Colors are vibrant and at times, seem to make use of different hues in different atmospheres, especially during scenes where lighting is present – leading to incredibly bright and vivid backgrounds and immersive visual qualities. At that end, colorful art is definitely one of Sakurasou’s strong points visual-wise – a splash of colorful colors befitting the bumpy journey of dreams the characters are facing. Animations-wise, there are some noticeable stills at certain point of the anime, but doesn’t really effect the anime’s beautiful visuals in any significant way.

The background music however, doesn’t seem to be that much appealing in contrast. They are not worst off the mark of cause, but can be pretty forgettable. There are some noteworthy soothing tracks during the more calm moments, however, a major portion of the tracks tend to focus on cute and flufiness, which can be awkward when hearing them as standalone, though they do fit the current respective atmospheres. However, they are some good tracks aforementioned, my favorite one of them had to be “Sengoku Chihiro (29 years and 27 months)”, an oddly mature song as compared to the other tracks, though befitting the song name.. and the character.

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo is definitely an anime with a pleasant surprise. It is indeed harem, and it is indeed ecchi, yes, but how serious it took itself during the dramatic parts is refreshing. Dreams, aspirations, inspirations; all of them sparks off incredible similarity with Bakuman. However, Bakuman is more of positivity and in contrast, Sakurasou is more of negativity, and the struggles against that negativity – and those “struggles” in my opinion is the greatest part of the show. However, the ending may be a bit weak; not much conclusion is achieved as compared to, aforementioned, the romance between Jin and Misaki. The ending’s atmosphere does sparks off a possible sequel however, since the light novel itself is far from finished.

At that end, Sakurasou may be a comedy harem and ecchi, but when looked past that facade, Sakurasou is an astonishing great anime that tells the struggles of certain individuals in chasing their dreams, and also possibly, romance. J.C. Staff may be more famous with their works on Shakugan no Shana or Zero no Tsukaima, but Sakurasou is definitely one of their better ones too.

Rating

Final Score

Height: 154 cm
Weight: 42 kg
Three Sizes: B73/W53/H76
Blood Type: O
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Green

She is Shirou’s Servant, an agile but powerful warrior. Loyal, independent, and reserved, Saber acts coldly but is actually suppressing her emotions to focus on her goals. Her class is considered the “Most Outstanding,” with excellent ratings in all categories. Since her Master cannot effectively provide her with Mana, she minimizes her activity to preserve what she has. Saber is frustrated by Shirou’s “protective” tendencies, believing his erratic and reckless behavior will jeopardize her chances of winning the Holy Grail War.

This is one of the figures that was long extinct since I even started my hobby of collecting figures. As luck would had it however, this same figure had a re-release sometime ago. I immediately snatched my chance and bought her, only to find out later that there are pre-owned sales of her for cheaper prices at amiami. Ah well, at least I get to enjoy her while she is “fresh and virgin.”

I love flowery patterns on the side and on the top of the box, but the patterns may be a bit too much and overcrowded in my opinion – makes the box more flashier than is necessary. The scale figure comes with a big stand and two versions of Saber’s Excalibur, the concealed and exposed versions.

Donning on her blue battle dress, with a dynamic fighting pose, as always, she looks exceptionally gallant. At a scale of 1/7, she stands at more than 20cm tall and is also extremely wide. She can really eat up a lot of space, almost equivalent to most standard horizontal scale figures.

The details on her face is amazing, and her flocks of hair is well done too. Although I find her ahoge to be a bit more thicker then usual. I could had sworn the ahoge on the anime is more naturally thin and hair-like.

Details on her outfit are crafted with precise accuracy – I especially like the magic symbols on her chest armor. Though the type of silver paint they used made the metal looks very grainy for some reason.

I’m also quite loving the details of the sword, the exposed version of the sword in this case. That detailed magic inscribing on the sword is quite good, though likewise with the armor, the extremely grainy paint kinda puts me off a bit.

Aside from the grainy metal, the dress overall looks good. Although, she wasn’t able to come in one piece. One side of her dress had an awkward paint job – looks like a bad coating or perhaps the top layer of the paint had been chipped off.

The stand, aforementioned, is incredibly wide. It had also been made to make it “interact” with the figure, having a part of it diagonally sliced, probably by Saber’s sword. I usually dislike text on figure stands, and likewise, had to really question it’s presence here.

To support such a huge and heavy figure, the stand luckily offers a huge peg to withstand it – something which looks like a small bended metal bar which can be fitted into the slot on the stand and on one of Saber’s leg. It creates a better, stable balance but can look awkward – from what I can see, Saber is supposed to be running and sidestepping while swinging her sword, but the increased height makes it look like jumping instead. This is however, hard to notice from afar though.

Likewise with that one particular side of the dress, her other sword, the concealed version doesn’t come with one piece either. The round thingy on the side is supposed to be fit nicely on the handle, in fact, the exposed version was pretty much fine in that regard. This concealed version however, is very loose no matter how hard I push it in, and I can only guess that it was a factory manufacturing error. When I opened the package, the first thing that fell out of it is actually that round orange thing which was supposed to fit into the sword tightly. It was a very small piece too so luckily, I was still able to find it (it actually fell down twice). It kinda reminds me of the wings of the Kuroyukihime figma I bought sometime ago, one side was fine, and the other side of the wings just keep falling off.

I always had a gripe about special effects on figures, and while this one is definitely well done than some others I saw, I still prefer the exposed version of the sword – looking like a true genuine sword with all details exposed. In this version, the sword is likewise in the anime, concealed by the wind, at least that’s how it’s trying to look like. The blue swirls around the sword can easily be mistaken for blue tentacles however. The transparent outlook of the sword and the unclear inscribing does creates a sort of concealment that the figure is going for however.

In the end however, I love this figure however, and I’m really proud to have her in my collection. Although I had some tiny nitpicks of flaws I noticed here and there as you can see, those are quite easily overlooked in the grand scale of things.

Ever felt how annoying it was to climb a 10-storey tower, only to have to manually climb back down after beating the final boss on the last floor? Ever felt how annoying it was to walk 2 miles away from the door to the boss area just to reach a save point? All of these are incredibly inconvenient game systems that may had slipped the game maker’s mind or may be deliberately set up.

Does inconvenience effect gameplay difficulty however? Difficulty had always been a major concern for newer games nowadays, but does “inconvenience” relate to difficulty?

From my gaming experience, I noticed a few games with a bit more inconvenience then other games, major examples being RPGs. In RPGs, there will always be “healing areas” throughout your journey to soothe your pain, or more literally, to heal your HP; it can be a clean waterfall, a tent, food, inn – places which can replenish energy can be counted as one. I find it ironic however that the effects of these healing areas seem to be different in it’s effectiveness from game to game. In some games, healing areas can heal HP, recover from status effects and can even revive while some healing areas from other games can be as limited as only healing a portion of the HP without the ability to cure status effects or revive, which can be quite inconvenient at times. I remembered one day when I was replaying one of the older Final Fantasy game, I “healed” at a fountain thinking I was ready to face the boss in the cave, only to find out I was still poisoned.

Healing areas aside, there is also a matter of navigating. When you finished navigating an area, defeated a boss, and basically finished up with your business in whatever area you are in, say a forest or dungeon for example, it gets incredibly tedious when the game does not “automatically run back” to the world map for you, and you had to control it yourself. An inconvenience I experienced in games like Breathe of Fire, and can be slightly annoying at times. There are always alternatives to this however, like having short-cuts back to the outside world map, or to use an “auto-travel” system, and games that apply such system does make it slightly more convenient.

Location of save points too, is another element which effects the convenience of a game. You are fine, of cause if the save points were usually located just before each boss areas, but whose to say all save points in the game will be so convenient? Unexpectedly, you could be running several areas back away for 30min away from the boss area just to reach a save point. There are quite a lot of games with this inconvenient problem, and the latest one I experienced, was Ninja Gaiden (Sigma), before beating the very final boss of the game, there were no save points nearby, and I ended up not saving and just tried my luck with the final boss.

Last but not least, the structure and design of the game too. For example, Final Fantasy XIII. For a huge chunk of the game in the beginning, you gain no CP (exp equivalent) nor gil from battles – completely no incentive in grinding, which is a magic of most RPG games old or new alike. Also, whoever thought it was a good idea introducing us a massive world map (or something akin to it) in the form of Gran Pulse out of the blue, while suddenly blasting us in the face with 60 available side missions all in one moment? What’s worse, the game just had to do that when it’s about to end; quite draggy and inconvenient. Slightly unrelated, the lack of a New Game+ was odd, considering how common it is to implement it into their games nowadays.

From all the above examples, it all boils down to one word: inconvenience. However, “convenient” games don’t necessarily mean it’s easy. Instead of creating annoyance and inconveniences, games can increase their difficulty by creating relevant challenging puzzles or challenging bosses at the same time while making it “convenient” for their gamers.

What do you think about “inconveniences” in video gaming?

Pandora’s Tower, an action RPG game on Wii with certain unique elements and themes. The game was developed by Ganbarion, a video game studio oddly known for games adapted from anime like One Piece: Grand Adventure, One Piece: Gigant Battle and so on. Certainly, Pandora’s Tower is an awkward addition to their line-up of developed games.

Pandora’s Tower tells a tragic tale of Aeron and Elena. Elena got cursed during a festival, and when left unattended, will slowly transform herself into a monster. In order to slows the transformation or to even lift the curse, Aeron, Elena and a mysteriously knowledgeable merchant, Mavda, traveled to a place known as The Scar, and therein, lies The Thirteen Towers, where Aeron hopes to lift Elena’s curse by hunting and bringing back flesh of other monsters, most notably, the strongest beasts of each towers, the Masters.

The story of Pandora’s Tower is that of tragedy, irony and brutality. There may be some questionable aspects regarding Pandora’s Tower but the story is definitely where it shines. It uses the traditional theme of saving your loved ones with an extremely saddening twist. At first, we are shown a vague opening sequence and three characters – Aeron, the blonde knight from Athos, Elena, already in the middle of her beast transformation, and the mysterious merchant, Mavda – walking to the towers. All plot points aren’t develop carefully from the start but instead, developments on the background story and the characters are carried out in between dungeons. Talking to Elena more, whether or not it’s from when you’re not wandering in the towers, or if it’s part of the main story sequences, show that these two have a history, and an extremely tragic one at that. I do admit that at their very base, all the characters aren’t a really likable cast, but it is extremely easy to sympathize them, due to the nature of the story.

Another interesting aspect to the storytelling is it’s way of presenting the game’s settings. The current war between the nations, the origin of the Masters, the controversy surrounding The Thirteen Towers – The vague settings behind the story is not shown to you straight in the eye, but in contrast, the settings is slowly build up with different books you can find in the towers or observatory. It’s certainly an interestingly creative way to present a setting, and it’s all up to the player to either immerse more into the game’s world by looking for these scattered books, or be ignorant of them altogether. Mavda also pays a lot for the information given by the books, so looking for them is definitely recommendable.

In terms of battle gameplay, Pandora’s Tower’s isn’t too deep. With a weapon on hand, you can unleash a basic attack combo, or a single charged attack. You can also dodge or guard, similar to most action games. However, the main highlight of the combat, is the Oraclos Chain.

The wide array usage of the chain, is a creative way to make good use of Wii sensor control, and executing all their different moves, is perhaps the most entertaining part of the battle gameplay. In combat, the chain can be used to pull an enemy, tear them off, chained them along heavy objects or other enemy to restrict their movements, or even swinging them up and slamming them down to the floor. The chain is also your primary weapon to use when fighting against bosses aka the Masters of the towers, as your melee weapons like the sword or the scythe won’t work on them. As such, the prominent presence of the chain ironically make all your melee weapons secondary.

Strict usage of the chains and complicated bosses designs means more strategies brainstorming. Bosses have a wide array of attack patterns, and one needs to understand a boss attack styles and patterns, and to swing the chain at the perfect timing. Afterall, swinging a chain and pulling means lesser maneuverability, and that makes dodging the bosses’ wide area attacks even more difficult. Certainly unique though, as opposed to classic action’s slash-and-dodge style.

Not limited in fighting however, the chain is also used majorly in non-combat situations. Miscellaneous things like destroying crates at a distance, pulling an item from afar, pulling a dead monster for their flesh or other items and so on. Most prominent of them however, is it’s usage in platforming. The game has various jumping puzzles throughout the tower which requires witty usage of the chains; ranging from pulling yourself into a broken ladder or grapple stone, swinging yourself across ledges via a grapple point, blocking vent from a steam pipe by wrapping chains around it and so on. Again, another creative method to blend in the use of Wii control sensor in an action RPG – and makes exploration and platforming entertaining and refreshing.

However, exploration can get annoyingly tedious at times. The game introduced what they call a “curse timer”. Elena will slowly turns into a beast once the timer depleted – she will transform partially once that timer is 1/4 at the end, barely even human once that timer is almost at the end, and will turned into a complete monster once the gauge on the timer empties out – leading to a game over. It is essential to move quick, making use of any shortcuts available to go in and out of the tower – giving any fleshes on hand to Elena for her to feed on, and returning swiftly to the towers to where you stopped exploring. The curse timer was interesting, but can easily becomes an annoyance in later part of the game, even with shortcuts.

The game also has multiple endings, and the most important element which effects the ending is affinity status – a measurement of the bond between Aeron and Elena. To increase the affinity, you had to chat with Elena regularly, choosing positive dialogue choices and most important of all, giving gifts. The massive amount of “love” you need to give her to achieve the best S ending can be slightly frustrating too, especially when increasing the later levels of the affinity – dialogues are easily exhausted, and money are incredibly sparse as you can only earn them through books, which means less gifts for Elena.

Pandora’s Tower looks good; and the exotic towers designs are especially a highlight. The interiors of the towers feel pretty awe-inspiring and gorgeous… at first at least. They appear very repetitive as the game progresses, especially if the towers are of the same element – not just the outlooks, but even the layout and structure looks like a complete clone. They did a fine job with the character models however, especially with their intricate designs, though textures look pretty bland and at times, they can look quite blurry when up-close.

Last but not least, the animation sequences at least managed to save Pandora’s Tower from being too repetitive. We are almost treated with the same gobbling scenes every time servant fleshes or master fleshes were given to Elena. Luckily, the scenes were always in different variations, for example showing the same scene in different angle, and of cause, the subtle but gradual change in Elena’s reaction in eating them.

Likewise with the visuals, the music of Pandora’s Tower also suffers from extreme repeatability. The same background music will play whenever you enter any of the towers. The other major track is “Elena’s theme” of cause – the soothing, heartwarming song Elena sung in-game is also used as background tracks in different variations throughout the game. Other then that, the music of Pandora’s Tower is extremely disappointing overall – bland and repetitive.

Pandora’s Tower is a more unorthodox game, especially compared to the likes of The Last Story, and even Xenoblade – Pandora’s Tower fellow competitors from Operation Rainfall. It is a good game however, though some may be a bit frustrated due to some tedious elements and repetitive nature of the game. It’s a game worthy to try still however, especially with it’s vague, but intriguing plots, thematic explorations and satisfying gameplays.

Rating
Story: A
Character: B-
Gameplay: B+
Visuals: B
Sound: C

Final Score
7/10

Competitive karuta in Chihayafuru, is a poem-guessing game that uses a deck of cards called uta-garuta, and in each card, a poem from Hyakunin Isshu is printed on them. In uta-garuta, there are two different types of cards – yomifuda: reading cards featuring the full poems and pictures, and torifuda: grabbing cards in which only the last two verses of the poems are printed.

Each game usually consists of the reader, a judge and last but not least, the players. Players sit in a seiza position, and are required to arrange their torifuda cards in a particular manner on the floor. They are then given 15 minutes to memorize their opponent’s cards and positions. Once the 15 minutes are up, the reader will start reciting the yomifuda card which will be picked in a random manner and players are required to compete on the torifuda card that matches the poem being read, whoever faster will get the first point. If so, then that particular player can then send his own card to his opponent’s territory. The one who empties his own territory first wins.

I’ve been playing competitive karuta since I was six, and the harder I played, the harder it was for my knees and back. So my goal is for all of you to be able to play karuta for a very long time without injuring yourself. For that, the first thing you need is stamina.
~by Coach Sakurazawa

It’s difficult to really categorize karuta as sports in an international level, though it is officially recognized as a sport in Japan. Nevertheless, watching Chihayafuru, one can easily notice how such a seemingly simple game of poem-guessing called karuta, can be so intense, exciting and mind-blowing. One also needs extreme physical and mental strength for these kind of games. Physical strength is needed for the swiftness, agility and power of the “swings” when attacking opponent’s cards, or guarding your own cards. Having a great stamina also helps sustain a steady performance over a long period of time, after all, karuta matches can last as long as several hours!

Of cause, mental strength is also one of the other most important aspect of karuta. After laying down the torifuda cards, players are required to memorize their opponent’s cards and positions, so that they can attack the needed cards at any given time. How familiar the player was able to memorize the 100 poems are put to test here. Players are also allowed to change the positions of his cards, all of them even, so the opposing side will have to re-memorize the positions. More so, a lot of the cards are similar, they may have similar phrases in the beginning verses, but the poems may be different altogether, and it’s incredibly easy to make such mistakes of reaching a card that sounds somewhat like the right poem, and it isn’t. They need to clear their mind, and to listen carefully to each and every syllables recited by the reader, and even the tone of each syllables, as the different words and phrases leading from that one particular syllable may sound different in tone and pitch. Speed is just as crucial in such a crisis of decision-making as you obviously can’t take your time slowly in listening without your opponents beating you to the punch. Indeed, there are indeed a few sports which require certain levels of mental capability, but none of them are comparable to karuta’s.

In real life, it’s incredibly hard to balance between physical and mental strength. To me, the best thinking atmosphere will be a cool room temperature, and even then it’s difficult to upkeep the same level of focus over a long period of time. If the environment is hot, humid and stuffy, that makes it even harder to concentrate. Sweats, exhaustion, soreness – all kinds of distraction would effect the mind. The nature of competitive karuta challenges a person to upkeep a steady and stable balance of both of his physical and mental power. Constantly, one needs to have an intensely sharp and decisive mind to attack the needed cards, and the physical strength to make such an offense a success – a feature just as important as any other sports.

Injuries are very bad. Avoid them at all cost. However, they can also provide an opportunity. Injury affects the one who caused it more then the one injured.
~A psychological advice from Harada-sensei

Of cause, it’s not all just about memorizing and taking down opponent’s cards. Players can outdo their opponents through psychological advantages. Facial expressions, dispositions, styles – all these can be used against your opponents. Observing an opponent’s name and personality is another great tactical skill, as one could make an approximate guess as to what kind of cards his opponent is good at, and with such information, grants him the advantage.

In team matches, simple but powerful cheers can reinforces the morale and spirits of one’s own team. Additionally, announcing and shouting one’s own victory, psychologically helped his own team member in distress who might had previously been defeated – it helps uplift his mood and increases morale for the team overall. Team dynamics like this represents an active and an unbreakable stubbornness to achieve victory – a passionate spirit like this is what we love to see in a sports game, two opposing teams giving it their all without mercy, and is the one thing which makes competitive karuta the most relatable to sports, physicality aside.

On a lesser conventional scale, karuta also represents martial arts. The “swing”, is a move in competitive karuta that allows a player take his opponent’s cards. The technique involves swinging one’s dominant arm to attack one of his opponent’s card, the movement is aimed towards accuracy and swiftness, though there are some slight variations to it. For example, Yuube Keiko’s swings are so powerful that she pretty much blown away multiple cards at once, effectively restraining her opponent from getting the desired card. The current queen however, Wakamiya Shinobu – her swings is a mastery of the basis – her swings are so sharp and precise that there are even no tapping sound on the floor.

The nature of the swing, and the swiftness, agility and precision required to pull it off, reminds me of a sword strike, and the one I could most easily draw parallels to, is Iaido, or Iai from Kendo – a Japanese sword fighting technique that likewise, required smooth and swift movements of drawing the sword from it’s scabbard, slashing one’s opponent, and placing it back into the scabbard. Indeed, both Iaido and karuta are nostalgically historical cultures, and does resemble each other in more ways then one, but the most prominent example is the philosophy of Iaido – “the way of mental presence and immediate reaction.”

Another custom of karuta I find captivating is the respectful tradition. In each game, you are required to bow frequently while in seiza position – bowing to your opponents before the game, in the middle of the game (especially when you need to stand up for a brief while) and even after the game whether or not you win or lose. This also represents the foundation of a lot of martial arts – in which to upkeep a lawful spirit, being fair and respecting people. Again, this particular bowing aspect of karuta is quite similar to Iaido. Before and after Iai matches, both opposing participants are required to be in a seiza, put down their sword, and bow down to their opponents, before slowly getting back up with their sword. It’s an honorably custom that I feel is a graceful appeal of Japanese culture and martial arts.

Chihayafuru is a great anime that shows me another part of Japan that I originally didn’t know about. While it’s close to impossible for me to play karuta, as I watched Chihayafuru, I got more and more immersed – Karuta is truly, truly the ultimate form of Japanese sports, martial arts, literature and culture.

Gone were the days where dial-up is needed to connect to the internet, even if it worked, the speed left much to be desired. However, through literal improvements, internet became a daily thing. In the current stance of cyber technology, wi-fi is everywhere, even when on the go, you can still connect to the internet through portable devices like laptops, tablets and phones. It’s almost unthinkable not to have a stable internet connection.

Today, will be the day I share everyone a painful experience I had sometime ago – an incident where I wasn’t able to connect to the internet for an extended period of time, and is actually still experiencing the aftereffects of that incident now.

Coming back home, I sat down on my comfy chair, and tried to go to my blog, twitter, etc.. and go about my usual business, only to find out.. I couldn’t. I thought it was just a slight connection difficulty and assumed the internet will be okay later, and off I go with some downloaded games and anime. The second day after that, I tried once more but I still couldn’t connect, the third day leads to similar unsatisfying result and by the fourth day, I was beginning to despair. Every time I was watching an anime or playing a game, I felt empty – I couldn’t help but feel that I should be opening some downloads in the background.

After that, I started troubleshooting, and tried all sorts of method to fix my internet connection – resetting my computer, the connection, the modem and the router, rebooting, renewing IP address, and even reformatted my computer – all to no avail. I deduced that the wi-fi receiver in the CPU is damaged. In the end, I just bought an USB Wi-Fi receiver and connected it to one of the USB ports on my CPU.

My speed was able to reach a speed somehow similar to the previous one, however, it wasn’t as stable. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes, it keeps getting cut off, and it can get really difficult to re-stabilize the internet connection after a reboot. Of cause, I can always try swapping and installing a new wireless receiver inside, I’m however, not quite familiar with hardware maintenance, especially for newer motherboards like this. Actually, I’m not even sure if the wireless receiver is integrated into the motherboard or not. I can always bring my CPU to the repair shop however if I really need to, but since I can use it now anyway, I will hold it off for now.

The moral of the story is not to take things for granted, even for things like connecting to the internet as we never know when “something unexpected” might happen – always expect the worst, if you will.

Asura’s Wrath is a result of a collaboration between CyberConnect2 and Capcom. The game has an odd game mechanics, and is perhaps, one of the most strangest games I had ever came across.

The game follows Asura, a demigod – a type of species who were so genetically and technologically advanced they became something akin to god. He was also once one of The Eight Guardian Generals, fighting the impure beings, Gohma and preserving peace for the Realm of Shinkoku. In their latest war against the Gohma however, a controversial coup d’état occurred. Asura’s wife, Durga was killed, his daughter, Mithra was kidnapped. Most of all, the Emperor was murdered and Asura was flamed as the killer. His godly powers were then stripped and his soul banished into Naraka. However, even when in an isolated realm of life and death, through sheer willpower, relentlessness and rage, he crawled right out into the living world, with the simple aim of vengeance against the former Eight Guardian Generals, now self-proclaimed Seven Deities.

Being a game that is about Gods, it has a lot of religious references. Naraka, aforementioned, a place between life and death where sinners are confined in, is a genuine religious element found in Buddhism and Hinduism, and is also a place which played a central part of the story. The game’s interpretation of Asura in the game is true to real beliefs in some degree as well – what with Asura being an underdog compared to the other deities, Asura’s ignorance towards the ideologies of the other deities, and of cause, the most significant of all, Asura’s affiliation with anger.

“Mantra”, a source of energy behind most of the game’s supernatural powers, is also an interesting element present. However, each of the eight generals, who are bestowed upon a “mantra affinity” – mantra powered through certain emotions, seem to relate more on the Seven Deadly Sins in Christian religion, as five out of eight of them, are literally taken right out of that context. Asura, who is obviously assigned with the “Wrath” mantra affinity is a prime example. Additionally, there’s Olga’s “Lust”, Augus’s “Greed”, Deus’s “Pride” and Kalrow’s “Sloth”. In the end however, the way the story presented itself isn’t top-notch, just a simple quest for vengeance, but I do applaud it’s ability in using genuine religious aspects to help bring the story to life – begetting a darker, yet fresher undertones.

The characters they had, are all insanely flashy, but I sadly couldn’t connect and empathize with said characters, even Asura himself. Even for all the things he went through, he didn’t went through much character growth over the course of the story, he’s mad, towards the end of the game, punching wildly all the way to space, indeed, he does know how to stay flashy at least.

The game is hailed as being an “interactive anime” by fans, and it is indeed obvious why. Each episode of the game, is akin to an anime’s individual episode. There are even openings, closings credits and previews of the next episode soon to be played – it was certainly an unique way to tell a story, in fact, it might be actually one of the first. Throughout the game, it feels like watching an anime with gameplay implemented within.

Gameplay of Asura’s Wrath is definitely an odd one, but is still fun to some degree. The game is officially categorized as an action beat em up game though technically speaking, I would say the game can be divided into three parts.

The first part of the game is the obvious hack-and-slash actions. The battle gameplay is especially smooth and fluid, but is still bland – You have abilities to either attack a single enemy or charged into an wide area attack. Other simple abilities like dodge and blocks are also present.

Second part of the gameplay is the rail shooter. At this part of the game, you need to navigate the target cursor around and lock on as much locations as possible, before releasing your fires in all marked areas, all the time while evading enemy projectiles as well, in my opinion, this is probably the weakest part of the gameplay. In both of these, your primary aim isn’t to decrease your enemy’s HP (they don’t even have a specific amount of HP) but to keep on triggering quick time events by filling up your burst gauge.

Fans had been regarding Asura’s Wrath as an “interactive anime” and even though it’s TV series-like presentation of the story does played a role in that, the main source behind it is definitely the third and last part of the gameplay, and also the most significant of them all – the quick time events. Most games nowadays have quick time events in between scenes, where you have to press a few buttons prompted on screen with a limited amount of time. Games like Assassin’s Creed and Bayonetta has quick time events like these, but probably no games had ever used them at the level Asura’s Wrath did, to the point that these quick time events might be the game’s main gameplay itself instead of the hack-and-slash and rail shooter parts of the gameplay. The studio maker* does highlight the fact that he was trying to make a game that is like a Japanese animation, and the heavy reliance on these quick time events in battles reinforced that idea. I don’t particularly find them challenging, though this is a problem I find in most quick time events, they are considerably easy – it’s as if the game maker wanted something fresh in their CG scenes but on the other hand, they just wanted to move along with the story already. Another thing is that even when mashing the buttons or missing them altogether, it doesn’t have any significant difference.

The worlds of Asura’s Wrath is a chromatic one – fighting on human Earth, fighting in the moon, figting in a battleship, engaging in aerial combat in outer space and so on and so forth. You will fight just almost everywhere, and the game really brings all these intricate visuals to life. It is disappointing that it’s linear gameplay doesn’t offer as much exploration however.

As Asura’s Wrath is heavily reliant on quick time events, designs of boss fights are incredibly out-of-this-world – filled with extremely flashy scenes where you kick a huge cannon a hundred times your size and also where you had to block an island-sized finger from a giant from squishing yourself, all of which you had to control through buttons prompts on screen of cause. Some games these days had been relying on such flashy factors for epic boss fights, but Asura’s Wrath really is on another level altogether.

The soundtracks for Asura’s Wrath is also a relishing factor of the game. The main theme behind the game’s music composition is a signature orchestrated pieces with ethic vocals, such music is befitting of the game’s dark and gloomy nature. Not all are of the same nature however, as Chikayo Fukuda, the main composer of Asura’s Wrath soundtracks, cleverly fit in songs here and there that contrast the aforementioned songs. “Furueru Kokoro” is one such example, a calm and tranquil songs featuring mellow vocals, there are also various variations of the songs throughout the game – an instrumental version, a piano solo version, and an Asian ethic rearranged version, all exceptional tracks. Another track noteworthy is Orphan Wolf Legend, unlike the standard themed songs, Orphan Wolf Legend an odd track that gives an impression of a song originating from wild west – whistles, acoustic guitar riffs serving as the prelude, and electric guitars joining in during the meat of the song turning it into a rock fusion. Last of all, there’s even a classical piece – Symphony No. 9 “From The New World” 4th Movement.

In all of the game, I would comment on the boss fight between Asura and Augus having the best design of them all. The student and the master, after having some nostalgic dialogue and bonding, began their epic fight on the moon; as usual filled with tons of dialogues and flashy quick time events in between – all the while with aforementioned classical music, “From The New World” playing in the background. I always love mixes with classical music and the flashiness of Asura’s Wrath coupled with the classical music is a contrasting, and at a same time, an awesome combination.

Asura’s Wrath is an unusual, unorthodox game, featuring odd game system and method of storytelling. At that end, Asura’s Wrath is more of an experimental game, and is that experiment a success? In some level, yes, though with quite some noticeable flaws. Ultimately, it is indeed a fun game, but not something I would easily recommend though.

Rating
Story: B
Character: C+
Gameplay: B-
Visuals: A-
Sound: A

Final Score
7/10

Birthday: February 17
Height: 162cm

A teenage girl who possesses the “Mystic Eyes of Death Perception,” a supernatural ability that allows her to view the death of any given object and destroy its origin. She recently recovered from a two-year coma caused by a traffic accident. Prior to the traffic accident, she had two personalities: a male personality known as SHIKI, and a female personality known as Shiki. Children born into the Ryougi family are generally male and are raised with two personalities, so the male personality is customarily called the “yang” personality, while the female is called the “yin” personality. It is easy to tell which Shiki is speaking at any given time because both personalities have a distinct style of speech, most notably seen when the female Shiki refers to herself with the pronoun watashi, while the male Shiki refers to himself as ore.

After awaking from her coma, Shiki discovers that she can no longer feel the male Shiki’s presence and assumes he died because of the accident. She also feels a detachment from her memories before the accident, and while she knows she is Shiki, she does not feel that she is. In the hopes of regaining herself and the dead Shiki, she puts on a cold facade that somewhat resembles the male Shiki’s. Touko understands the sense of detachment Shiki feels, but considers the current Shiki a third, new personality.

This is a figure which had probably went extinct. Fortunately, the local store close to my town actually sell this very same figure, and I immediately nabbed her. Later on, I realized in some figures online shops that this figure actually had a re-release back in January, as part of Good Smile Company’s 10th anniversary. I guess luck was on my side, even though I missed it, multiple chances arrived for me to buy her again.

The box is quite tall, but not overly and unnecessarily wide. The colors of the box is in a pinkish/purplish hue. Extremely simple, she only had a single sword for you to play around with.

Being barefooted and wearing a kimono, Shiki gives out an ambiance of simplicity. Her calmly sculptured face however, together with the designs of the kimono generates a feeling of elegance. The simple katana she is holding on her hand begets an emotion of strength and raw power. All the features and personality of Shiki, the figure captures these elements all too well – a sign of excellent sculpturing. Simplistic yet elegant and beautiful.

The figure is incredibly dynamic, probably playing the biggest part in that is the kimono itself. The slight flowing movements of the kimono creates a realistic breeze illusion. The detailed wrinkles on the kimono, is another sign of excellently intricate craftsmanship. From what I can see, I cannot detect any bad paint jobs too – it’s of utmost quality.

Likewise with her appearance in the anime and the light novels, the pearl white kimono Ryougi wears is designed with flowery patterns, and the patterns are especially strong on her obi. Even with some areas of the kimono which are seemingly empty at first glance, there are actually faded spiral and flowery patterns all over it, not missing out even such fine details.

The grip on the sword is exceptionally strong too. Needless to say, you can also ignore the sword and display her as it is though chances are, it will look pretty awkward, since her left hand was already specially designed to hold the sword.

The stand is also incredibly simple, which although might seem plain in most cases, works quite well with her overall look due to the simplicity. Unlike my very wobbly Makise Kurisu too, the stand here has two pegs, which helps her stand more upright without shaking.

Flashiness isn’t everything as there is also beauty in simplicity. This Shiki figure is a magnificent 1/7 scaled figure brimming with beauty and elegance, and is definitely well worth the price for Kara no Kyoukai fans.

Black Rock Shooter had always been an extremely huge and established franchise, sparking off illustration, figures, OVA, TV series and a game, which was just released last two years ago, and was localized by NIS America sometime earlier this year.

Black Rock Shooter: The Game, features an apocalyptic world, where the Earth was invaded by a group of aliens. Being a superior fighting race, mankind dwindled not too long after that. Nineteen years later, the whole human race was reduced to a mere dozen. Seeking assistance, they awaken “Black Rock Shooter” – a living weapon which had been lying dormant all this time, and becomes the only hope in mankind’s resistance against the alien invaders.

I find the basis of Black Rock Shooter’s story to be a bit weak and vague – it is more of a settings created specifically for Black Rock Shooter to do battle. Unlike the anime’s where there were more contents than meets the eyes, you can definitely see that the game’s settings is a warzone, literally. In such a world full of despair and anguish however, the last twelve humans are awkwardly merry and strong-willed for some reason, even though they are the remaining humans alive on Earth. There’s also the case with the stale gameplay. In any case, the rough foundation of Black Rock Shooter makes playing the beginning parts of the game pretty difficult.
The story itself isn’t the most original nor riveting either. Worst of all, it can be quite draggy – you are asked to simply move from point A to B, from point B to C for almost one full quarter of the game.

The characterization however, picks up a little later. Instead of just fending off aliens, the normally naive and emotionless Black Rock Shooter gradually develops along the game; she understood happiness, loneliness and then despair. The plot twists following all those helps one to empathize with Black Rock Shooter – the game really focuses on Black Rock Shooter alone in terms of characterization. There is one other significant character however, Nana Gray, but I find her to be more of a catalyst in improving and developing Black Rock Shooter as a character.

Gameplay of Black Rock Shooter leave a lot to be desired. If you had seen Black Rock Shooter’s illustrations before, you will notice she possess a huge arsenel of weapons: a black katana, a huge cannon, chains and so on. I personally think Black Rock Shooter will do great as an action genre. The game however has an odd gameplay mechanics, and is unfortunately, bland.

Black Rock Shooter: The Game is more of a RPG/rail shooter. Like classic RPGs, you explore around a particular area, and fight monsters which may roam around the place in a separate screen. In combat, you had to attack by aiming and shooting your enemies, and to guard/dodge enemies’ attack at the right timing (when enemies are about to attack, they will always be flashing). Additionally, you can also equip 4 skills to use in combat, from defensive to supportive, from supportive to offensive skills – there are a wild array of skills, and is one saving grace behind Black Rock Shooter’s overly stale gameplay.

When looked further however, there are more problems I find within the game. I find the dodging itself to be quite an annoyance – you can only dodge to two specific spots, the original spot where you start the battle, and the other specified spot. Because the dodging spots are so fixed, accidentally pressing dodge twice will dart Black Rock Shooter back to the original spot she started the battle in, and chances are, you will be suffering damage from the enemy’s still ongoing attacks. Restrictions in dodging also makes fighting multiple enemies troublesome, especially for the stronger ones. I also find some skills to lag quite a bit during the aftertaste of their animation sequences, and as such, makes dodging even more difficult.

My next pet peeve about the game’s gameplay isn’t about the way it is executed, but rather, it’s very foundation. Aforementioned, I personally think Black Rock Shooter would do much, much better as an action game but in contrast to my expectations, the game uses a strange RPG/rail shooter gameplay that seems to focus the cannon more as a primary weapon. Her sword however has it’s uses, but only in some very few skills and during motorcycle chase mini-games, which in my opinion, doesn’t even have much of an impact for the game. Overall, I think I may come to love the game much more if it actually had a smooth high octane action-orientated design.

As for graphics, it pales in comparison to some older PSP games released some time ago. The world looks repeative and monotone, especially in the very beginning, though this does improve over the course of the game. It looks quite bad when close-up – undetailed, unclear and jaggy lines. Aside from that though, the base designs of the characters are definitely modeled in a great aesthetic appeal. The colorful and detailed designs of Black Rock Shooter and the Seven Apostles – extremely powerful aliens and Black Rock Shooter’s main adversaries, show the designer’s focus on them – as such, the drab visuals is ironically a great contrast to them. In the end however, visuals in this game could certainly use some more polish.

Luckily, Black Rock Shooter is satisfying audio-wise, offsetting it’s almost average visuals. Music comes in different variety as well, ranging from mellow tunes, to some excitement-instilling music. Boss fights of the apostles are definitely noteworthy – a Huke illustration of both Black Rock Shooter and the apostle will always be shown before the fight begins, and the rhythmic trance music in the background gives the impression as if two cyber beings are fighting – in this case, Black Rock Shooter and an apostle – two colors clashing with each other.

Black Rock Shooter: The Game isn’t the best PSP game per se – it’s simple gameplay can feel stale and boring quickly, and it’s mediocre visuals and weak story certainly doesn’t help either. Pick it up and have a try, if you are curious about how our lovely scantily-clad, gun cocking Black Rock Shooter, would appear in video game form; but of cause, don’t expect some high-octane action in it either, as you will be immensely disappointed.

Rating
Story: C+
Character: B
Gameplay: C-
Visuals: C+
Sound: B+

Final Score
6/10

Dra+Koi is a short visual novel by Nitroplus, divulging a tale of dragons and the battle against them… yet, it is ironically not as grand and valiant as it sounds.

It is difficult to garner much from VNDB’s exceptionally vague description of Dra+Koi, though I suppose it does match Dra+Koi’s short and crazed nature. The aforementioned visual novel is wacky, in fact, it is literally a mess. The writing feels like as if it had no idea what direction it wanted to be. At some parts, the writing feels poetic, romantic and even endearing, but it doesn’t take long for it to break down into randomness and mass swearing that takes a bit of getting used to. The world the characters are set in is a mess in itself too, featuring a place where invading dragons in a modern world are treated as “normal”. However, the messiness and chaos feels oddly right for some reason, and the character’s swearing, which I believe was the translator’s choice, adds a certain fitting beauty to it. Indeed, the chaos Dra+Koi shown us is almost indescribable – it’s nothing but a magnificent madness.

In a very short amount of time, the visual novel is packed full of emotions – one would laugh at certain messy, yet comedic parts of the visual novel, and at another, it would make one thinks with it’s thought-provoking elements, and on some other parts, it would excite one with it’s over-the-top actions. However, while it certainly did a good job condensing everything in about a few hours of content, one can’t help but feel that some aspects of the visual novel should had more time and effort focused on them – the main root issue behind the visual novel’s awkward and super-fast pacing. Indeed, this ruined itself in the end, whatever the story had going for – it’s intriguing plotlines, it’s themes – all of them ended before they even started becoming interesting.

Despite it’s flawed pacing and time shortage however, whatever were there, they were great. The visual novel speaks of themes of love and tradition – to follow one’s strict tradition or to break free of it in order to pursue love – with surprisingly ample developments and characterizations to go along with it. The prospect of love and hope is definitely a weird story execution of choice, especially if we are talking about Nitroplus. However, it does makes sense in a boy-meets-girl story with a touch on fantasy and romance. The ending was also pretty predictable, but makes perfect sense and was an almost flawless conclusion point.

To the contrary, I’m actually unimpressed about it’s graphics and music. The character designs are no doubt good, and there are definitely some pretty CGs. Dra+Koi’s visual presentation basis however, is questionable. The frame circling around the whole window while you play the visual novel may look pleasant at firsthand, but easily becomes a visual distraction later on. The backdrops are unappealing – strangely not full-sized images themselves, with the opening gaps filled up with symbolic patterns; some of them also look like edited real photographs too if I’m not wrong, which in my opinion, doesn’t bode well. Reminiscent of Demonbane, usage of 3D CGI can be seen most prominently with the dragon sprite, thought the number of usages itself was especially meager in amount – it doesn’t cause much impact visuals-wise.

Being such a short visual novel, there are not a lot of tracks, and quite a number of them are vocalized as well. A majority of them are pretty forgettable however, and some of them sounds more like standalone tracks then there are songs “supposed” to be implemented with the visual novels – that’s how unmatched their songs are. One in particular, “No Answer”, a song with a somber mood perhaps more fitting for more saddening moments, in contrast to my thoughts, the song was oddly used during sex scenes. Not all are that far bad in any case, some tracks are noteworthy, “To Aru Ryuu no Ama no Uta” for one, and it’s re-arranged version in the ending. The former is a calm, mellow, comforting song while the latter has an atmosphere akin to Celtic folk – it feels like a song coming out of Fairy Tail.

In the end, even with my countless bickering, Dra+Koi is a good visual novel. It is brimming with contents despite it’s extremely short length, and that feat already deserved applause. Certainly, Dra+Koi is too short to be anything grand – I myself was skeptic and played it with barely any expectations, and I’m glad to say that it easily met my expectations, no, exceeded it. Even when concise, Dra+Koi was engaging and enthralling – a strangely alluring romantic tale that may (or may not) touches everyone.

Rating

Final Score

Onani Master Kurosawa, literally translated as “Masturbation Master Kurosawa”, is definitely different from one might expect the manga was going for gawking at the blatant title. It is a doujin, but strangely retained polished qualities that could even compete with other professional manga.

The premise of Onani Master Kurosawa was so ridiculous it’s laughable – a middle school boy secretly jerking off in the girl’s washroom. Every time classes were over, he always stayed in school until almost everyone had left the school, and then he proceeded on to his “daily activities” – choosing a girl from his school as his source of lust, and masturbated. The young boy, Kurosawa Kakeru, was really enjoying his “sexual life” at school, until one day, he got busted, by a quiet girl who seem to always got herself bullied – Kitahara Aya. Seeking revenge, she forced Kakeru to help her through blackmailing – threatening to expose his “secrets” should he refused. For all those who bullied her, in return, they are sullied by Kurosawa’s “white juices”.

The story is disturbing. It painted the darker side of school life to a realistic degree – bullies, blackmails, revenge – it is an unbelievably gloomy story, and is definitely not just a simple fapping tale. With Death Note’s signature psychological fashion, the manga portrays a very engaging, yet realistic plot. While the manga is intense however, I like how it had a calming conclusion – themes of redemption and acceptance befalls our characters, turning to a much more light-hearted second half of the manga. Reading those towards the end, it really makes one feel just how much the characters, especially Kurosawa, had grown, and I believe that’s the essence of the manga itself – growing up.

The atmosphere of Onani Master Kurosawa is a solemn one, and reading the manga from Kurosawa’s perspective really strengthen the feeling immersion and realism. It also helps one empathize with Kurosawa – his joys, his anger, his melancholy – all emotions he felt, we perceived as incredibly strong and potent – overpowering, and perhaps even exaggerated emotions. Aforementioned, I like how the manga had a conclusive point, throughout all the gloomy years of school life, the characters, both the bullies and the victims change gradually. To the bullies, it was about accepting the consequences of your actions, and to better yourself as a person; and to the victims, it was about forgiveness, after all, fighting fire with fire will just turn it into an never-ending cycle of hatred and revenge, and the manga shown us all too clearly. In short, once again, it was all about growing up.

Being a doujin, I can’t say the manga had the best artwork there is. The drawings look like incomplete sketches, and no proper filling or inking had been done. Lines look dirty, uneven and unclean, and sometimes, the effect lines just go all over the place. Such artwork however, oddly fits with the overall dreary and twisted ambiance. To give a metaphor, it’s like watching a psychological horror film in black and white TV, something feels “amiss”, and it’s imperfect visual presentations strengthen such vibes.

Onani Master Kurosawa was a surprisingly fine read, and an intense emotional ride at that. It’s artwork leave a bit to be desired, but it offsets that shortcoming with an extremely compelling storyline and empathizing characters. The manga is a truly excellent coming of age story and I definitely recommend to give it a read, despite it’s misleading title.

Rating

Final Score

Bloomers, as most should had already known, are sport attires students used in Japan for physical education. They are known to be comfortable and easy to move around with, but the extremely revealing bottoms had caused wide controversy in Japan and unfortunately, bloomers were no longer in use in early 90s. However, through the power of escapism and immersion, bloomers remain an extremely strong medium in the art of anime.

The designs of bloomers from all the schools are almost coherently the same, they consists of a bland white T-shirt with slight bulky sleeves, and sports bottom; tight-fitting bottoms that exposes the thigh, allowing very free movements. It’s revealing design however, which almost look like a pair of panties, no doubt became bloomer’s eventual downfall.

One thing bloomers do, is that they managed to embody the feeling of activeness in the wearer. Bloomers symbolize assertiveness, confidence and decisiveness, so when they are worn by the more quiet and passive types, the contradiction sparks off incredible intrigue. Say for instances, if quiet and reserved characters like Yuki from Haruhi, or Kanade from Angel Beats were to wear bloomers, it will create an inconsistency which will attract a fair amount of attention from others, as opposed to characters who were already active on the get-go. In that sense, bloomers can also represent “change”, or in other words, a character’s wish to change or develop herself. In doing so, they wear bloomers, which represent boldness and frankness for their “training”. Sometimes indeed, one may find even more charm with bloomers worn by reserved and passive girls rather then the already more active, out-going ones.

Aforementioned, bloomers had became non-existent due to it’s revealing outlooks, but it’s because of it’s non-existence that it became a widespread phenomenon. I’m sure most of us had never seen a Japanese school actually using bloomers, so we could only use our imaginations. Luckily, the fact that bloomers are still such a powerful medium in anime helps manifesting our imaginations to stronger levels; it helps the men demography immensely in ‘sexualizing’ these objects known as bloomers which had somehow disappeared in our world. This might be another major reason behind the extreme obsession over them.

While bloomers no longer exist, it is still nice to see it still managed to have a solid presence worldwide, even if it’s only in the world of anime. Bloomers had an interestingly long history and it’s great to see that it’s legacy still remain strong even after all these years.

Breakdown of Uniform Fetishism:
Breakdown of Uniform Fetishism #1 – School Uniforms
Breakdown of Uniform Fetishism #2 – Bloomers

A trial for life, and a judgement of death.
Deception in life, and treachery in death.

Betrayal for life, and betrayal for death.
The riddles of life, and the mystery of death.

Justification for life, and the rationalization of death.
Faith in life, and trust in death.

The Class Trial to live…
or the Class Trial to die…

 
In Dangan Ronpa, fifteen high school students, with respective skills of top tier level each, were locked up in an elite high school called Hope’s Peak Academy. In order to “graduate” from the school, they need to commit a taboo students like them would normally never do: murder – a word most high school students rarely even associated with. Whoever managed to commit a “perfect” murder without anyone noticing, he or she will be allowed to leave the school premises. A Class Trial will be held after substantial amount of investigations had been carried out. The main purpose of the trail is to expose the real culprit, and if success, the culprit will be executed, if not, the culprit will be given permission to leave the school while the rest of the students will be the ones taking the punishment in his stead.

The skills and abilities that each of the students possess is of great variety – one is a Super Duper High School Fighter, another is a Super Duper High School Programmer, and another is a Super Duper High School Idol. I find it ironic that in most cases, it was the main character, Naegi Makoto, an average high school student without any particular skills, a Super Duper High School Luckster, was one of the fifteen students that contributed to the trail a lot more – he was usually the one who progresses along the trail’s discussions, seeks contradictions in statements and discover the truth using evidences he found during his investigations.

Naegi is the main character, so that much is to be expected of cause, but it is indeed interesting how an average individual like him doing better than others who had various skills at their disposal. A portion of them, say Oowada for example, rarely contributed to the trials at all and the only thing he did was demanding explanations of deductions and reasoning from other characters. When forced into a psychological battle with specified rules, even world-class skills of a fighter or gangster failed to provide a helping hand.

As the group was starting to thin out, one would notice that a bulk of the trials were mainly proceeded by Naegi Makoto, Togami Byakuya and Kirigiri Kyouko – for me, the three most engrossing characters of the bunch. Different morality, ideals and personality splashed out from the three contrasting characters – the different ways they carried out the trial is one of the most interesting context of the game.

“I will not give up, and I will not give in. I will not become weary of myself, or the world. I will not abandon the things and people I care about. And I will not succumb to despair! I mean, my optimism is my one redeeming quality!”

Naegi was invited to Hope’s Peak Academy through winning a lottery, earning him the title “Super Duper High School Luckster.” He is the one of the most “human” character in the game – not used to seeing deaths and possessed a naive, innocent mindset. He is trustful of others, and also doesn’t mind lending a helping hand if anyone requires one. As a protagonist, he is an incredibly relatable character. Kind, friendly and down-to-heart, he managed to interact socially on almost all the other students in the school. He is also optimistic, a trait extremely crucial in such times of despair, and indeed because of such optimism, he is very tenacious shown evidently during the class trials, despite his soft and passive appearance.

Such positivity can never mean a good thing however, especially considering the nature of the bizarre chain of events he had gotten himself involved in. Although being officially described as “typical”, Naegi is shown having keen senses and deductive skills, a useful ability to have during his investigations. Sadly at times, his skills was effected by his naive and sentiment outlooks. Every time he pointed his finger and accused someone, he always hoped that his assumption was wrong, that the suspect will deny his claim so that a life will be spared, despite the clear evidences he himself garnered. He knew that the person his finger was pointing at will lead him or her to death, although indirectly, Naegi “killed” them and he understood full well the significance of such act. As such, he was always in a great deal of stress – his judgement clouded by confusing his logic with sentiments.

It tormented him when his friends betrayed him and ended up killing, and it tormented him when his friends die. Perhaps it’s because he bonded with them – with bonds, one would feel connected with his friends, but sudden deaths of his friends he bonded with would no doubt be retaliated with extraordinary emotional turmoil. Indeed, deaths and betrayals of Naegi’s own “friends” and “allies” brought hysterical screams, forlorn tears and unbearable pain to himself. Whether or not it be the culprit nor the victim, both sides were always dying, corpses of his own comrades kept piling up in front of his eyes. For Naegi, his affection to others and his positive behaviors may be his greatest strength, but is also his greatest weakness at the same time. No doubt that the despair he felt was unimaginable, but like two sides of a coin, a hope can be found within such darkness, and fortunately, Naegi is strong enough to move forward with his optimism nonetheless.

“God, don’t tell me you’ve bought into this whole “she wouldn’t kill her friend” nonsense, too? Have you still not gotten it through your thick skulls? This game does not operate on your “ideals.” Naive dogmas like friendship hold no ground here. This is a game of wits-of securing the spot atop the hill. There’s not one person who would sacrifice himself for another. In the end, every man thinks only of himself.”

A heir to Togami Conglomerate, a highly successful fiance corporation by his family. At a young age, Togami already obtained a sizable amount of fortune all on his own.

He is known as the “Super Duper High School Scion”, which is more of an affirmation of his social status rather than a specialized skill. However aforementioned, skills, and especially ones irrelevant to such a predicament is pointless. Togami became one of the main investigators later on in the game, and through a rational approach, he could easily pieced together evidences and drew conclusions which no one would easily arrive at. Furthermore, because of his status and authority, he was well informed of the state of affairs of certain incidents – information maintained in secrecy which was never even revealed to the public.

Unlike Naegi, Togami is a skeptic. He does not trust people easily and rejected companionship by making antagonistic remarks. Most of his time alone was spent reading in the library. As a character, Togami is a distinct reflection to most of the other individuals, and more prominently, a contrasting disposition to Naegi. Togami is cold and merciless, and treats the trails as a game. Most evidently, such mischievous and wicked nature was shown in a certain case where he “modified” the crime scene just for his entertainment purposes. Under the playful facade however, he is extremely logical, and always thinks several steps ahead against his adversaries. Due to his status, he is also extremely arrogant and is always confident that his own logic and reasoning is correct. Last but not least, he is prideful, holding himself in high self-esteem, thinking to himself that he is superior to everyone else. As a result, he always looked down and offended other people – his ego resulting in countless discords.

In class trials, Togami’s logical approach and his lack of empathy is his greatest boon, and also his bane at the same time. His apathetic nature helps reinforced his mental capability of finding faults, conjuring up possibilities, tying together evidences and testimonies and making decisive decisions, while being ignorant of how his actions might hurt the people around him. His over-confidence in his own logic however, can easily lead to him getting flabbergasted when that very same logic gets overthrown. For example, he was completely perplexed during a certain case where self-sacrificing tactics were employed. The act of self-sacrifice was pretty much foreign to Togami, since he only viewed humans in such a callous and cynical scale – his reasoning itself was drawn from such limited perspectives.

“I don’t want to push too many preconceptions into your head before the school trial begins. You should come up with satisfying answers by yourself…”

Kirigiri Kyouko. Both her background and specialized skill was unknown at first, initially titled as “Super Duper High School ???” Her whole existence is a mystery, but from what we can gather, the girl is calm and collected. Her stoic expression however, was shown to break down into a scowl during some rare moments where certain sensitive topics were brought up, that change in expression occurred in just the briefest of moment, before switching back to her usual emotionless expression.

Kirigiri is in my opinion, one of the best, if not, the best investigator in the school. She always seems to run off doing solo investigations on her own, and what she came back with was extremely valuable information that doesn’t only just help them on their current case but possible future cases as well. She is remarkably observational as well, given just half a time, or even a quarter of time the rest were given, she could investigate and discover as many details as the rest, or perhaps even more. She almost never lose her cool, and is able to touch corpses as if it were the most normal thing to do for her.

Kirigiri can relate to the importance of human empathy but she never lets her biased emotions to effect her during trails – she thinks objectively and does not abruptly jump to conclusions, thus prolonging the trials whenever necessary. Unlike Togami, she can see the positive side of people’s motives. For Kirigiri, it’s like she possessed both the passive side of Naegi, and the decisive side of Togami, an almost perfect investigator, and an individual.

While both Naegi and Togami are both excellent individuals contributing a lot for the class trials, they are in the end, flawed. Naegi easily panicked and gets too emotional, and while Togami personally claimed that “ideals” should not even be brought into the cases, he was caught in his own ego of self-esteem and pride. Kirigiri has her flaws too but she strikes me as a stoic but excellent individual, an almost perfect character, and is no doubt, my favorite character of Dangan Ronpa.

Note: All of these were taken from the game. I didn’t watch the anime, and not planning to.