While I definitely had my fair share of troublesome problems and obligations I need to deal with, a certain awful event that happened these past few days overwhelmed all my little worries – my dad’s surgical operation due to prostate cancer. If you checked my twitter, chances are, you should see my mini announcement that I would be gone for a week due to my dad’s hospitalization. My dad had actually been undergoing checkups and CT scans for around a year, and the most recent checkups were not really positive. The doctor said he needed a surgery, and fast.

Fortunately, the disease was discovered in the early stages – the cancer was in an isolated state and it hadn’t started spreading to other parts of the body so the situation wasn’t as bad. He still had to undergo surgery though, and the operation was successful. I admit though, I was a bit shocked and flabbergasted to see him murmuring hysterically that he’s in pain in the operation theater. My dad, who has a considerable resistance to pain, had an expression that was akin to screaming for help. We weren’t able to do much – the only thing we could do was to just stay at his side as much as humanly possible. 

Time goes on, and as the days passed, my dad was still in pain, but he was getting better bit by bit. By the fifth day, he was already eating and walking around – his strength slowly but gradually returns. By almost exactly one week, he was already given the leeway return home. He still need help around the house but he had been getting more and more energetic, he was still obviously in pain though, and probably will for a while.

As usual, real life’s tough, but my dad’s surviving, I’m surviving… we all are, and we will do our very best to continue this tenacious spirit of ours.

Now that the dark part was over, I believe some updates on my favorite hobbies is in order to lighten up a bit.

I finished marathoning all the Sket Dance and Fairy Tail episodes some time ago. Both shows are great and I’m even surprised there are some romance development in Sket Dance. I’m still wondering if I should check out the manga for both, but I’m inclining more on the “don’t read” side for Fairy Tail, it’s phenomenal OSTs is too good for me to do so. A bit early for a marathoner like me, but I had also started watching current airing shows, the episodic ones at least, like Gin no Saji and Tamayura Aggressive. I watched Railgun S thinking it’s akin to the “cute girls doing cute things” episodic atmosphere of the previous season, but I’m surprised to see it features a huge and also an extended arc from Index, and was also coincidentally one of my favorite arcs in the Index universe.

Last but not least, I also watched Watamote. A fine show, as recommended by quite a number of people. The “jokes” touched a bit too much on the realism side for comfort sometimes though. Watching Tomoko for an extended periods of time, I don’t even know if I should laugh or cry, but I guess that’s what Watamote is about – wry jokes making one feel sorry for her, so sorry that you just had to crack a wry laugh.

I also watched Da Capo III, not sure what to make of that…

For manga, what I had read is more because of the nature of their anime counterparts. For example, I had been waiting for the longest time for a “proper” Hayate no Gotoku season 3, what I get was an odd sequel where it’s quality was questionable at best, what’s worse is that it expected us to already know about the new characters in the manga (aka Ruka) by popping them out of nowhere in the anime, so off I went with the manga indeed, and I’m glad I did. I can understand why the manga was so loved. The arcs for Athena was exceptionally good, something which the anime had never shown to me. The World God Only Knows was another one I read in a similar fashion. The currently airing season 3 of the anime skipped around 70 chapters and no way I’m missing all those either. Before starting, the anime did had an extremely condensed previewing of all those skipped chapters, but I would rather read the manga first, which I did.

I’m still somehow keeping up with games and visual novels, media which consume the most time in my opinion. I was hyped up about the English release of Grisaia no Kajitsu, and finished them sometime ago. The heroines are good but ironically, I’m more interested in Yuuji, the protagonist than the heroines themselves – the random murmurings of his own past was like a tease to me. I really want a detailed and coherent exposure of his past instead of random mentions here and there, but for this, I guess I had to wait for the translations for the later installments of the Grisaia franchise (specially the second one at that).

I haven’t play a lot of games. I “suffered” PPD after finishing Xenoblade for what feels the longest time ever. Xenoblade is in my opinion, the best game in the Operation Rainfall, and of cause, the best Wii game I had ever played. (I only played like 4 Wii games though, bwahaha) Another game I played recently which I feel also deserved to be top-tier in it’s own right is Dangan Ronpa. An awesome game and this may be a bit exaggerating but it is close to being one of my most favorite games in the PSP. I’m especially attached to a certain three characters.

Considering my inactivity in light novels, I’m still surprised I was able to get some done – I finished reading 6 volumes of Heavy Object and Hakomari. I had read the first four volumes long time of Hakomari a long time ago before even volume 5 and 6 were translated. In order to immerse myself more and further feel the build-up once more, I re-read the first four volumes, and ended reading everything including the newer two volumes. What I read was… hard to put it in words. Hakomari was one of my favorite light novels even before the new volumes, but it gets even more engrossing after reading volume 5 and 6. Also, a lot of things started to make sense. The new revelations, character developments, and psychological warfare was once again indescribably fascinating.

On the other hand, Heavy Object was also a fine read – written by the same author who wrote the Index series. Heavy Object would certainly fares to the tech geeks. If you love the complex sci-fi and technical dialogues of Index, then you would surely love this as well. The light novel also features extremely flashy battles – tiny humans versus large animistic robots known as ‘Objects’ towering 50 meters in height.

I like taking pictures, but I like looking at other people’s pictures too.
Pictures that are different from mine.
It makes me wonder how they were shot, and why they choose the area that they did.
I think it’d be nice to have someone to take pictures and talk about them with.
That’s why I started the Photography Club
~Sawatari Fuu

Human feelings can be discerned through various ways – directly or even indirectly. Directly telling your feelings is one way obviously, but when done correctly, it is even possible to transmit your feelings through ambiguous means. One, if observant enough, can discover a person’s current emotions just by studying his or her actions and behaviors. Using romance shows as an analogy, some canon couples in shows never even confessed once, but they, the characters, and we, the viewers all knew that both of them are meant to be together – it’s an unchangeable fact. The prospect of conveying one’s emotions directly or indirectly comes to play.

Conveying emotions through art, music and other creative means had always been one of the most interesting and colorful ways of expressing oneself. It does takes skill but when pulled off, it delivers emotions as powerful as, or even more powerful than pure simple words. In Tamyura, taking photographs is Kanae and Fuu’s method of intangible communication. One can clearly immerse into the photographer’s moods by studying how the photos were taken, and how the photos came out.

In terms of personalities, Fuu, although polite, is more straightforward and adventurous. She isn’t afraid of approaching close to the subject to take the photo, she sometimes even kneels and crawls. In contrast, Kanae is more shy and reserved, all her photos were taken with a lot of consideration. She uses the zoom function quite frequently since her soft-spoken nature makes it difficult for her for close-up views. Due to their contrasting natures, Fuu seems like she will be superior in portraits photography while Kanae will be better in still life.

In photographing, various techniques can be employed. Lighting, color, flashes, angle, focus, composition – all are incredibly handy storytellers. For example, when expressing sadness, you would want to keep the lighting dark, to express happiness, you would want the opposite instead. Colors may be a more interesting element of expression. Red for example, indicates anger, but it can also mean romance. Blue or green creates a tranquil ambiance, easily achievable by taking photos of nature. Blurring helped too. By blurring parts of the image, the areas not blurred creates a focus, and helps reinforce your story. In some case however, even the blurring itself foretold something.

You can also mix around the colors and lighting for interesting effects. For example, clashing light and dark colors depict a gloomy yet hopeful atmosphere – most common examples would be photos of sunsets and shadows looming over. Combining that example with various other techniques like angle, focus or composition, a piece of simple picture is equal to a thousand words.

In Tamayura, most of the photos, especially ones taken by Fuu transmit a feeling of happiness. The photo Kanae took that won the competition does deserve the credit. The expression on the subject was extremely good, paired up with the orange glows in the background, it gives off a feeling of anxiety and hope at the same time. The blurry picture Fuu’s father took on purpose expresses a playful disposition – motivating Fuu and the rest to go on a “treasure hunt” to find their sakura trees using the blurry picture as their only lead.

Ambiguous expressions are empowering – expressing a stronger emotions than spoken words. Human emotions can be so wild, creative and abstract! Expressing oneself can never be so fun and colorful. Let’s get aggressive and start expressing!

I had been wanting to buy a tablet for a while, even though my phone was already considerably big, at 5.3 inches. I still had to zoom in and out while reading manga. In terms of watching anime, I definitely had a better experience on my android phone than that of apple, however, it still had problems – it can’t run MKV properly and for some bigger sized HD videos, sometimes the audio and the subtitles won’t synchronize with each other. Then, there’s also the fact that my phone was already swamped with work stuffs.

While hunting for a tablet, I saw a Dell Latitude 10 which a nearby local store here just recently stocked in, and immediately bought it on my next payday.

The Dell Latitude 10 has a specifications equivalent to most netbooks. 2GB ram, Atom processor at 1.5GHz, 10.1-inch monitor screen with 64GB SSD, paired up with functions which most tablets or phones would normally possess; bluetooth, Wi-fi, front and rear camera (2.0 megapixel and 8.0 megapixel respectively) and last but not least, also supports stylus.

As for ports, it handily comes with an USB port and a mini-HDMI port. With how I usually use the tablet, I don’t think I will have much use with the HDMI port, but the USB port is definitely useful. Unlike iPads or Galaxy tablets, I can easily just plug in my pendrive or even hard disk for some easy data transfer. As for the powers, it comes with the main port for the adapter to be plugged in, and a power USB port just beside it. Sadly, the USB power one is kinda useless. It barely draws any power in, you have to lock out your screen or shut down altogether for the power to actually draw in through USB, according to my experiment at least as I see that the power indicator only lights up after I done so.

Dell Latitude 10 uses both Windows 8 and Windows RT, and it took me some time to get used to the latter. Windows RT is like a smartphone/tablet variation, and is through RT where touch-screen interface shines. Most of the things I need to do was in the all familiar desktop, but RT has it’s uses too. For example, I can get a manga downloading app from windows store and use it mass download manga – something I can’t do with a normal desktop (I actually tried it, with minimum success). With desktop, I was usually stuck with finding DDLs, torrents or through the plain old online reading, but it’s honestly easier to just get an app which could download from other manga sites. There’s also the ability to read files like epub for all my books and light novels.

I haven’t did a lot of customizations at the moment, there are tons of things I still want to do. For one, I would love to use a custom background for the Windows RT screen, then there’s also the on-screen keyboard. Aside from using an external keyboard, I had no idea how to use buttons like “Shift” or “Alt”, since there are none. But one of the most important thing I did, as Aaeru stated, is restoring the Start orb, which you can do so using programs like Start8 or Classic Shell. This will be extremely useful for people who don’t want to switch back to RT for the taskbar.

Moving on, the package that I bought barely had anything. Just the tablet itself, the casing and the power adapter. Apparently, this device is so new (here) that there were barely any accessories available for it. I had to buy another 10.1 screen protector for my tablet, which was obviously not made specifically for Dell Latitude 10. Meaning right now, the exposed bezel is completely exposed to scratches and fingerprints, and that’s the most disappointing part of my purchase. The lack of accessories mean there are no spare batteries or dock too. Oh, did I mention you can take out the casing at the back and swap around the battery just like some phones do? I obviously see no use in doing that at the moment though since I don’t even have any spare ones.

Speaking of batteries, it’s performance is another disappointing thing. When I was checking around the net, Dell Latitude 10 had been advertised as having one of the most long-lasting battery life – able to last more than 20 hours without charging. Mine wasn’t as good as advertised though, on a full charge, it lasts about 10 hours before needing to charge again – still quite strong nonetheless.

For other things I can workaround. I have tons of earphones and headphones I can use at home, and it seems like for the stylus, any types would do, as long as it’s not a broken one. I used my phone’s Samsung stylus and it worked like a charm. My casing also has a stylus holder at the back, but that’s a really awkward position. When I insert my stylus there, I’m always afraid to close my tablet and leave it flat on my table, as the stylus at the back of the casing will be at the bottom, effectively getting squashed by the heavy tablet. I suppose I can always just flip around my tablet, but that’s another weird thing to do.

Of cause, I use my tablet purely for entertainment purposes, for what I call, my pentalogy of otaku hobbies: anime, manga, light novels, visual novels and games – so my tablet needs to be capable of all of them (the latter on a lesser scale).

For watching anime, it’s simple enough. Going into my all-familiar desktop, I just get myself a Media Player Classic and the latest version of CCCP, then watching anime worked like a charm. VLC works fine and dandy too. I tried some of the video players apps at Windows RT but none of them seem to be able to play MKV. Tablets and smartphones sure hate MKVs for some reason, but with the omnipotent Windows desktop, nothing could go wrong.

Aforementioned, I had to use DDLs, torrents or even online reading when reading manga on my desktop. For my tablet, I just installed a manga app called Manga Flow. Sadly, you can only download a limited amount of manga, so I just bought the premium version, it’s not expensive anyway, just cost about $3, and is totally worth it. There is an option to download all chapters of a manga, and no matter how many chapters I queue up in my download list, it won’t disconnect, and the speed is pretty fast too, especially if you’re using Manga Park as your main source. You can download databases of other manga sites if you want to, like mangafox or mangaeden and once done so, you can also snatch downloads from those respective sites, but it seems like the speed is the fastest if you’re using Manga Park. The only disappointing part about this app is that there is no “my library” or “my downloaded manga” or something akin to those. After you downloaded a manga, in order to read them, you need to specifically search and navigate to that very page just to read them.

I actually had a lot of problems finding the right e-book reader. What I need, is an epub reader that have a night theme (black background and white text), can display pictures properly and can load local files already in the computer. The ones I find always seem to have problems – there is one where it only has the default theme (white background and black text), another can’t seem to load pictures properly and so on. Currently, I’m using Liberty Book Reader from RT, seems doable, but can take a very long time to load the pages, notably ones consisting of pictures. It also very frequently crashes, especially when I suddenly rotate the screen. Any other e-books apps you guys recommend?

Likewise with anime, playing visual novels is simple enough. Just download, and install in the proper way the visual novel and English patch requires it to. Playing visual novels on a tablet was another one of my aim for the longest time ever too, as playing visual novels on my 24 inches monitor on my desktop can be pretty awkward. A massive screen, while the visual novel is played in such a small window. I know there are HD visual novels but from the ones I can play (aka translated), there are few and far in between.

My tablet isn’t so strong that I can play modern games like Assassin Creed 3 or Dishonored (or something else along those lines) on it, and I wasn’t planning to anyway as I can do them on my desktop. I do love to play some emulators on my tablet, say DS for example, that touch-screen ability of my tablet would do it justice. I haven’t started trying it yet, though I did messed around with a SNES emulator I found in the store. I also tried some games from the windows store – Spectral Souls (bought for a whopping 16 USD), Soul Craft and Dungeon Stalker 2 were some of the notable ones I downloaded. Although in the end, gaming is of a lesser concern – if it were, I would buy an Ipad instead.

I know that windows 8 is controversial at best, and indeed, there are a few bumps here and there, but overall, I’m quite liking my tablet at the moment as it satisfies almost all of my needs.

Time to throw myself to bed and enjoy myself some anime, manga, visual novels (whatever) on my tablet…

Bittersweet romance, loneliness, distance – Makoto Shinkai is always known for such reoccurring themes in his films. When one talks about Makoto Shinkai, he will most probably be reminded of some of his previous films like Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, Voices of A Distant Star and most notably, 5 Centimeters per Second.

Garden of Words, his latest film, depict a pair of couples – a young high school student, an aspiring shoemaker: Takao Akizuki, and a young female adult: Yukari Yukino. Both of them met on a rainy day, and while being complete strangers, they feel oddly drawn to each other, bonded by the rainy days which the two of them were so fond of.

Garden of Words possessed a similarity that align itself more with 5 Centimeters per Second, in that both of these films feature realistic slice-of-life settings, as compared to his older works like Voices of A Distant Star and The Place Promised in Our Early Days with a more fantastical and sci-fi appeal. Indeed, likewise with 5 Centimeters per Second, Garden of Words is simplistic. In contrast to it’s title – Garden of Words, not many words were exchanged, especially in Takao and Yukino’s case. Both the sound of falling raindrops and the thudding of shoes are the main source of invisible communication. Stories were progressed through minimal to no dialogues at all, it’s as if we are watching a silent film.

Beneath the non-wordy approach however, dozens of underlying themes and symbolism lie under the surface. Both the shoes and rain speak a thousand words, much more than any witty dialogues would be capable of. The film is about the life of a child and an adult, the difference of the worlds between the two, the connection between the two, and finally, the bonds forged through silent contemplation.

Real photographing techniques had been employed in Garden of Words, like the depth of backgrounds, composition, rules of thirds, angle, lighting and lens flare, and so on. Using such techniques, story is told in such indirect and vague manners. For example, the constant zooming in and panning around the feet or shoes, using lighting, shadows and even blurs to create a focus on a particular subject, and unique angles that play with perspectives – it all creatively provides a visual narrative rather than a straightforward one.

Likewise with 5 Centimeters per Second, Garden of Word’s animation is tight and brisk. Paired up with the anime film’s lush backgrounds and photographic appeal, it makes the characters almost alive. Makoto Shinkai had always been known to give exceptional focus on the visuals side, and it certainly pays off.

Although Makoto Shinkai had enjoyed a long collaboration with music composer, Tenmon, the music in Garden of Words was composed by Daisuke Kashiwa instead, however, the music he made for Garden of Words does not degrade the film’s overall quality either. The soft background music helps reinforced the almost magical and fairy-tale like ambiance throughout the anime. A single piece of unaccompanied piano melody, with sounds of raindrops in the background is of notable example. In fact, a majority of the tracks are mostly unaccompanied piano pieces, which fits well with the anime film’s atmospheric simplicity. Although violins and strings are also commonly used instruments in the soundtracks.

Garden of Words tells a story not through words, but pictures. It is a bittersweet short romance story filled with abstract visuals and undertones – It’s as if Makoto Shinkai is transforming the whole anime film into a massive, aesthetic poem. Garden of Words is an incredibly beautiful film and is definitely worth watching.

Rating
Story: B-
Character: A
Art: S
Animation: A+
Sound: A

Final Score
9/10

Long ago, manga was the only main source for anime adaptions, but as of now, there are dozens of source materials that anime can adapt from – ranging from manga, light novels, visual novels, games and so on. Additionally, there are even originally produced anime. Of all of these though, the ones I have the least preference of is anime adapted from games. There are a lot of obvious problems of such adaptions – rushed pacing, lack of characterizations, time restrictions, and the list goes on. However, today we will look at a certain element of such game-based anime – gameplay elements in anime.

Although due to the very wide array of media, and their recent developments, the very basic nature of their purposes get lost in the process. However, at their very core, we watch an anime to see a story unfolds, while we play a game for gaming, entertainment and eye-coordination. In this case though, gaming itself had underwent huge changes along the way, so attempting an adaption of them gets trickier. Even so, I personally think anime producers should consider about this particular aspect of game-based anime more.

Have any of you watched the currently airing Dangan Ronpa? I feel that it was produced in an awkward manner.. or perhaps lazy is the more correct term? From what I can see, the presentation of the scenes and visuals don’t seem any different from the original PSP game, no, in fact, it horridly looks copy-pasted. There are a lot of visual cues and gameplay mechanics that I feel completely unnecessary to be included into the anime adaption – for example, the visual pop-ups after finding evidences, the “ammunition”, the choices, the flashing anagrams, and even the M.T.B. (probably the players will be more familiar with these terms). On the game, such interface is fabulous but it just doesn’t feel the same in anime format. Even the execution scenes were straight out extracted from the game itself.

Taking a little trip back in time, we will have a look at Persona 4: The Animation. The anime remains one of the more satisfying game-based anime in my opinion. In this case, the adaptions of the gameplay elements actually works. The screen showing the changes in date gives direct information of the day progression and more importantly, the weather conditions – a very crucial plot element in Persona 4. Another thing that is actually shown in the anime, is the main character’s ever-changing parameters. The main character, or Yu in the anime, is a reserved and stoic individual. If you had played the Persona games, you will notice that ALL the Persona main characters are the silent protagonists-type. The parameters at their blank state in the beginning shows that Yu is still a greenhorn, in regards to his social life or when dealing with the Shadows. As the plot and his characterization progresses, so does his parameters – showing character developments, thus gradually discarding his silent self.

When you’re playing a game, you are the player, you will be the one controlling how you should go about and how the events should proceed. Such gameplay integrations in an anime feels incredibly awkward instead – when a menu suddenly pops up in an anime showing something had happened, it’s like another event occurred without your knowledge. It feels as if “someone” else is playing the game, instigating the events without your permission. It’s as if you’re the third person, watching a game played by someone else.

However, as evidenced by Persona 4, adapting aspects of gameplay mechanics will work. Persona 4: The Animation was able to blend the gameplay elements into the context impeccably. I wouldn’t say copying the gaming elements into anime adaptions is wrong, but blasting away those copy-pasted visuals all over the place aren’t exactly right either. The ratio usage, balance, context, variation – I feel that a lot of consideration is needed when adapting gaming elements into anime – a consideration that I hope producers would take into account more.

~by ZabiLegacy

Hello, this is ZabiLegacy. I write over at Sekijitsu.com. If you like my writing I urge you to check it out.

Over recent years I’m sure I’m not the only one who has noticed that anime seems to be getting shorter. There were always 12 episode shows, but they seem much more prevalent. 50 episode anime was still a common site ten years ago, but it is now rare to see a series last four cours. A lot of this may have to do with the increasingly short attention span of audiences, but I’ve wanted to explore what trends are causing anime to be getting shorter.

Obviously the price of creating an anime is what is driving episode count down. The technology required to make anime is moving upwards, as is the amount of animators required to make a series. Furthermore, in the mid-2000s anime reached its peak with a US audience, driving down foreign money. Some may argue that an increase in piracy is a major factor, and considering how rampant it is in the foreign market it’s certainly hitting the bottom line, but a lot of the same people who torrent are the biggest buyers of DVDs and memorabilia. It could be an increase in the cost of hiring animators, but pay in Japan has been stable since the mid-90s.

I do have one more guess though.

Take a look at a few anime series from around 2003 and 2004. You’ll notice that in general the animation for the backgrounds was very bland, characters tended to have rather undefined features, making animating them much easier, and shows tended to go with solid block colors. Now most anime use shades of color in each block of color. As a whole this makes the animation in even most lowest common denominator shows nowadays look as good as some of the top shows of the 2000s.

But this comes at a price.

Remember Aquarion Evol, wacky mecha show from last year? One of the most striking details of the series was just how beautiful the backgrounds were. The series takes place in a futuristic Hong Kong and a futuristic Venice, and every frame is just beautiful. Also, all the mecha battles are ugly CG disgustingness. Now imagine had they taken all that money from the vivid backgrounds, and put it into making the show’s action more appealing. Pretty different picture right?

Action shows with low quality CG action is just one side effect. I’m sure many of you also remember C: Money of the Soul. It was a fun noitaminA series with a big idea behind it. It failed because the story was too big to fit into a single cour, and the most memorable aspect of the series was just how striking the character and background art was. I am not an expert on the subject, but one does have to wonder if a second cour could have been scraped together had it merely stopped itself from blowing the budget.

But, can you even not do so anymore? In an environment where every single other series puts so much manpower and cash into making sure it’s series is visually eye catching, how are you going to sell a series with a well-paced story and non CG fights if the series also happens to look like it was made in 2003? Even shows where upping the budget is nearly pointless are doing it just to be competitive. Why else would The Pet Girl of Sakurasou need to look like a work of art?

Maybe I’m seeing a pattern where none exists. Maybe it is just the end of the American anime boom drying up capital. But, there doesn’t seem to be a way that the improvement in art isn’t taking a huge toll on the budget of new anime. Beautiful animation is normally considered a good thing, but if an arms race of art quality is causing shows we love to take a hit, then isn’t it time someone re-examined just how important a show looking pretty is?

A Look into Characters – To Empathize or Not?

Just recently, Zabi of Sekijitsu contacted me and suggested a guest post trade between our blogs, which I thought was quite an interesting idea, and happily obliged. The above links to the post I wrote for Sekijitsu – the significance of empathizing characters in anime. As for Zabi, he contributed with a post on a topic about pretty anime.

Anime crossovers – the act of combining two (or maybe more) anime shows together in an episode. Crossovers is a great way for showcasing the interactivity of two different worlds, and the interpersonal relationship between characters from each respective worlds. It’s incredibly fun to have your favorite characters entering an unknown world – a world with a totally different format and rules, and forced to align himself to the properties of the new world.

However, from the very few anime crossovers that I had watched, I mostly have pretty mixed feelings about them. Why?

The catch here is that if you were to line up two anime hand-in-hand, one can’t help but compare. This is my main issue when watching the Gintama X Sket Dance episodes. While the Sket Dance group is an incredibly fun bunch, I tend to find the boisterous Yorozuya from Gintama much more exhilarating, thrilling and exciting – you never knew when they would present a bizarre, unpredicted joke out of nowhere. The frank verdict here is that I like the Gintama characters more than Sket Dance characters, even though the characters of the latter aren’t too sloppy either. However, the lack of balance in character appeal here slightly degrade the quality of the crossover, as my attention was mostly focused on the Gintama cast rather than Sket Dance’s.

The other issue here is a bit more simple. Even if the crossovers combined two popular shows, it doesn’t really mean everyone had watched and kept up with them. Gintama aside, a lot of my friends here never really watched Sket Dance. Though my problem lies elsewhere – One Piece X Toriko. While I like One Piece, I never watched nor read Toriko (think I should probably start soon). In this case, personal preference and the lack of balance in appeal comes into play as well.

The positive side to all these however, is that the crossovers help advertise each other, and I assume it’s pretty much the main goal. Using the previous example, One Piece X Toriko – it helps to advertise Toriko, the underdog of the pairing; those who had never heard of Toriko, or those who had heard of it, but had never checked it out, might finally be interested after seeing them paired up with their favorite titles.

As you can see, I regard an equal balance of appeal from both shows a crucial consideration to take into account. Perhaps this is why I really, really like Fairy Tail X Rave – probably my favorite anime crossovers so far from the very little I had came across. This time, I adore both series. Fairy Tail, while maintaining a typical shounen format, is still a pretty fun show – brimming with burning (see what I did there?) actions and fascinating music soundtracks. I don’t think I ever mentioned this before, but Rave is also one of my favorite manga. I first came across Rave on AXN – a TV channel which aired a few anime shows back then. It easily became one of my favorite anime shows too at that time, though the unfinished ending leave a lot to be desired, and thus, I turned to Rave’s manga.

Since a new season for Rave after all these years seem unlikely, it was great to see the Rave cast back again, together with their original seiyuu. The bunch from Fairy Tail is just as fun and rowdy, and the Rave characters are just as audacious – both characters from respective shows had extremely great chemistry with each other. Furthermore, Fairy Tail and Rave really works as a crossover, they have a lot of elements synonymous with each other – magic, Etherion, Oracon Seis and characters like Plue, Jellal/Sieghart and Jiggle Butt Gang emerging in both shows.

The crossover started with a Fairy Tail OP, and the characters from Fairy Tail meeting the Rave characters in a town, the former on guild business while the latter probably in the middle of their travels. The mentioning of Haru (Spring) from Rave and Natsu (Summer) from Fairy Tail and their seasonal reference of their names during their conversation is nice, since it’s an interesting discovery I found out when comparing their names.

Peaceful conversations don’t last of cause, and chaos immediately ensures due to some misunderstanding. Locked in combat, Haru and Natsu started rampaging around the town with their battle, though their bout didn’t last long however, as the two got humorously one-shotted by a certain someone from Fairy Tail.

Haru: You’re the type to save anyone faster than anybody else, right?
Haru: Hot-blooded types.
Natsu: And likewise, so you are, right?
Haru: Maybe it’s our fate to fight alongside after all…
Natsu: Plus we will not lose to anybody.

Interestingly, the anime added a lot of original material from here onwards not inclusive in the manga, and they did good. They introduced an enemy, which appeared in one of Fairy Tail’s filler arcs – Jackpot, albeit in a sort of modified form in this crossover. With the same goals and objectives insight, both the Fairy Tail and Rave groups worked together to defeat their common enemy, and throughout the fights, Fairy Tail’s signature celtic rock soundtracks were constantly blasting in the background. Not forgetting to have some attention for Rave too however, during the last section of the battle with Jackpot, Natsu and Haru fought together, with Rave’s opening serving as the background music – nothing but spectacular.

During their departure, unlike the manga, which ended with the characters mostly either feeling neutral (since a majority of them didn’t meet with each other) or frustrated (mostly in Natsu and Haru’s case) with the other’s group. The anime ended with a more positive note, as they fought together – bonds are formed. Both the characters from both shows look forward to meeting each other again, and obviously, I too, hope they will, manifesting the possibility of future Fairy Tail X Rave sequels.

（*´▽｀*）

Monolith Soft is a game studio that was pretty much responsible for the whole Xeno series. Their first release was Xenogears, an old classic game way back during the PSone era, and aside from Final Fantasy, it still remained one of my favorite classic RPGs to date. Although back then, a majority of the staffs from Monolith Soft were still with Square, but soon, producer Hirohide Sugiura and director Tetsuya Takahashi founded their very own game studio, and that is, Monolith Soft. As Monolith Soft – a full independent game studio away from Square, they created the Xenosaga series – a series of lengthy sci-fi RPG games for the PS2. Then on 2010, Monolith Soft released Xenoblade Chronicles, probably one of the best RPG game for the Wii.

The game is set in a world consisting of two gigantic titans – named Bionis and Mechonis each. Eons ago, the two titans fought each other for a period of time that almost felt like eternity, until both of them laid lifeless and dormant. Lifeforms begun living on both the titans, and even then, wars were still fought from the residents of both the titans. Xenoblade Chronicles follow the journey of the main protagonist, Shulk, as he gather allies of various races and fought against the mechanical beings, the Mechon which resided in the opposing titan, the Mechonis.

Later on, Shulk managed to wield the Monado, a special sword which had been lying dormant all this time. The sword is a valuable weapon against the Mechon, and indeed, the sword becomes the central focus for both the plot and the gameplay.

The storytelling slowly takes it’s time introducing us to the world, developing on them gradually and eventually lead us to a fitting, epic climax. Throughout the game, it’s pacing doesn’t suffer though, in fact, it’s superbly paced. It may seems slow since the settings and world of Xenoblade Chronicles is extraordinary massive, and I actually applaud the game for slowly introducing each and every parts of it’s world instead of rushing them through in a linear fashion.

The universe of Xenoblade Chronicles is a massive one – possessing even it’s very own mythology, something that becomes another solid foundation of the plot as the game progresses. The different races present in the world reinforced the feelings of fantasy. These races of great variety – Homs (aka humans), High Entia, Nopon, Machina, Telethia, Mechon – were excellently well designed, both in their looks and quirks.

The main party characters consist of a variety of different races, like Riki-the Nopon, and Melia-the High Entia, though Homs are still the main playable race, as the majority of the party are consisted of Homs, main examples being Shulk, Dunban, Sharla and Reyn. Each of these characters are fun and likable, and are very entertaining to watch. The best thing about them is that all of them were given a fair amount of backstory – they all had realistic motivations that push them forward into their never-ending battle with the Mechon. As the game progresses further, a majority of them faced their own tragedy, and even underwent gradual but major character developments along the course of the game in the process; of noteworthy mention – Melia, and also my favorite character in the game. She is also one of the most sympathetic character in the game; indeed I empathize her sorrows and envied her strength – it had been pretty long since I was able to feel such a connection to a video game character.

The gameplay mechanics is just as massive. The beginning introduces us the very core of the battle mechanics – which is a combination of real time and traditional turn-based RPG. It’s battle mechanics is equivalent to MMORPGs. You can move in and attack your enemies, while making use of various arts, in which you can equip to a maximum of 8 arts per battles. It’s not just randomly blasting arts however – once you consumed an art, it requires a specific amount of time for cooldown. Furthermore, some arts require you to move to strategic positions in order to inflict the highest amount of damage, while some arts chain with one another to cause special effects – the break-topple-daze combo is especially useful during the early parts of the game. Some other includes DoT spells that cause poison, bleeding, burning and freezing and last but not least, some healing and buffing arts.

While using a MMORPG-interface gameplay, most of the main playable characters can already easily be divided into specific “roles and classes” one would normally see in MMORPGs, even though the game didn’t specially stated they are so. One can easily discern them through their stats, and by observing the arts they had at their disposal. Shulk and Dunban would be damage dealers, Reyn would be a tank, while Sharla would obviously be a medic. As the roles of the characters are easily classifiable, this makes planning strategies easier.

The Monado – a mystic sword of utmost importance both in plot and in the game. When Shulk managed to wield the Monado, he gained several abilities – anti-Mechon arts and the power to foresee the future, and the creators blend these into the gameplay quite remarkably. As one with the Monado, Shulk is the only one in the whole party who possess two different sets of arts – his own, and the Monado’s. During the battles, sometimes Shulk would be able to see several seconds in the future where his enemies would be dealing fatal blows, and in order to counter it, Shulk gain the free use of any art despite the need of cooldown – the use of Monado’s art here would be essential, ranging from an incredibly high level damage art called Monado Buster to an incredibly useful defense art called Monado Armour. To improved versatility in the tactics, Shulk can even ordered his own teammates to use some particular arts of theirs – it all depends on the situation, and what kind of fatal attacks the enemies were dealing. The Monado, together with Shulk’s ability of foresight is an incredibly strategical advantage in which the players must make use of, especially in the case of several difficult, major bosses.

The battle aspect is indeed pretty vast, but the preparation phase of the game is just as huge. For example, the characters can learn skills (not to be confused with arts). These skills are in great variety and assist the characters in battle and non-battle situations. Some skills auto-cast some buffs at the start of battle, other skills when used, allow you to equip on heavier armor and equipments, while some other skills increase the amount of EXP you gained from battle.

Gems are also important things to consider when strengthening one’s party. Gems provide additional bonuses – ranging from stat bonuses, buffs and so on. Throughout the game, you can farm Ether crystals or cylinders from monsters and mine them throughout specific locations in the game. You can then craft the gems by combining the crystals or cylinders you found, in which you had to select two party members from your group to do it – different party members will come up with different refreshing results. The combination and choices of crystals you selected to combine indicate the type and element the finished gem would be. The gems, could then be fitted into weapons or armors, providing they had empty slots for them.

Another interesting element here is the affinity between characters. As it’s name suggests, this indicate the bonds of the characters. Affinity can be increased through various means – in battles (through Burst affinity, or through helping fellow teammates recovering from status effects), giving gifts, through quests and through Heart-to-Heart events. Heart-to-Heart events are optional mini-events that can be executed when reaching specific spots, and also when affinity level between involved characters were raised to required levels. During these events, you will be given dialogue choices and choosing the right one will tremendously boost the affinity level even more, and vice versa for choosing the wrong one. Heart-to-Heart events are in my opinion, one of the most entertaining non-battle aspect of the game. Sometimes, these events discussed about the trivia of a particular element of Xenoblade’s world, while some others provided further characterizations and even character developments. The thoughts that some of the characters were hiding, were sometimes laid bare to the other character they were friendly with. In terms of immersion, plot and character developments, indeed, one would miss a lot if they skipped Heart-to-Heart events, which give further insights to both the world and the characters.

Other then improving one’s exposure to the story, settings and characters, affinity also helps at the gameplay side. The more the affinity level is raised between characters, the more skills can be linked between them – in doing so, one could get additional skills outside of his or her very own skill trees. Gem crafting is also effected by affinity – with a high affinity level between two characters, the longer the duration for the gem crafting process, providing you are using that two particular characters for your gem crafting.

Quests are also one of the most, if not, the most important aspect for grinding characters. After all, grinding the traditional way wouldn’t get you nowhere, you had to actually do quests to level up, a reminiscence of MMORPGs. If you don’t want to proceed the story, chances are, you will be running around the city talking to NPCs and grabbing quests, or you will be running around in the wild trying to clear off some of your quests. Exploration is incredibly fun, especially due to how vast Xenoblade Chronicles is, furthermore, the game integrate a day-night system. When a certain periods of time had passed, the day gradually and realistically changes – from daytime to sunset, from sunset to nighttime and so on. Weather conditions like rainy and stormy were even integrated. The changes in time and weather conditions effect a number of things – NPC’s appearance and locations, and the type of monsters – another important thing to consider when clearing off quests.

Xenoblade Chronicles possess a huge world, and the visuals couldn’t show it any better. The vast, vibrant world is stunning to look at – sunsets above the grassy plains, a night on the forest filled with auroras, shooting star on a night of starry skies. They are almost magical, almost bewitching to look at, and with the inclusion of day-night mechanics, the world feels alluring, immersive and almost alive. Xenoblade’s countless amount of fun side quests incidentally require the players to run around from every nook-and-cranny of the vast world, and it allow the players to explore the beautiful details of the world. If the game creators did that on purpose, that was a pretty sly but great way of “forcing” players to grind and do optional quests.

Furthermore, the quests allow the players to connect themselves to the Xenoblade’s world even more, as the quests provide a lot of additional amount of the world – further exposing it’s vast secrets. If one were to skip quests, he would miss out a lot. While the massive amount of side quests and huge areas may cause some inconvenience to some players, I feel it’s a wonderful addition of the game, having players wandering around to explore every single corners of the massive, beautiful world, bolstering the sensation of immersion – it is as if you’re literally traveling.

While the world of Xenoblade Chronicles is indeed engrossing however, the visuals aren’t exactly perfect. One of the major issue here would be the character models. During cutscenes, and especially during close-up view of the characters, all the problems of the visuals easily surface, muddy textures, choppy and blurry edges, and other awkward technical graphical flaws. Another very slight pet peeve at their aesthetic design that I had is that their weapons were just hanging on their back and waist, without a casing, belt, scabbards or some holders of sort, though this is understandable – the designs of the weapons are wacky and bizarre, which could be a good thing, but they are just too wacky to be put inside a holder or hung normally. While on that note, I had to applaud the design of the equipments. Throughout the game, I constantly had an internal struggle whether to go for looks or stats.

Anyway, in terms of character models, Xenoblade’s fellow competitors from Operation Rainfall, The Last Story, and even Pandora’s Tower would fare better, but of cause, Xenoblade definitely beats the other two in terms of world-building. Fortunately, the character designs for the characters were unique, distinguishable and most importantly, pleasant to look at.

In the musical sides of Xenoblade Chronicles, the game boasts a team of 6 renowned composers – Yasunori Mitsuda, Yoko Shimomura, Manami Kiyota and ACE+ (consisting of Chico, Tomori and Kenji Hiramatsu). The soundtrack features a variety of musical wonders – from the soothing to the upbeat, from the gloomy to the funky, from the tranquil to the wild. Beautifully orchestrated pieces rained down on you when you were out exploring the world; soft and tranquil tones entered your ears at night; soft violin and piano ballads, mostly accompanied by strings, can be heard for dramatic scenes; songs transmitting an empathy of hope emerged in the few of the game’s toughest moments. Overall, the soundtracks were fitting and beautifully crafted, each tracks nicely captured the essence of each scenes and atmospheres, and further reinforcing the game’s immersive capabilities.

Xenoblade Chronicles is a wonderful game which blended traditional RPGs with new, refreshing elements, and it easily became one of my favorite RPGs. It had an incredibly massive and explorable world, brimming with fantastical, magical wonders at every corner; paired up with an almost extraordinary set of soundtracks which strengthen the engrossing immersion, an intriguing set of plot points and characters, and last but not least, an obviously more than satisfying gameplay. Xenoblade Chronicles is truly the ultimate tale of men against the machine.

Rating
Story: A+
Character: A+
Gameplay: S
Visuals: A+
Sound: A

Final Score
9.5/10

What is NaNoWriMo? The full abbreviation is “National Novel Writing Month” and with the full abbreviation, the basis and objective behind NaNoWriMo is pretty self-explanatory. Each year, NaNoWriMo will host a novel writing competition – the novels are submitted on the month of November. Other than that, there are also a lot of other features and events aside from the novel submissions in November, something which I didn’t explore as much.

This year, I started writing one with the aim of submitting it for NaNoWriMo, quite a late start however. As you can see, there’s a “?” in the title of this post. Why “?”? Thing is, writing a novel is serious business – it’s actually much more harder than I thought. Granted, this is the first time I’m writing something of this scale, but it’s also my fault for writing a story with such a complex settings. Though, I have ideas, but executing them isn’t as easy as I thought, and joining all these incoherent ideas is just as hard. There’s also my weak grammars in English (I think you might even spot some English errors in some of my blog posts). Additionally, there’s also conversations between characters, likewise, something I’m not really good at.

There’s also the deadline, which is November. I don’t plan to finish by this year’s November of cause, as I only just started, but next year’s November. At this rate I’m going at though, finishing it on time even by next year seems doubtful. I also prefer slowly taking my time to consider the different outcomes of my story instead of rushing it through. Aforementioned, my story uses a complex setting as it’s base, so I really need to think things through and take a lot of things into consideration. Nonetheless, I do want to finish it though, and if next year doesn’t work, then maybe the year after that, or maybe the year after that year…

I don’t like spoiling my own story so I’m not gonna say anything about what my story is about.. as of yet. But I’m going to put down a small segment of what I had wrote here, as a teaser preview of sorts. Maybe you can guess what kind of story it is from this small preview. In any case, enjoy my wannabee light novel, or at least a very small part of it.

My hands are bright red.

“…”

Some of these redness somehow got splattered near my lips, it tasted like iron.

I looked at the scene in front of my eyes.

What lied there sprawled on the floor is a.. human, or what left of it. Like a lifeless doll, it just stayed there, not even moving a finger, under it, is a pool of crimson redness.

“…ah”

It’s only then that I realized. It’s blood, all these redness is blood. Did all those blood originated from the body? I stood there, motionless for a while, before my five senses returned to me. It’s only then that I can smell the horrible stench in the air.

I tried covering my nose with my hands to block off the horrible odor, but it did little to help – the smell of iron felt even stronger when I put my blood-soaked hands up close. In vain, I leave my hands back down and started walking very slowly to the body on too of the massive sea of bright red blood. Perhaps, I’m trying to escape from reality thinking that she might still be alive. Nonetheless, I had to confirm it.. I had to confirm it! But with each steps, my feet gets heavier, it’s like a million arms were grabbing at my legs.

After what feels like an eternity, I finally reached the body. Gazing briefly, I can see the body was lying upside down, it’s long hair covering a portion of the upper body.

I gulped.

Gathering all the courage I can humanly mustered, I knelt down to have a better look. As I knelt down, my right hand lying on the side, which was supposed to be touching the cold hard concrete, felt something warm, wet and squishy instead. Ignorantly, I looked at that direction.

“…..!”

It’s.. I can’t make out the shape, is it part of the body’s organs? Is it the heart? Is it the lungs? Or is it the intestines?

“..uuhhhh.. uuuoooohhhhhhh….!!??”

I vomitted, adding to the grotesqueness of the already grotesque scene.

The body’s dead. She’s dead. There’s no need to confirm it any further.

It’s a corpse.

It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse. It’s a corpse!

“AAAAAAAARRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…!”

[To be continued]

Did you enjoy it? For some reason, I kinda enjoy torturing my own characters in this story. I’m a sadist. Though, I drew some basis of my main character’s characterizations from me though. Oh, does that make me a masochist?

Wait, now that when I think about it, does NaNoWriMo even allow such a violent story?

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

King Arthur, the same character from Fate/stay night. Known as the King of Knights, she maintains a high code of honour. Though she and Kiritsugu are Servant and Master seeking the same ultimate goal of peace, their differing ideological perspectives result in a strained relationship where Kiritsugu does not directly acknowledge Saber.

When this figure was released, I was immediately drawn to her, but decided to let her go since she’s so pricy. Sometime later, I was beginning to regret and buying her from sites like amiami or hlj was pretty much impossible since she was all sold out. However, I had a chance to attend a minor local anime event one time and saw her on sale in a figures booth, of cause, I immediately nailed her. To avoid cases like this, I think figures buyers should have motto – “buy first, think later”. This saber figure remains my most expensive figure I had ever bought, costing me around $270 (akin to 20,000 yen) and as such, can probably remain in the top of that list for a long while.

As expected of an expensive high quality figure, and the level of content, the box is immensely massive, probably the biggest figure package I had ever received. The box is just a few sizes smaller then an A4 paper box. Judging from the huge motorcycle and big stand however, that’s quite expected.

As usual, Saber sports a black tuxedo akin to the anime and light novels where she always worn such outfit whenever she isn’t wearing her blue battle dress. While the motorcycle may seem complete at first, you actually had to manually install the pedals yourself. The handlebars can be tilted left and right, moving the front parts of the motorcycle as a result, though you have a pretty fixed direction to get the pose you want like the ones you see in the official photos.

The black tuxedo and brown leather shoes glitter, the latter even more so then the former. It gives the impression that Saber is wearing some genuine branded high-quality tuxedo – it’s a nice touch. Her hair strands float slightly which gives a dynamic illusion of the G-force.

Saber’s sword, Excalibur, can be fitted into her right hand and due to the attention-grabbing motorcycle, the sword tends to lose focus on a considerable value, even more so since the sword is at the rear side of the figure. Some glowy-effect on the sword might solve it, though I’m not sure if it will actually damage the beauty of the main focal – the motorbike.

The stand for the figure resembles the same style that another one of my Saber figure used. The highlight of the stand here, like before, is that it’s especially constructed to match the action of the figure, as you can see, the stand looks like a road, and the pebbles and tracks reinforces the realism of Saber drifting with her motorbike.

Of cause, the main part of this figure, is the motorcycle itself. In all it’s intricate glory, the motorcycle shows everyone why the figure is so expensive. Impressive details, work and sculpting is done to it. The only small pet peeve I have with it is that the wheels can’t move. If the handlebars of the motorcycle can move, why not have more versatility?

There are two pegs on the stand, where the longer one is used to fit the back wheels, and the shorter one is used to fit into Saber’s right leg. Because of the fixed and precise position Saber is required to be in, it’s very difficult to actually make Saber look right, while trying to perfectly fit in the pegs. The socket on her right leg is placed at a very awkward location – the side of the soles, and is especially hard to fit in.

Because of it’s immense details on the motorcycle, this Saber figure is definitely well worth the price, and I definitely recommend buying this rather then the nendoroid and figma versions, which comes with a motorcycle too I believe. I’m sure that theirs are pretty much incomparable, especially with the immense details the scale figure is able to show.

What is a foil? This is a literature term where it defines a character trait contrasting to another character, usually the protagonist in this case. The contrast can be acquired in a number of ways – by showing extremely different designs, personalities, ideals, mindset and mentality between the two of them. However, even though they are very blatantly different, both of them have a few similar qualities that will help tie both of them – so that, we, the third-person viewers, can compare them in the first place. Basically, in order to create a foil pairing of characters, they obviously had to be different so as to contrast, yet, possessing a similar foundation beneath their character design. Evangelion plays with this concept a lot, and chances are, if you had watched Death Note, Kira and L as well, is a prime example.

Togami: That is… the truth? But, Naegi… how could you…? How could someone worthless like you reach this truth…? A truth… I couldn’t reach myself…!
Naegi: Eh? No… I didn’t mean…
Kirigiri: …You still don’t get it, do you? Humans don’t always act in calculated and logical ways. That’s why dealing with human beings is difficult. You never understood that fact. That’s why you couldn’t see the truth.
Togami: Keh…!!
Kirigiri: I did warn you before, didn’t I? Holding people’s feelings in low esteem could come back and bite you…
Togami: …………

I’m always fond of character contrast, as you can see, I’m always fond of how the characters I was really engaged in some shows, yet, were actually so different when I compared them with each other. A while ago, I wrote a post about Dangan Ronpa, a character analysis and comparison between Naegi Makoto, Togami Byakuya and Kirigiri Kyouko.

In my opinion, Naegi and Togami are foils to each other, while Kirigiri is somewhere in the middle ground. Naegi is an optimist, he is incredibly trustful of everyone – in such a gruesome setting where a single misstep would cause you your life, Naegi is surprisingly human. In contrast, Togami is a skeptic, he is not one to trust people easily. Cold and merciless, he treats the dangerous trials as games. He is very arrogant and prideful, and is also very ignorant of other people’s feelings – effectively contrasting Naegi’s kind and humble personality. Ironically, these traits are also their very own weaknesses. Naegi, while being the most “human” struggled the most when making choices between life and death of his so-called comrades – his emotions always trying to take over his logical approach. As for Togami, he can easily lose his cool when his own confident logic and conclusions were proofed to be false, since he only investigated with his own cynical approach.

Kirigiri, on the other hand, is aforementioned somewhere in the middle ground, or perhaps to be more precise, her character was constructed combining both Naegi and Togami’s traits, effectively obliterating the flaws that originated from both of them. Like Togami, Kirigiri is cool and calculated, but not to the extent of being merciless. Like Naegi, she can understand and relate to human empathy too. These traits make Kirigiri a stoic but very excellent character and investigator – it is indeed easy to see why Kirigiri is so well-liked.

Satoshi: You could’ve taken the easy way out. We were all helping solve the mystery. No one would’ve complained if you said you didn’t know. So why did you lock yourself in the bathroom and think about it? Did you do that for Chitanda too?
Houtarou: I’m tired of being a gray person. Chitanda’s energy efficiency couldn’t be any worse. She’s working as a club leader, on the anthology, on the exam, and now solving mysteries of the past; I’m surprised she doesn’t get tired. Same goes for you and Ibara, you guys live such an inefficient life.
Satoshi: Maybe so.
Houtarou: Still, the grass is always greener on the other side. I get restless when I watch you all. I want to be able to rest.
Houtarou: But I still… don’t find excitement in it. That’s why I thought… I should at least participate and test the waters, by trying out your way of life.
Satoshi: ………
Houtarou: ……Say something.
Satoshi: Houtarou… did you envy those with a rosy lifestyle?
Houtarou: …Perhaps.

Another example I would pin-point here, is Hyouka. I love Hyouka, and a big part of it is the character cast and their contrast to one another. The main character, Oreki Houtarou is an apathetic individual with a life motto: he won’t do the things he deemed unnecessary, but if he had to do it, make it quick. The basis of Houtarou’s character was constructed as if to mockingly contrast every single character on the show. In fact, I can say even Houtarou and me are foils to each other – we possess a lot of similarities, yet under that mask, a key difference is present.

In the anime, the main foil to Houtarou is obviously Chitanda Eru. Houtarou is lazy and indifferent, his life is an embodiment of a “gray” life while Chitanda enjoyed a “rosy-coloured” life. Although Chitanda is shown to be very friendly and polite, she has a very inquisitive altitude – curious at the most mundane of mysteries. In contrast, Houtarou’s led a very detached lifestyle. Both of them are so different that it is ironic that the two of them met, and even joined the same club. Participating in Chitanda’s curious antics, Houtarou is “forced” to solve the almost commonplace mysteries that existed in everyday life. Although complaining, Houtarou never showed any signs of dissatisfaction, in fact, Houtarou was even in awe of Chitanda’s outlooks of life. Perhaps it may be fate that the two managed to met, and under Chitanda’s awe-inspiring influence, Houtarou slowly and gradually changes into a better man. Chitanda acting as a foil, served as the perfect catalyst for Houtarou’s development as a character – it is one of the highlights of Hyouka character-wise.

Kagami: I’ve decided.
Kagami: I’ll crush all of them and become Japan’s best player.
Kuruko: I don’t think that’s possible.
Kagami: Hey!
Kuruko: If you have hidden talent, I wouldn’t know. But, from what I’ve seen, you wouldn’t even reach their feet… You can’t do it alone.
Kuruko: I’ve also decided.
Kuruko: I’m a shadow. But the stronger the light, the darker the shadow, and the more it accentuates the brightness of the light. I will be the shadow to your light and make you the best player in Japan.
Kagami: Heh. Look who’s talking. Do whatever you want.
Kuruko: I’ll do my best.

So I given examples of how foils help with underlining characterizations-a basic and general example with Dangan Ronpa, and an example with Hyouka that even helps with character developments. Other than that, having good foils can also create a lot of interesting effects. When done right, it can sometimes create remarkable chemistry between said characters, which brought us to my next example – Kuroko and Kagami from the new basketball anime: Kuroko no Basuke, the metaphorical shadow and light pair.

Their personalities aside, their very appearance are already contrastingly designed. Kuroko is short and pale, and had below average stamina and strength, he is not someone one would normally associate with basketball. In contrast, Kagami is tall, and has a more sturdy build and tanned skin tone. Their personalities are just as you had guessed; befitting his timid nature, Kuroko is quiet, polite, weak, and almost feminine. His redeeming qualities is.. ironically his lack of presence. Kagami on the other hand is crude, flashy but on the bright side, he’s bold, confident and daring. In terms of basketball capability, Kagami possessed raw talent, and is especially good with dunking; while Kuruko is restricted to his very own limited, but unique style, which involved a lot of swift passing. By themselves, they are limited, but together, they are unstoppable. By assisting with each other, they effectively eliminated each other’s flaws and limitations – their chemistry became one of the Seiren Basketball Club’s main weapon. After a while of partnering with each other, they could understand each other with minimal conversation, almost telepathic, bringing about the most sudden breakthrough victory in the midst of a match. This is one of the magic of foils – sparking chemistry between characters.

Casca: Because you left! It’s because you left Griffith…!!
Guts: Wait!!
Guts: That’s impossible. It’s not that……
Guts: It’s also because of Griffith..? That guy… Griffith.. Why would he be depressed because I left… He couldn’t get that depressed because of me… It’s impossible…
Casca: ….You’re a really stupid jerk…
Casca: At that time, I said it already! A good leader must have patience more than anything else!
Casca: Griffith needed to be stronger than everyone, but Griffith… is not God!! You can’t live on hopes and dreams alone! It was you who made Griffith weak and sad! Griffith, he..!
Casca: Griffith.. can’t do anything without you!

Indeed, foil creates very interesting dynamic rapports between characters. One other dynamic that foils are able to bring out exceedingly well, is rivals. A lot of rivals in media are created through foils – Naruto and Sasuke, Alucard and Anderson, Lelouch and Suzaku, Kira and L – the rivaling relationships these pairings had of each other, were crafted using foils and contrast, and yield very interesting results. When done right, it’s as if these shows are featuring two very different main protagonists at the same time.

One noteworthy example, and a very classic one at that, is Guts and Griffith from Berserk. From their personality to their very looks, they differ from just about any direction. Originally good friends, and later on commander/trusty subordinate, their relationship ironically turned downhill a little later. Their relationship is of misconceptions and tragedy – from Guts leaving the Bands of Hawks, from Griffith losing himself with Guts’s “betrayal”, to the impending Eclipse that directed Griffith into the dark path.

Griffith is extremely ambitious, to the point that he even made use of his charismatic abilities to manipulate his own men. Furthermore, he didn’t even mind sacrifices as long as he could achieve his goal in the end. Guts live a pained past, and he had guilty conscious from several bad choices he made. To the contrary of Griffith’s charisma, his appearance instead brought fears to everyone, due to his infamous nickname ‘The Black Swordsman’. He avoided companionship so that he wouldn’t hurt them in his quest, but deep down, he longed a place for him to belong to.

The two had TOO MUCH of a history going on for me to fully express the dynamics between Guts and Griffith. If I really were to do it, I will need one full post, or perhaps even several posts. However, the two characters are no doubt foils to each other, in fact, both of them feels like totally different characters emerging from different dimensions. You can also certainly feel that these two are being led to a battle against each other of ultimate bloodshed.

The titles I mentioned here, are all great titles filled with an interesting array of different characters. By now, I’m sure you are all aware of what factors I take into account when grading a character score in my reviews; one of them obviously being-foils. Character contrast to me, is a very fascinating thing, and creates a lot of interesting effects in terms of characterization – at their very base, it creates a distinction; and the contrast helps highlight particular qualities of said characters, for some, the distinction is a catalyst for character development and for some, the distinction is so contrasting that it creates a rivaling effect.

Foils really help a lot with highlighting characterizations, when done right, it could allow us, the viewers, to immerse into the protagonist’s views and to connect with him in a much deeper level than without a foil. What do you feel about foil characters? And do you have any contrasting pairings or groups you are fond of?

Self-insert characters – they are the types of immersive characters with qualities which allow viewers to easily put into their shoes – thus, more easily inserting him or her into their worlds. This is more apparent with anime adapted from games, but I’m also surprised to see one character from Nagi no Asukara fitting the criteria of self-insert characters too.

That particular character in question is Kihara Tsumugu. In the world of Nagi no Asukara, the worlds are divided by the land and sea. Out of all the five main characters, four of them are people of the sea, residing inside the water realm and only one out of the five main characters: Tsumugu, in this case, is the people of the land, living on the surface – a realistic reflection of us ourselves.

Tsumugu: Why don’t you finish your sentences?
Manaka: Finish?
Tsumugu: You know, instead of “this was like this or that,” and trying to make things ambigious… You should always talk without hesitating like you did today when you went to help Hikari.
Manaka: That was… that was just natural…
Tsumugu: I see. So that’s the real you.

The basis of Tsumugu’s personality is that of a stoic individual, as seen by his poker face, though he does expresses a few vibrant expressions on some rare occasions. He only speaks when it’s necessary and even then he’s not really talkative either, barely only speaking a few words. He’s quiet, but not shy either, as he is able to speak his mind out if the situation requires so. He is cool, calm and collected, and also incredibly perceptive of other people.

Tsumugu does not discriminate between the people living in the sea and the surface dwellers, and he also has a sense of morality and justice that allows him to sympathize both sides. His perceptive and observant abilities, and that bluntness to speak his mind, had helped a number of times – from mending the characters’ social issues, settling disputes, and his silent, straightforward bluntness had even contributed with the self-discoveries of the other characters. At some point, the two sides reconciled, and Tsumugu may had played a portion of that role.

These few attributes of his characterizations is what contributed to self-insertion capabilities. Tsmugu’s quiet, passive and almost detached altitude makes it easy for self-insertion. As at Tsumugu’s very foundation of his character, he is almost close to a neutral “blank state”. Only speaking when it’s necessary creates a contrast to his normally quiet self that begets an empowering presence; the contrast also reinforces immersion as it expresses the desire to share a lending hand to aid in the insecurities of the other characters. Lastly, his morality of not discriminating between the two and his ability to sympathize both sides is a close reflection of human’s ego.

Watching Tsumugu, it feels like one is literally supporting the other characters of the series. Important pep talks and subtle hints are given, yet he is usually not present during the crucial moments which may kickstart a character’s development. I also see his perceptive abilities as a byproduct of us viewers’ eyes. We, the viewers, are looking down at Nagi no Asukara’s world from another dimension, so we possessed knowledge that the characters themselves don’t know about, but it feels as if Tsumugu too, has the same abilities.

The end result of such character design for Tsumugu makes his characterizations varied quite significantly from the others. Despite the other flawed characters, Tsumugu takes on the caretaking and supportive role, helping the other characters realize and conquer their inner flaws. I would also think in terms of character developments, Tsumugu will receive the least of those, as aforementioned, his character is more of the caretaking role.

Judging from the direction of Nagi no Asukara’s plot, and especially the romance side, I got a feeling that Tsumugu might lose his vague charm as the story progresses, but for now, I’m liking Tsumugu’s character designs – bland, quiet, vague, yet empowering.

What do you think of Tsumugu? And while on that note, who is your favorite character in the series?

I liked wrestling.

I think this is a side of me I didn’t share much and so, the time is now ripe to do so. I liked wrestling. Yes, liked. Past tense.

I’m a late bloomer in almost everything, including wrestling too, but I managed to jump in the WWE bandwagon somehow in the more later parts of my school life. My boisterous group of friends and me liked messing around with various entrances and taunts: from DX’s “crotch chop”, to Triple H’s “water spitting” and most commonly, John Cena’s “You Can’t See Me”. We even amused ourselves with The Rock’s People Elbow, Stone Cold Stunner and various other wrestling moves with my friends on the grass or soft carpets, now that when I think about it, we were indeed a bunch of mischievous rascals. It’s a good thing no one got hurt, although humorously, I remembered one of my friend’s pants got torn around the buttocks area, and he ended up covering his bottoms throughout the rest of the school day. Those were the days.

I’m not sure why I started losing interest in watching WWE, perhaps it’s because my friends had lost interest in them too, or perhaps it’s because I realized everything is scripted via internet usage, or perhaps it’s due to all the cheesy feuds and storylines. Fortunately, veterans like Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Triple H and so on were still active at this time so that very fact managed to drag my interest a bit longer. However, it doesn’t take long for my interest to fade away in a gradual but complete manner. Since then, I haven’t been watching WWE for years.

However, this season, there was a wrestling anime, SekaTsuyo (Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai! in it’s full form or Wanna Be the Strongest in the World, it’s official English translation). It’s an anime about women wrestling – I was skeptical, and it also doesn’t help that when I was watching wrestling, Diva matches were always the least interesting matches for me. This anime however, actually managed to rekindle my interests in wrestling, and after watching for about 6 episodes, I ended up checking up to see if there’s anything new in WWE – turns out that there was a John Cena VS The Rock match in Wrestlemania recently, and I completely missed it. To be frank, I didn’t even know The Rock actually made reappearances in the wrestling industry – that’s how disjointed I’m with WWE. Additionally, I also watched a few other matches I missed out on this year: CM Punk VS Undertaker (Wrestlemania 29), CM Punk VS Brock Lesnar (Summerslam 2013), Randy Orton VS Daniel Bryan (Hell in a Cell 2013), and so on.

There is just some unexplainable beauty and gratification in SekaTsuyo; the tension, thrills and excitement felt from the wrestling matches is exhilarating. All the moves the wrestlers used are very realistic too, in fact, I can even identified a few moves, for example, the Boston crab-also mainly used by Jericho as a finisher called Wall of Jericho. There’s also STF, which is also a submission move frequently used by Cena (a slight variation to the contrary though as Cena’s is an STS even though the signature move’s officially called STF).

There’s also one main difference, in the anime, the matches weren’t scripted. All the cheers, the matches and the struggles feel more direct and straightforward – the showings of sportsmanship feels more genuine. Of cause, I’m not trying to say real WWE is totally fake, but I can’t help but feel a bit dubious after knowing they are scripted. Winners were decided beforehand, and they are even jobbers – greenhorn wrestlers whose job is to purposely lose to make the winner looks stronger. The wrestlers are akin to actors. Especially with this element of predetermined outcomes, WWE is more closer to being entertainment, then it is a competition. In contrast, as victors aren’t decided beforehand in SekaTsuyo, the anime’s rendition of wrestling is more closer to being a competition.

SekaTsuyo’s intensifying rendition of wrestling brings me back to the ignorant days of when I didn’t know the true face of wrestling, and even interested me enough to watch some wrestling matches, something I haven’t been doing for nearly half a decade. If I want to watch powerful matches between men, I guess I can watch WWE and if I want to watch women wrestling (with awesome fanservices to boot, there I admitted it), there’s SekaTsuyo for my needs now, since I had never been interested in real diva matches.

I wonder what will happen if SekaTsuyo has a bras and panties match.

I believe this is the first time I joined the Secret Santa Project. It involves bloggers recommending 3 anime (TV series, OVA, movies, anything works) below 26 episodes to another random blogger, in which he or she must pick one to watch and review. The bloggers recommending them will also anonymously received other anime recommendations from another random blogger and likewise, must pick one to watch and review. For my picks, I chose Little Witch Academia.

Admittedly, I never watched any of the anime created by the “Young Animator Training Project”, so gems like Little Witch Academia completely passed my radar. Little Witch Academia was produced for Anime Mirai 2013, alongside Ryo, Death Billiards and Arve Rezzle. Of all the short films, Little Witch Academia had been receiving a lot of hype, hence, my choice for the aniblogging project.

Little Witch Academia, created by the young animators of studio, Trigger, features a a world of magic and fantasy. The anime film puts you into the shoes of Akko Kagari, a student of Luna Nova Academy which is a school specifically for young witches. Boisterous situations seem to assault her in any way possible – from chaotically flying with a broom, entering dungeons and facing monsters, and she even had to defeat a dragon!

As with anime like Dennou Coil, Little Witch Academia relied a lot on it’s world-building appeal, and for the most part, it worked excellently well. The whole settings of Little Witch Academia bolsters a heavy Western influence – magic, witches, fantastical beings are just one of many Western elements among others. I would even go as far as to say the film is akin to a Disney film. Little Witch Academia’s world is entertaining and engrossing – brimming with all the fun and rowdy stuffs you would expect from a world of magic and fantasy. It is also very fun to see how their magical abilities is utilized in the world – from flying, floating, lighting, magic blasting, telekinesis and so on. As the anime film only run for about 26 minutes, the settings haven’t been explored as much as I would had hoped for unfortunately, and if it were to turn into an anime series somewhere down the line, this is something I would love to see more.

For one-shot medium like this with incredibly short length, in most cases, it’s pretty hard to develop proper character developments, in fact, it’s not even the primary focus. In Akko’s case though, it’s done decently well enough. From all the students who came from magical families, Akko is the only one who isn’t from one. She has qualities in her character which one wouldn’t normally associate with magic, acting as the perfect contrast to the rest of the characters; thus creating an empathetic and immersive experience – and is the hallmarks of a good protagonist. Although the cast is a bit too large to develop on all the characters in just 26 minutes, that means at the very least, the characters at their very base had to be fun, quirky and likable to bolster it’s character appeal, which I feel the anime film was able to done so considerably well.

Little Witch Acedemia looks and sounds like a Disney film. Technically-wise, animations features smooth and fluid motions – most majorly during the more fast-paced sequences. The design of the characters and other main subjects also had the look and feel of other anime, but also has designs that differs it slightly from other standard anime – especially in the way the visuals and animations are handled, the result is cartoonish, but it matches well with the wacky atmosphere. The use of bright and vivid colors enriches the world too.

Also, for an anime film that relies on world-building aspects, the backgrounds are drawn exceedingly well. For example, the academy – it has an architectural design that represents Western mansion during the medieval ages, the interiors likewise, also has a classy and prestigious ambiance which reinforces the Western artistic appeal.

The anime film features fully orchestrated soundtracks, which flexibly shifted it’s tones accordingly to all the different situations. From the gloomy to the mysterious and to even to the hopeful tones, the orchestrated pieces work excellently – it captured the essence and even strengthened the emotions of the situations quite well. Although at major portions of the series, the film would go on for long periods of time without any background music and if you listened closely, evidently, it seems like there are not a lot of music composed for the film either.

No matter how capable the animators are in compressing their content in just barely half an hour, there are indeed definitely interesting things left out due to time restrictions – more of the academy, more fantastical creatures and so on. The film even introduced certain subtle elements that would even work in a TV series. Despite the time restrictions however, what the film was able to give us, was already quite an ample amount of pleasurable viewing experience.

I enjoyed Little Witch Academia, probably more so then what I would originally expected from a film only intended to train greenhorn animators on-the-job. In just 26 minutes, the film provided us with a wondrous and fantastical journey of magic and fantasy – it’s Harry Potter, “anime-fied!”

Rating
Story: B-
Character: B
Art: A-
Animation: A
Sound: B+

Final Score
7.5/10

This year, I’m not joining the 12 Days of Xmas posts as you can see, but I decided to list down 12 of my most memorable moments in 2013. You can also treat this as a very compact version of 12 Days of Xmas, where I talked about my favorite series this year compiled in one post. Please note that despite being numbered, the entries aren’t in a consecutive order.

(Warning: Some might contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.)

1. Shingeki no Kyojin

Despite the apparent issues behind Shingeki no Kyojin, I like the show. Additionally, the pacing of the show doesn’t bother me just as much, probably because I marathoned it. If I were to pick a favorite scene, ironically, it’s not titans whamming against each other – it’s the scene where Eren faced off against the Colossal Titan for a second time. After their town is destroyed, their loved ones killed, Eren, Mikasa, Armin started proper training to fight against the titans – for five years. This scene, after five years of arduous training, marks the true beginning of the show where Eren actually had the skills, equipment and experience to face off against these monstrous titans, as compared to the beginning where Eren and his families and friends got brutally humiliated, tortured, murdered and even devoured.
 
 

2. Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya

Yuri. Who wouldn’t love them? I know I do. While my Yuri goggles aren’t as strong as OG, but there are a number of “yuri-potential” scenes that I came across in this alternate universe of Fate/Stay Night. There are two, to be specific – one involves Illya almost close to molesting Miyu in maid outfit, another one is towards the end, where Miyu completely dropped all of her headstrong outer self and started getting clingy and dere dere over Illya. I would even say obsessed too. Can’t you see how cute, adorable and “yurific” they are?
 
 

3. Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!

From the start to the very end, Watamote is a show I don’t know if I should laugh or cry. But if there’s one scene that is an exception, it’s when during the school festival when Tomoki got isolated as usual, her senpai, in a mascot costume, approached her, handed Tomoki a balloon and even gave her a loving hug. Tomoki had been cringeworthy to see, but I’m actually very happy to see such a heartwarming and bittersweet scene. Tomoki’s “despair run” at the end is close, but I would say that very heartwarming scene is my favorite scene in Watamote.
 
 

4. Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S

The Index universe. This might be surprising coming from a show like this, but Index’s fight scenes are one of my favorites. This favorism depends though – first, it has to be on the science side, I feel the mixture behind sci-fi theories and supernatural combat is a pretty refreshing mix. In contrast, the magic side is a bit weak to me in this regard. Second – less falcon punching! And Misaka Mikoto’s fight scenes with ITEM in the facility embodied all these criteria. I also like how it’s not a straight all-out brawl – as the famed Railgun has to face several strong opponents at once, the later parts of the battle became more akin to a chase between cat and mouse. Thrilling, and of cause, exciting.
 
 

5. Outbreak Company

Despite the blatant cliches and character archetypes, this show delivers, especially on the entertainment department. Outbreak Company, making good use of it’s ridiculous settings, create a number relevant humors that are incredibly comedic. One that of note, is it’s use of parodies and references. Despite the difference in foundation and settings, I would even go as far as to say that the show’s parodies are akin to Gintama’s. Only difference is that Gintama seems to parody on older shows while Outbreak Company parodies on newer ones – resulting in very refreshing, but humorous and awesome outcomes. My favorite scene (despite that it’s concise) is it’s parody on Kuroko no Basuke – the misdirection scene during the soccer match between the drawfs and the elves. Did I mention they even parodied Shingeki no Kyojin?
 
 

6. Little Busters!: Refrain

When Riki managed to reunite the all the old members of the Little Busters, the world is at it’s end, and even when the world is ending, the Little Busters gang were playing, having fun and doing the things they do best until their very last moments, and what better then to play baseball-as Kyousuke said, it was a fitting end for Little Busters. It was such a heartwarming scene, the scene also showed how matured and strong Riki had become, and whatever seemingly tyrannical and atrocious acts Kyousuke had done to make Riki and Rin stronger, it was definitely not in vain. That scene represents everything why Little Busters is so great – friendship, faith, resolve, strength, happiness – an array of different emotions mix together to form one bittersweet conclusion.
 
 

7. Gin no Saji

Little did I know that an anime like Gin no Saji about farming and livestock could turn into one of my favorite anime in 2013. For Hachiken, Gin no Saji is coming-of-age story, where in an educational environment quite different from ones he was accustomed to, while struggling to discover himself a dream, as compared to the other students of the agriculture school where their dreams were already crystal clear. There’s also a certain underlying themes behind the show’s premise, most significantly – animal cruelty and consumption. I also like how the anime didn’t sugarcoat things – and exposes the realistic and even brutal workings of livestock farming. I’ll definitely be back for the eventual second cour.
 
 

8. Asura’s Wrath

As someone who watched anime/manga/games/visual novels/light novels – something I like to call my pentalogy of otaku hobbies, my favorite moments in 2013 doesn’t just restrict to just anime. No, I swear it’s not because I can’t think of anything else to write about anime. As for my gaming moments of 2013, one of them was definitely picking up Asura’s Wrath. While it’s more of an experimental game, I had fun with it’s incredibly unique gameplay system, and over-the-top executions. My favorite moment in the game? This – A very, very flashy boss fight with a classical orchestrated music “From the New World – 4th movement” in the background. If that’s not epic, I don’t know what is.
 
 

9. Xenoblade Chronicles

Of cause, when I talked about gaming moments of 2013, I can’t leave out Xenoblade Chronicles which I played earlier this year. Although jumping pretty late in the Xenoblade bandwagon, I can see why Xenoblade had such a good reception. The graphics, music, story, characters, gameplay, I can’t find a single thing to complain about. It was just such a great game – Xenoblade Chronicles had officially joined my list of all-time favorite games.
 
 

10. Grisaia no Kajitsu

Grisaia no Kajitsu is a visual novel I hoped it actually had more actions in it. The fault lies with me however, since I had a preconceived expectation that this visual novel would feature lots of great, flashy yet realistic actions after seeing a number of action CGs from various imageboards, and I never knew those CGs are from Grisaia’s later sequels. Despite that fact though, there is one very memorable scene, and it is, ironically, a bad end in Amane’s route. As compared to the overly-positive good route, I can really feel the pain and sensations of the characters in her bad route. It just goes to show that sometimes, going for bad ends is just as important in regards to overall enjoyment and fulfillment from playing a visual novel.
 
 

11. Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru

Any scenes involving Hachiman.
 
 

12. Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai

Marriage scene BWAHAHA
 
 

For the readers, any favorite moments of anime this year you would like to share? And also, happy holidays everyone, and have a Merry Christmas!

About a week ago, I was nominated by Silvachief over at The Geek Clinic for the Liebster Awards. Admittedly, I’m not really familiar with it (incidentally, I found out these series of Liebster chain posts had been going around way back from 2010, or perhaps even further back), but here’s a basic rundown.

The Liebster award is intended to give some exposure to small blogs with less than 200 followers. The rules are as follows:

1. Link back to the blogger who nominated you
2. Answer the 11 questions given to you by the blogger who nominated you
3. Nominate 11 other bloggers with less than 200 followers
4. Go to the blogs you nominated and notify them of your nomination
5. Give your nominees 11 questions to answer.

So without further ado, here’s my answer to Silvachief’s questions.

1. If you were no longer able to blog about what you do now, what would you blog about?

If I’m no longer able to blog about anime, games, visual novels and anything pertaining to the Japanese visual subculture, I do have other interests I can blog – ranging from music, films and even TV series. I might blog about technology too though I lack the monies to buy gadgets just to review or to provide impressions.

2. What is your favorite quote from an anime/visual novel/other?
As I’m into anime/manga/games/visual novels/light novels, and I feel I shouldn’t ignore quotes from the other media as well, I’m going to list down all my quotes respectively. I can’t remember all the quotes from the titles I had watched/played (fyi, I’m also not the type to copy-paste interesting quotes), but the ones here are definitely the more memorable ones; some of them inspiring, some astonishing, some humorous, and some of them downright trolling.

Anime:
“Listen up! Let’s say you drink too much strawberry milk, and have to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, but it’s cold outside your bed. You don’t want to get up, but the urge to urinate is just too strong! You make up your mind to go! You run to the bathroom, stand in front of the toilet, and let loose! You think that all your life has led to this moment! But then you realize. It isn’t the bathroom! You’re still in bed! That feeling of lukewarm wetness spreads like wildfire! But you don’t stop! You can’t stop! That’s what I’m talking about! That’s the truth of the strawberry milk! Do you get it?”
~Sakata Gintoki (Gintama) and his philosophy on “strawberry milk”

“If I don’t have to do it, I won’t. If I have to do it, I’ll make it quick”
~Oreki Houtarou (Hyouka) and his life motto

“Mad scientist. It’s so cool. Sonuvabitch”
~Okabe Rintarou (Steins;Gate)

Manga:
“People SHOULD be doubted. Many people misunderstand this concept. Doubting people is simply a part of getting to know them. What many people call “trust” is actually giving up on trying to understand others. Rather than “trust”, it is actually APATHY.”
~Akiyama Shinchi (Liar Game)

Games:
“Blacker than a moonless night, hotter and more bitter than hell itself… That is coffee.”
~Godot (Ace Attorney: Trails and Tribulations)

“First, I whip it out, then I thrust it with great force, every angle it penetrates, then with great strength, I ram it in! In the end, we are all satisfied, and you are set free.”
~Dante (Devil May Cry 4) as he received a new weapon

Light Novels:
“Okay. Then I’ll remember pilot Charles, forever.”
~Fana (Remembrances for a Certain Pilot)

“I’m going to find her whatever it takes. Whatever. It. Takes. If I have to kill every single person on this planet, I’m ready to engage in mass genocide at the drop of a hat.”
~Hoshino Kazuki (HakoMari)

Visual Novels:
“If you hesitate when asking a question, you’re better off not asking. When you hesitate, you’re afraid of looking in to the other person’s heart. If you look into someone’s heart unprepared, you won’t be able to handle it. The ones who open up their heart want someone to take responsibility. They want to be worried together, angry together, cry together, laugh together… So if you’re just casually asking, you’re better off not doing it. It’s better for both parties that way.”
~Mare (Hoshizora no Memoria)

“Fools only look ahead, crybabies only look behind, envious children only look up and scornful asses only look down on others… but they’ve all got tunnel vision!”
~Yuuji (Grisaia no Kajitsu)

3. If you could gather everyone on your blogroll in one place, where would it be and why?
Brunei, my country, since I feel not many people know about it. I will show everyone the island of unknown mystery brimming with mystical legends such as dragons and elves.

4. A 2-way dimensional rift has opened outside your house. Which fictional universe would you want it to connect to?
A place like Aria’s Neo Venezia seems pretty nice. It’s soothing and relaxing, and if there’s a place I want to go to “recover” from my chaotic and hectic life – Neo Venezia’s my top choice. If I’m adventurous, I would live in a fantasy world like Fairy Tail too.

5. What is the story behind your avatar name?
I wanted a name that sounds Japanese or just simply, Asian-like. The name should also be vague enough, fitting to use as a code name on some sort of secret operation; a name but not truly a genuine name in the truest sense. “Kai” emerged in one corner of my mind when I was brainstorming, and it sounds just about right – I didn’t base it on any other existing medium, it’s too vague for me to base it on one specific title anyway; furthermore, the name is simple, yet vague, but “open” enough to be interpreted as just as anything, yet retaining it’s Asian feature – it’s perfect.

6. Do you have any phobias, fictional or otherwise?
A bit of height phobia?

7. If you could conquer any one country, which one would it be?
Japan. And once I had done so, I will do the very one thing that I had in mind for a while – spreading more Japanese games and visual novels outside of Japan to increase accessibility for foreigners and supporting localizations *proud*

8. Which super power would you like to have?
Visual power to see through objects. I swear I don’t have any perverted objectives.

9. If you could be any other fictional race, which would you be?
Dragon.. does that count?

10. Which 3 animals would you most like as pets?
Dragon, cerberus and werewolf.

11. You find yourself in the waiting room at The Geek Clinic. Why are you there?
I was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder – one where I’m the normal, humble and innocent Kai you all see now, the second personality where I’m a perverted lolicon and chased after roris and the third personality where I got obsessed with oppai and would be glad to jump into these lovely “valleys of love”.

So it seems that it’s my turn now to ask the questions. I however, won’t be nominating anyone, I’m not even sure how many followers the bloggers I know had. I’ll just leave all my questions here, anyone is free to answer them.

1. Are you a light novel reader?
2. Who is your favorite video game composer?
3. Is there any anime you watched which motivated you to learn something?
4. Do you collect anime merchandise? (figures, posters, blu-rays, cards, etc…)
5. What do you think of Vocaloid music?
6. Is there any manga/light novels/visual novels that you would like to have an anime adaption?
7. If you’re given the chance to design a mascot for your blog, how would you design him/her?
8. What’s your top five favorite anime?
9. How many game consoles had you owned?
10. You found a Death Note lying in front of your house. What do you do?
11. If given the power to live eternally, would you go for it?

Martial arts – the practice of fighting and combat techniques; and dancing – the rhythmic movements of the body used for artistic expressions. A few sports and martial arts are known to be connected with dance movements; martial arts like Combat Hopak and capoeira are prime examples. Capoeira, especially, is a very noteworthy martial arts which incorporate dance, music and acrobatics. Capoeira was founded by Brazilians of African nature, way back during during the 1600s. The martial art uses a lot of complex movements that includes kicks, spins, flips and other mobile, agile movements that is almost akin to break dancing. The martial art is always traditionally practiced together with music, because of that, timing and beats are emphasized.

Video games are always looking for new, refreshing outlooks. Especially for action or fighting games, one can’t overlook the beauty of using dancing as a fighting form – so artistic, and so stylish. The blending use of acrobatics and dancing in video games is always a sight to behold. Furthermore, since there are games, not bounded by the laws of physics, very interesting fight scenes are created – impossible-to-pull-off acrobatics and the force sprung forth from these acrobatic blows are among the most interesting effects.

One of the most earliest game characters which utilize dance moves in martial arts combat, were characters like Richard Meyer and Duck King (from Fatal Fury) to later characters like Eddy Gordo (Tekken), Soiree Meira and Momoko (from King of Fighters). A lot of these characters use capoeira, or movements reflecting it. Admittedly, there should be a few other game characters that used other forms of dancing as combat too, but I think it’s not too far off to say that capoeira is mainly the martial art for fusing fighting and dancing, since it is a realistically existed martial art that actually incorporates dance elements.

Moving away from 2D fighting games, other games, especially those involving fight scenes, had also integrated dance-like fighting styles for their characters. The above video shows a fight scene between Raiden and Vamp from Metal Gear Solid 4. Instead of a fight scene, it is more akin to a dance off. While it doesn’t compare to the emotional bout between Snake and Liquid, this fight is no doubt creative. In the fight sequence, Raiden’s movements resemble that of capoeira and break dancing, combined with the use of various bladed weapons like swords and knives. As Raiden is a cyborg ninja, being able to equip knives or swords on his feet blend well with the concept and movements of said dances – for example, attaching blades on his feet while attempting to slash at his opponents using windmill break dance technique. He also used a lot of Capoeira movements akin to Aú, Mocaco and various similar acrobatic handspring motions. Raiden exploits a lot of wide complex movements that amplifies power and agility.

In contrast, Vamp makes use of his flexibility. Vamp’s movements is of ballet and flamenco – most significantly, his turnouts. Vamp used a series of graceful ballet spins called chainés. He used the spins in various situations, from evading, parrying and even offensive, as seen in the video when he was “stomping” on Raiden’s chest. Also, another thing to take note of, is Vamp’s battle “stance”. Most martial artist practitioners have very specified combat-ready stances, but as for Vamp, he’s just standing upright – which IS technically his battle stance. As his battle style requires a lot of spins, standing upright is to get his feet tip-toed in order to ready himself for such maneuvers – the pointe technique.

Overall, the whole fight is a battle filled with swords, knives and dance movements as a meant for offense, defensive and evasive maneuvers.

Moving further on, we have the lubricious quad-wielding gunslinger Bayonetta. Like Dante of Devil May Cry, she fights with style, literally though graceful, elegant and sensual dance moves – consisting of ballet, contemporary jazz and even pole dancing. A noteworthy segment would be when Bayonetta attached a pistol on her boot; step, and shoot at her enemy. While using that leg as a pivotal point, she attached another pistol on her other boot, and shoot all around her while doing a pirouette – essentially a fouettés en tournant, with an upbeat variation of “Fly Me to the Moon” in the background – beautiful. Bayonetta gives off a whole new different definition of badass, using her voluptuous body and graceful motions as her ultimate weapon. If Dante is a rock star, Bayonetta is a dancing superstar.

The improving visuals also come into play, although visuals for a certain few, aren’t an important factor since you’re technically playing a game. However, a great visual capability makes it easier to express. During the old Fatal Fury and King of Fighters days, even if a character is using capoeira, ballet, or any dance movements for offense, it is difficult to depict due to the restricted graphical technology. At best, the very limited frames of dancing moves are only shown at their very basic and purest form. Unlike games in the modern era, as you can see in Metal Gear Solid 4 and Bayonetta, different forms of dances are easily integrated into fight sequences, in beautifully 3D rendered graphics; showing more brisk, intricate, powerful and excessive motions impossible to be done so through older consoles.

Because of such fine technological advancements, I am beginning to see a lot of different dance forms emerged in action or fighting video games from the more common capoeira and in terms of artistic and creativity value, this is definitely a good thing. Dancing – a form of art, when blend in together with fighting forms; it creates a very interesting and unique visual design. “Let’s rock!” is a very masculine battle cry used by various characters, Dante of Devil May Cry being one such example; but “Let’s dance!” will probably take the center stage soon, or perhaps it already had.

This question had been asked a multitude of times, and is definitely of incredible interest. Do you watch anime weekly or do you marathon them?

A standard anime takes about 20 minutes to finish each episode, and each episode is aired weekly. Especially for new anime, waiting for a whole week to watch a single episode of a certain anime may sound a bit troublesome, but it creates a good experience for certain type of anime, and in contrast, a degradation of experience for other particular types of anime. Likewise can be said for marathons, certain type of anime are good for marathoning while some aren’t.

Watching anime on a marathoning or a weekly basis both have their advantages and disadvantages. When one watches anime weekly, it allows him to slowly absorb the settings and plot of the anime, especially so if it’s an extensive and enthralling setting.

I find simple slice of life anime (K-ON, Tamayura, Aria, etc..) is best when watched weekly, as it heighten the relaxing atmosphere, where as in comparison, one may get exhausted from marathoning, thus losing that soothing and relaxing magic. When I was clearing my backlog, I marathoned all four seasons of Hidamari Sketch, and the result was that it wasn’t as enjoyable as I had hoped for – a prime example of what one shouldn’t do when choosing which anime to marathon.

When watching new weekly anime, there’s a one week break in between, and what better way to use that break then to discuss the latest episode with your friends! With internet, you can even interact with your online friends and discuss the latest episode of your favorite anime in your favorite anime blog or forums. This is what I like best about weekly anime watching as it promotes interaction within the anime community, and as a result, strengthen the unity and bond for the community.

Weekly anime viewing isn’t without it’s flaws however. For people with lot going on with their life, it’s easy to forget trivial details. For some mystery, psychological and horror anime, one subtle movement or speech will be able to turn the plot into a shocking twist, and how would one immerse into the twist when he couldn’t even remember the details? This is what I myself experienced when watching Another on a weekly basis: I felt the great suspenseful atmosphere of the first episode but after the next week, I found myself constantly looking up what happened in previous episodes to again catch up on things.

Marathon, the act of watching an anime or any other TV series in one consecutive row, until one reach a conclusive point; an end of a season, or perhaps even an end of a franchise. For people with a busy lifestyle, watching weekly may be a good idea, but it can also not be due to reasons aforementioned above. In that case, one should consider the other alternative – marathons.

Watching anime in marathon format leads to an exclusive benefit – avoiding cliffhangers and prolonging excitement. Cliffhangers are great for heightening suspense and excitement, but once some time had passed, that excitement can be quickly lost. One week may not be a long time, but the stronger the cliffhanger, the longer that one week would be felt – the excitement from last week’s episode would be quickly subdued, and whose to say he will be free for the following week’s airing? If he is not, then this leads to more stalling in keeping up with the anime, and in turn, more excitement level is jeopardized.

Another interesting benefit, at least for me, is getting through the slower parts of the show. Using a more recent example – Shingeki no Kyojin. A lot of complains seem to be regarded to it’s pacing, although oddly, I don’t feel that they are as bad as what others think – the issue is present, no doubt, but definitely not as bad. The only reason I could think of is that I watch Shingeki no Kyojin in a marathon format. Marathoning really helps getting one through slower-paced segments of the shows – before you know it, you will already be done with it.

Likewise, marathoning also has their bad sides, the worst of all – the lack of discussions and debates. When watching the latest episodes every week, one is able to talk and discuss about their new favorite characters or the current situational standing. As opposed to that, when watching anime in marathon format, such magic is lost. Due to the fact that you will be watching the anime at completely different times then most people, it’s harder to discuss it with other people, since such hot-headed discussions were already initiated when the episodes were out.

In order to attain the most pleasurable experience while watching anime, a lot has to be consider: time and place, the viewer’s current mood, quality of the video, medium of device and so on. Knowing what anime to marathon and what anime to watch weekly is certainly one of them as well.

This is very individualistic too since I feel everyone will have a different preference. For me, I prefer anime with softer atmospheres, most notably slice of life ones to be watched weekly while the more bold and exciting anime – suspenseful mystery or hot blooded actions and the likes, to be marathoned to empathize the excitement to the maximum.

So do you watch anime weekly or do you marathon them? The question’s been asked quite a while but I feel it’s a question worth to be spread more. After all, it is one of the most important factor that is relevant to our enjoyment of our favorite medium – anime.