Cockmongler will eat mongle your cock!

I love watching mediocre adaptations of works done by VNs. It’s like I’m really reading a VN without reading a VN!

Slut.

The beginning scene does a good job in introducing the story by cold opening to a future event the same way Higurashi did in it’s first season; hell, I halfway expected Hiroshi to die here and kick off the time loop plot before the white-haired girl showed up. I can assume Isuzu was going to kill him in some way, given the look of her eyes and her inability to hold back “despite how I feel about you Hiro-kun…” plus no weapon makes me think she was probably going to eat him…or rape him…or both. Then, all of a sudden she stops everything she’s doing and actually takes Hiroshi by the hand to run away with her until she’s presumably slayed by the white-haired girl and her little demon dogs, a weird role-reversal that amused me.

Did we mention this shit’s in 3D!? Scythe-wielding wheelchair riding 3D FTW! Take THAT Yu-Gi-Oh! 10th Anniversary Movie!

And then the whole Higurashi relations start: a weird town with occurences and warnings that no one seems to elaborate our mild-mannered protagonist, as well as a kid “transferring out,” even the name of the series (“Hidden God”) can remind you of a certain purple-haired horned-girl. At least there are a few deviations: Ryu07 decided to throw in a defrosting ice queen into the mix in addition to an Ange-personality-expy’d wheelchair-bound imouto and his sluttiest character since Jessica.

He might’ve taken notes from Darker than Black too.

On that note, soundtrack is anything butUNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ.

You know, besides the OP song, which is decent only because it’s FictionJunction singing, everything else sounds like generic visual novel music (HURR DURR). Yes, Ryu07 the drawings aren’t by your shitty hands anymore, and you don’t have to focus solely on the music creating a nice atmosphere, but it’d be nice to get some good music in. Even Sea Kitties started using some of the VN’s music later on, and anime-original songs can be good (Non-existent Tsukihime anime included). The last track gets your heart pounding, but that might only be because someone’s getting chased, and I can tell if that annoying high-pitched melody is coming from a flute or a women’s singing; either way, it’s not very DESIRE-able.

Overall, like many others, I’m not too impressed with the premise so far, but then again it’s the first episode and I’m at least hooked enough to want to know what’s going on.

May I add the shonen-esque speedlines don’t make her the least bit intimidating.

Last thing to add: Nemuru is probably the white-haired girl. Obvious same actor voice-acting is obvious.

-Jay

It’s like Shana, with Kanokon as the plot!

Or Kanokon, with Shana as the plot.

…Well, maybe some of it’s not generic…just uncommon…

It’d be easy to call this generic: young Shonen hero has his everyday life suddenly interrupted by monsters but is saved by action girl, who also wants his cock. Childhood friend is not amused as she too wants his cock…oh fuck, I already ranted about this before didn’t I? Guess that means I don’t have filler material to work with. Moving on…

*SWOOSH* Yeah, that’s the actual sound effect.

While I said during the season preview that I was looking forward to the fighting, the first fight scene presented seemed, well…off. Maybe it was the sound effects, they don’t make you feel the impact once weapons clash; for that matter, it could also be the camera work that provides the same problem. Granted, this is the first fight of the series (and this fight wasn’t shown to this scale in the manga), but it’s also a chance to lure the viewer in by not making them too bored with all the slice of life going on, something that’s important when the plot isn’t slice-of-life heavy, and something I felt this didn’t do well.

CHI CHI CHI CHI OPPAI. BOING BOING~

It’s best to keep in mind that the series doesn’t take itself too seriously, what with all the boobie-related content; seriously, only a few of the main characters (Rinko, and Shizuku/”Mizuchi” at episode’s end) are flat, and all of the minor girl characters are all C-cups or higher. The first minute or so of the episode show three main breasticle characters reacting to Yuto, while Shizuku is strangely absent, despite being about as important as the first two besides Himari (you can argue she was in the group of those demons’ eyes, but she’s introduced as being short later on, so I doubt it). Hell, the OP theme revolves around breasts. This show practically thirves on fanservice, to my knowledge I can’t remember another anime where breasts are emphasized so much.

Music’s okay, but I’m not too found of the tracks that involve that lady in the background humming or whatever, since it feels a little out of place for a romantic comedy. And yeah, Yuto’s voice actor uses the same voice he did for Makoto, which annoys me for reasons other than it being Makoto’s voice. Rinko’s voice can get annoying at times too, but mainly during her first line waking Yuto up. Everyone else is fine, Himari’s voice sounded exactly like I expected Koshimizu Ami to make it sound like. Maybe the experience voicing Horo translates well into another furry.

Whereas it’s perfectly fine to insult someone if it’s in private, amirite?

So, for being a seasonal romantic-comedy, I’m not really expecting anything. Like watching to-Love-ru or something, you’re really only watching if you like the genre and somewhat intrigued with the story, cliche and/or unimpressive as it may be. I wouldn’t call it a forthcoming trainwreck, but nothing too great’s going to happen either. Either way, I’m sticking with it, so hopefully we’ll see some improvement.

The fuck is up with this cat’s neck?

-Jay (Not doing those preview things anymore, because I am lazy).

SAA CHRISTMAS

From all of us here at Anime Arimasu (me anyway, lolchristmashijack), we hope you have a Merry Christmas/Happy Hannukah/Happy Kwanzaa/any other sort of holiday and a Happy New Year. Hopefully most of you out there have found the time to spend time with your families and/or loved ones; at this moment, I’m back at my mother’s house to help wrap gifts for my little sisters. Have a Spiritual Day and HOLY HOLY NIGHT!

Yeah, that was the corniest shit I’ve written.

Show ▼

Drugs are bad, mmmkay? (Also, marijuana is NOT eaten.)

Nasu’s pitch for anti-drug use: “You are criminal homicidal maniac.”

Too…

short. >_<

First off, let me say that I’m a bit disappointed with the revealed circumstances regarding Shiki’s accident; Araya’s involvment was disappointingly short, considering how much hype there was surrounding his “comeback” ; I expected around amount of beatings during Spiral Paradox and was rewarded with the one scene in the trailer and the flashback scene of this fight put together in a manner of 30 seconds or so. Although it’s more of a complaint against the 6th movie than this one, Shiki all of a sudden having a goal felt a bit sudden, considering she spent most of the movies amnesiac and clueless about the past, and now all of that is fixed with a wave of a hand. Also, the entire concept of drugs was hilarious to me, almost like a subliminal D.A.R.E. commercial.

Now that that’s out of the way, I loved this movie. Yes, I’m biased towards Type-Moon in general, but the excitement I had toward this movie was so high, I didn’t mind most of the “loltalking” scenes…for the most part.

Part of it that made it enjoyable was the whole romantic theme regarding Mikiya and Shiki, this movie being it’s chance to fully develop and bloom; even the little opening claymation nods towards it’s direction. Sure, the wordy metaphors about murder and killing referring to their love seems kinda corny, but otherwise the romance factor, especially during Shiki’s internal monologue after she’s drugged and the ending, makes the movie full of DAAAAAAAWWW…inbetween all the blood and dismembered body parts anyway. The only problem would be that little tease near the end where they don’t actually kiss, but the loving embrace Show ▼

makes up for it. Hell, dere-dere Shiki itself makes up for it.

…You lost me.

To some extent, I believe that theme of romance just sorta…slightly…kinda…extends to Lio (yes, other than THAT). Not only just his desire to be with Shiki, but also his relationship with Mikiya. Since Lio has conditioned himself to emulate Shiki as much as possible, you can also see it as a parallel for him to want Mikiya’s presence with him as much as Shiki does. As Lio has stated that Mikiya was one of the only people still standing up for him (FYI, Lio left school to do “what he wanted to do,” everyone looked down on this except Mikiya who wished him good luck), it can be linked with Mikiya being one of the only friend Shiki had during high school. Along with Lio being able to contain himself somewhat around Mikiya, his persistence to make Mikiya join him by awakening his origin and becoming “special” (this, again, through marijuana and LSD), and by his visibly upset expression when, in his eyes, Mikiya rejects him in favor of Shiki, and subsequent shock when he “kills” Mikiya can all prove how much he held Mikiya in regard and how it hurt him when he was betrayed. In this respect, I guess he’s a little sympathetic…

FFFFFFFFFFFFF….

…Fuck that. Kill it with fire.

That’s really all I can say about it. Words can’t really describe much else I’m feeling. Maybe I’m just that bad of a writer, or I’m overly sentimental or something. Time to nitpick.

Why the fuck would Shiki have to go back to school? The Ryougi’s are just as rich as the Tohno’s are, Shiki’s already the head of the family like Akiha, why the fuck does she need to go to school other than learning to cook and Fate/stay in kitchen?

I’m not a fan of Mikiya’s emo-hair. He really should just bandage his eye(s) up.

Touko denwa?

I love how Touko just called to troll Mikiya’s cousin.

Who in their right mind would think that trying LSD for shits is a good idea?

Mmm, Shiki tits.

Overview of Kara no Kyoukai

Nasu himself stated that Kara no Kyoukai wasn’t really all that fit for animation and also said that being one of his first ventures into fiction, he wasn’t particularly proud of the original books. Thanks to ufotable’s efforts, however, Kara no Kyoukai turned out to be an amazing experience, what with beautiful animation and an awesome soundrack to boot. Thanks to Nasu-verse workings, it won’t really be everyone’s cup of tea, and thus won’t be easily understood by people with a short attention span during the dialogue scenes where word after word is explained. It might be better since now all movies are released and thus marathoning would enable one to keep the basic concepts fresh when watching, but it still requires a bit of thinking if the terms aren’t all that familiar (i.e. people who didn’t play Tsukihime and/or payed attention to Fate besides “EKUSU-CALIBAAAA”). Still, the overall story is nice, and at times a bit emotionally invoking (“I was here…” ;_;), so I think it’s definitely worth the ride.

Also, my favorite movie order after watching everything.

;________;

1. Movie 5: Spiral Paradox (WITCHES AND SWORDS. Also, Tomoe’s family, Araya, and Willy Wonka).

=D

2. Movie 7: Murder Speculation: Part 2 (More linear in it’s story, drugs, D’AAAAAW, and Lio is full of lolz)

Fujinon. ;_; (First choice was tits, but we might get in trouble.)

3. Movie 3: Remaining Sense of Pain (Noto Mamiko and nipples. Also, MAGARE)

Future JACKHAMMERING potential.

4. Movie 6: Oblivion Recorder (Azaka? Moar liek Akiha, amirite? Don’t burn be moe HNNNNNNNG)

Anything in a kimono, apparently.

5. Movie 1: Overlooking View (lol words, debut of KnK hype theme music)

DOHOHOHOHOHOHO.

6. Movie 2: Murder Speculation: Part 1 (More swords, but no witches/dirty reds until the end. No hype music. Lio is a faggot.)

For all it’s faults, long haired Shiki was a plus.

7. Movie 4: Hollow Shrine (One lame action scene compared to the others, short, “I’m singing in the rain.”)

So now, the next Type-Moon thing will be the Fate/Stay Night UBW movie. I can’t wait, hopefully they get the same attention to detail Kara no Kyoukai had. The trailer looked really nice…

NASUUUUUUUUUUUU!

Oh yeah…DEEN and 90 Minutes. Fuck. ufotable should just do all Type-Moon related works from now on.

And with this, we are now not on hiatus any longer! Comeback is progressing smoothly!

Finally time to leave Meltan/BB alone for a while…

-Jay

Dun dun dun! Dun dun dun dun dun, dun dun dun du-dun!

Almost nothing anime-related after March June CANAAN, only a few updates by me and Vadi once, Linall nowhere to be seen, and a couple shitty anime seasons with titles barely worth picking up, let alone watching. Hell yeah, AniAri is thriving! (^^;)

Seriously though, the whole point of Shirukii asking for new writers was so this blog wouldn’t die, which is kinda the exact opposite of what’s currently happening. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes real life just fucks with you too much for you to be able to do your hobbies, but this site has been dead for too long.

What I DID get done during the semester. (^^;)

Semester is almost over and I’ve had time inbetween school enough to be able to watch and write SOMETHING, but I’ve instead trailed off to my other hobbies that don’t require as much thinking. That said, my computer problems are over (for the moment) so I don’t really have much of an excuse to procrastinate getting back on the job anymore (besides school and possibly work), so here I go!…or not. Umineko will be ending next week, so I’ll give a series review then, and I haven’t been following anything this season: I just got around to start watching Darker than Black (Episode 10 finished at the moment) and thus can’t do Ryusei no Gemini, Fairy Tail not clicking for me even if it’s by RAVE’s author, Kampfer was amusing to watch only the first time, and Railgun is just my daily fix of Biribiri and Touma shipping (also ONEE-SAMA); I haven’t even watched the first episode in it’s entirety…or all of Index for that matter. So yeah…I kinda have to procrastinate until next month, but at least I’m honest about it.

Kara no Kyoukai: Satsujin Kousatsu (Part 2) + implied ‘recall out summer’ OVA

Type-Moon faggotry on my part again. One week left until the DVD’s release. I’ll probably briefly touch upon the entire series as a whole, but I’m planning to write on this movie in particular. Kara no Kyoukai was an example of a Type-Moon series adaptation to justice, surpassing Fate/stay night’s otherwise accurate adaptation and beyond that of a certain, non-existent anime. As for the last OVA, the description for that seems to be just Mikiya speaking to someone unknown at this point, but I would like to believe the OVA will be about the last chapter written by Nasu of the series released at Comiket in 2007. Since this is the final movie, I’m hoping to be wowed, but after Mujun Rasen/Movie 5 and basic knowledge of the plot, I’m not expecting much…

New Code Geass Project

*sigh* This is bullshit for a lot of reasons:

1. Lulu is dead, main writer agreed don’t ask him about it.

2. A movie recap about the entire series a la Gurren Lagann or Gundam wouldn’t be amusing.

3. Anime adaptation of the excellent Nightmare of Nunnally side story manga possible, but unlikely; Zero was fucking buff in that manga, and since when does an animation studio ever give us what we want? *cough*BernkastelNipah*cough*UnlimitedBladeWorksmovie*

4. I don’t want to hear a prequel about America losing revolutionary war and becoming Britannia and the other background story shit.

5. Spice and Wolf IS Code Geass continuation. ^^;

That being said, I can imagine a few things what this might be: an anime adaptation of another Geass alternate universe manga, Suzaku of the Counterattack, or maybe a series/movie with a new take on the mythos, as such was the case in Eureka Seven: Pocketful of Rainbows. And, of course, it could be the adventures of Zerozaku and his fight with some other uprising in the world or something. While I don’t think the project will be airing until after next year (if indeed it is a TV project), I thought it was worth mentioning; /a/ did. Regardless, I intend to pick this up later next year.

Omamori Himari

I’d actually forgotten that I was following this months ago, but here’s a brief summary as stolen from wikipedia and paraphrased by me: Amagawa Yuto is an orphaned whimp whose parents die in a car accident. 16th birthday comes around, Yuto is attacked by evil spirits who left him alone because he was holding some lucky charm (an omamori) from his grandparents until that day. Yuto is actually part of 1 of 12 clans that slay demons, and possesses power to kill these guy, but our little chump doesn’t know it, thus can’t fight. Lucky for him, Himari, a cat-spirit wielding a katana, comes to protect him, having befriended him while she was a cat earlier in Yuto’s life. She also wants to fuck him very badly and is willing to sleep with Yuto naked with the bonus of letting him suck her titties dry (I’m not making this up), but Yuto is allergic to cats, and childhood friend Rinko cannot stand for this newcomer taking over.  Cue harem build up, fanservice, and intercourse-related misunderstandings and you have yourselves Omamori Himari. While it’s as much a romantic comedy as anything else out there, the fights in the manga are pretty good, and there’s a certain chapter I’m wishing to be animated that I look forward too should the anime go that far. Himari will be voiced by Koshimizu Ami (Kallen from Geass, Rosa BEST MOM EVAR Ushiromiya from Sea Kitties, Horo from AWFUL US COVER Spicey Wolf), while Yuto will be voiced by Hirakawa Daisuke, who you guys will know as Makoto from School Days and less-known Julio from Zero no Tsukaima. Let’s hope he doesn’t use that same whiney ass voice…

Okami Kakushi

Another adaptation of a VN, this time from Ryukishi07 from 07th Expansion (thankfully, the character design has been placed in the hands of Peach Pit of Rozen Maiden and Zombie Loan fame, not Ryukishi’s awful art), and thank God that the studio isn’t DEEN again. Kuzumi Hiroshi moves into the new town of Jyougamachi, which is separated into the new and old streets by a river. Hiroshi manages to beomce popular with most of his class with the exception of one, his classroom president Kushinada Nemuru, whose only real interaction with him leave him a cryptic warning: “Stay away from the old streets.” I’d like to see if the writer can come up with a story revolving something other than a repeating event and make it interesting. The synopsis and artwork so far don’t really seem to say much (though this coming from someone who can’t read moonrunes and isn’t trying to run the site through babelfish). The girl prominently displayed with the scythe hasn’t been given a name, and I’m sure she’ll be one of the main mysteries surrounding the story. Overall, I’m excited about this one.

And that’s it for now. Stuff that I’m watching otherwise that haven’t finished airing and I’ve yet to catch up on are the time-released OVAs, such as Negima! Mou Hitotsu no Sekai, Kissxsis, Shakugan no Shana S, and To-LOVE-Ru’s (which I hope can do a facor and secure a proper ending to the series thanks to the BITCHES AND WHORES-influenced premature end of the manga). Reconstruction, here we go!…now if only we could do something about this old theme…

“I’ll kill you AND the night!”

-Jay

I lol’d

Resident Evil (5), Nasu-style. Nasu-style includes:

-Mystic Eyes of Death Perception

-Black keys

-SUGOI SUGOI

-Takeuchi recylicing (I saw Ryougi, Kiritsugu, Saber Lily)

-Badass Sakamoto Maaya

-Sex with Noto Mamiko

-Psychopathic Tanaka Rie (srsly)

-Jouji/George Nakata

-Mollusk-explanations (thank you Liang Qi o_o)

Spoilers: This is about how old Ciel really is.

Who knew that all these crazy gun-fu fights, incompetent Americans, badass longcoat villains, biological warefare threats, zombie-like failures, and one character unaffected by it all would be the sequel to a reality-grounded VN released on the Wii? Oh Nasu, you so crazy.

Even so, there’s something strangely entertaining about being thrown into a story where you haven’t the vaguest idea what’s happening; i.e. that’s how Kara no Kyoukai and to an extent the Fate/stay night VN started. I’m not really sure how much Canaan has assumed its audience to know what happened in 428 other than the aspsects of the Ua virus, Mino, Maria and her father’s involvement in Shinjuku, but otherwise Canaan feels like a complete stand alone production until it starts delving into said aspects from 428. And even then, it’s not all that necessary to even pay attention to the virus and it’s importance to just kick back and enjoy the action since the plot never seems to revolve around it other than the two episodes it’s focused on. I genuinely felt excited to watch the next episode as opposed to watching something like Umineko where one spends most of the time wanting something interesting to happen.

What’s wrong Alphard? Got a ‘dead arm’ there? (^^;;)

…right until the final episode. It’s common to feel more disappointment at a series’ ending moreso than it is to feel satisfaction, but Canaan’s seemed a bit too abrupt. Let alone the fact that the big bad, Alphard, spontaneously suffers a breakdown when, after 12 episodes, we’re lead to believe she’s as cold blooded as she appears to be and subseuquently loses to Canaan because of this, but Alphard is effectively out of the picture within the first 7 minutes into the episode while the rest of it is spent with the group apparently not wanting to see each other. I expected Canaan’s and Alphard’s fight to be longer, especially since all areas of the series’ media revolves around their conflict when they apparently only fight each other twice, the first time being an incredibly short and one-sided defeat.

Well, Liang’s objective was pretty simple, she just wanted to GET SOME…from Alphard (also, purple Wii mote triggers explosives)

I expected more resolutions, since I still have no idea why Snake’s previous objective was to create another Canaan through the Ua virus and what Natsume was hoping to accomplish by securing power for Japan, especially since she appears to just be back to office lady status during the epilogue. If they were explained somewhere, maybe I didn’t catch them.

Fucking cocktease.

And I expected Canaan and Maria to kiss since it’s painfully obvious that these two have been craving to suck on each other’s mollusks and transfer mana on multiple judging from the last few episodes, so much that’s that their orientations aren’t even “maybe they are, maybe they aren’t” ponderable anymore.

And the ambiguous end that somewhat hints at a sequel seems unfair, since Canaan isn’t the type of series that could continue, what with half of the cast dying and all. Maybe they’ll make a Melty Blood-style video game sequel…or maybe they’ll just add them to Melty Blood.

Canaan isn’t a must-see series, and I’m sure most of the people who wanted to watch it already have i.e. Type-Moon fags who will suck up anything Nasu’s pen inks out, so I can do very little in recommending others to watch it. For a short time frame, however rushed and short 13 episodes is, it’ll certainly do it’s job in entertaining enough to eagerly watch it the first 12 episodes…then leave you with the words “That’s it? It’s over” escaping from your semi-disappointed mouth. SUGOI SUGOI.

HIGH TENSIOOOOOOON!

-Jay

Funnily enough, around the time Fate/Unlimited Codes’ PS2 port came out, the newest installment of Type-Moon’s flagship (i.e. ONLY prior to F/UC), Melty Blood: Actress Again had been out in arcades for a few months. Sporting new characters, new larger and upgraded stages, along with new music plus updated renditions of the previous tracks as old as the first game, it’s clear that Type-Moon is certainly living up to it’s commercial company status. The question is, with this year already full of other 2D console fighters like Street Fighter IV and Blazblue: Calamity Trigger (which I am so very fond of), does Actress Again give us any real reason to go back other than Tsukihime nostalgia?

Note: Again, I don’t have a video capture card, so these pictures aren’t from my plays of the game.

Controls have been retained from Act Cadenza, but the fighting system itself has gotten a few interesting upgrades, most notable to me being the inclusion of a guard meter; part of the MB meta game was shield bunkering, as it is in a lot of fighting games. Since MB “Reverse Beat” mechanic made shield bunkering necessary in order escape combos, it feels a bit unfair that they’ve included a guard meter, but it also makes sense, since it provides quicker resolutions to “shield bunker til screw up” clashes. More sensible, the inclusion of EX Guarding, guarding at the exact moment of a hit, to restore the guard meter adds a bit more skill to be used.

The biggest addition is the inclusion the “Style” system, akin to Marvel vs. Capcom 2’s “Type” system in that characters have access to different moves according to what style you select for them; remember when Tohno Shiki had 236+button “slasshums” or when White Len’s overwhelming moveset in Act Cadenza A? Those moves are back, given that you choose the correct style that has them. “Crescent Moon” style is essentially Act Cadenza’s combo system, while “Full Moon” style disables the usual launchers to air combos and somewhat focusing on ground combos much more, with the exception of a few characters (White Len, and I’ve heard Sacchin), plus the ability to use “Heat” mode any time as well as manually charging the Magic Circuit bar. “Half Moon” style at times give different moves, but as far as I can tell, is a lot like Crescent Moon with the exception of 200% Auto-Heat and apparently no Last Arcs. Arc Drives remain the same no matter what style is used (in Half Moon’s case, the stronger “Blood Heat” version of Arc Drives are used), but using “C” attacks that consume 100% of the bar can change depends on moveset to moveset.

As with any follow up to a fighting game, new characters are expected. When Actress Again came out in arcades, only Riesbyfe Stridberg (Sion’s ally who died saving her from Wallachia…and apparently uses a giant violin/cello as a weapon) and Roa in his Near Side incarnation were added. That’s fine and dandy, especially since the main antagonist of Tsukihime was now actually playable, but I’m sure most fans wouldn’t have minded more. Well, they got it.

By some twist of fate (see: cashing-in and fucking with the already fucked up canon for the sake cashing-in), Ryougi Shiki makes her debut appearance in Melty Blood hot off the Rakkyo movies, even bringing the main movie theme and her bamboo-covered estate with her as a stage. Now everyone can stop using that MUGEN, Nanaya-clone version of her and use an original…somewhat Tohno-clone version of her. ^^;

To screw up shit even more, Seifuku Akiha, a once-thought alternate costume turned new character, is added, as well as a True Ancestor Arcueid dubbed “Archetype-Earth”, supposedly pre-Roa, fucking ORT-banned in tourneys version of good ol’ Arc. I’ve yet to unlock her, but…

So as an example…

LAST ARC FINISH.

I guess you could consider her the Shin Akuma of MB.

As for the story……….wait….?

MB has no story, therefore I present you the final battle of Rakkyo 7, with actual Roa/SHIKI instead of archetype.

tl;CAN’Tr moonrunes, final boss is announcer, the one who goes “ROUNDO WAN. FAITO.” Yup.

So, that makes 4 ver. of Akiha…

Extras-wise, the scenario played in Arcade mode are viewable as they were in Act Cadenza, and also included is the Boss Rush mode which brings back the “boss” Melty Blood characters like G-Akiha and presumably Neko Chaos Black G666 (I haven’t unlocked it yet ^^;). Training mode is in, with a dummy record system this time.

Overall, the game is a treat: most may desire more, especially with next gen 2D fighters out now (Blazblue, KoFXII, SFIV and II HD Remix), but it’s still impressive and incredibly fun to play if you’re a 2D fighter fan. Don’t expect your friends to adapt to it right away, but it’s easier to pick up than F/UC, and undoubtedly the most refined in the series despite the mechanics way overdue. Let’s hope the PC release will include Capslock-kun (“Tohno SHIKI” Roa)

Oh before I go, Lumi recommended I try taking pictures of the TV. The result?

THIS…

CHAIR!

THISCHAIRTHISCHAIRTHISCHAIRTHISCHAIRTHISCHAIRTHISCHAIRTHISCHAIRTHISCHAIRTHISCHAIR
THISCHAIRTHISCHAIRTHISCHAIRTHISCHAIRTHISCHAIRTHISCHAIRTHISCHAIRTHISCHAIRTHISCHAIR
THISCHAIR.

-Jay

Very much my situation.

Long story short: my computer done broke, time to get a new one.

Short story long: around the time Clannad and ToA were ending, out of nowhere, booting my computer led me to a black start up screen prompting me that my hard drive would need to be swapped due to imminent failure.  My subsequent actions: didn’t listen, didn’t do anything, didn’t care, continued to use it like nothing, boom, the damn thing failed.  So yes, the past three months I’ve been relatively PC-less, resorting to my other friend’s PCs and laptops to get by with my schoolwork (even used a netbook at one point, which I must say feels incredibly fragile).  This happened about a day after I had typed up my ToA 26 post, which still needed to be screencapped and FTP’d to our site.  Thankfully, although it’s unfortunate that it took 3 months to finally get up and people have probably stopped caring, I can safely tuck it under the “Completed Series” category and not worry to much about my future plans.  To be honest, I never intended to blog anything in the spring season anyway: the only shows I’ve been semi-watching were Hayate no Gotoku!! Second and FMA: Brotherhood, but Hayate is hardly blogging material to me since it doesn’t really have a overarching plot, and I didn’t want any obligation to compare Brotherhood to the first incarnation since I haven’t seen all of the 1st series yet.  Thus, I tried using the season to try and get a job, not just for a new hard drive but for a new computer/laptop altogether.

But damn, Blazblue is fun…

…And yet here I sit, penniless and still reliant on another friend’s computer (one who was willing to let me install Filezilla for a spell).  Job-hunting sucks, especially when you don’t get one.  And now, not having a working computer HAS impeded on my plans, as the shows I WAS planning on blogging are going to air, and the money I had hoped to gain to get to Anime Expo has now gone down the drain.  Thus, though I wasn’t as active and up to date as I’d like to think, it seems to comming months will be  slow on my part:  the following series may only get an entry every so often the same way Shirukii is doing, depending on how much free time I have to spend at a friend’s house hogging the computer for a few hours, but I hope you continue to enjoy them.  That said, the following series I’ll be following this season are…

CANAAN

My Type-Moon faggotry forces me to pick this up, since I’m a sucker for Takeuchi’s art. I know almost nothing about the storyline, other than it’s based on a scenario Type-Moon conceptualized for the Wii visual novel game 428: Fūsasareta Shibuya de. The game itself gained a perfect score to Famitsu, and the concept of switching to different protagonist’s and experiencing different scenarios is interesting, but since Canaan isn’t a direct adaptation, it’s hard to say what to expect. Also, I can give two shits about Famitsu, since their infamous notoriety seems to me to stem from a bunch of elitist faggots as well as whether or not their judgement can be trusted or not (see KHII’s “almost perfect” score and Dirge of Cerberus “somewhat good” score…and FFXII getting a perfect is a load of shit as well)…but I digress.  This is pretty much a blind dive, since there’s little about the Canaan part of 428, but the game apparently takes place within a 10 hour time span, from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM.  Leads me to think they might do a sort of “24″ One episode = One hour type progression, but we’ll have to wait and see.  Other than that…Canaan (titular character) has been the hardest trap for me whose gender is to discern, cause those boobs just look like pecks to me.

Takeuchi must REALLY like his Saber design. o_o

Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Do YOU believe in witches?

Been meaning to actually get into the Visual/Sound Novel series, but since reading takes time and effort (clicking the mouse is only fun the first few hundred times and auto-read never scrolls fast enough or slow enough), I haven’t so much as downloaded it; not having a computer doesn’t help either.  Still, the premise reminds is very much the same charm Higurashi had: 6 mysterious murders with more to follow, and a battle between a witch and a man who does not believe in witches.  What’s intriguing to me is the concept of the two (Battler and Beatrice) overseeing the events in a parallel dimension, almost like a game of Risk or the Millenium World Arc of…ahem, right.  Beatrice is being voiced by Ohara Sayaka, and since learning that, I can’t help but hear Beatrice speaking like Yuko from XXXholic, without the alcoholic tendencies.

So there you have it:  both series are murder mysteries if Canaan follows the murder that happens in 428.  Therefore, prepare for mass amounts of speculations and hypothesi.  Also, I plan on doing a few more video game posts here and there, so please look forward to those.  And to spice up the lack of K-ON we’ve had…

Unfortunately, I’m NOT going to be doing a review on this, but you gotta admit, it is pretty clever… ;_;

If you’re still butthurt disappointed it’s not real…maybe potential DLC for Rock Band: Japan?

-Jay

Tear casts Tales of equivalent of Cure, Luke recovers 1 HP.  Luke at Max HP!

WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY OVERDUE.

Take this! TRIPLE FINISH!

It’s super effecti-!

lrn2EVtrain, Thundering your Gyrados ass.

I’m glad that Van’s fight was a little longer than previous fights, but shouldn’t that have been the case anyway? If Van is the final boss, then yes I do expect a bunch of pretty lights and swordplay, especially from LUKE. Yeah, as it stands, Luke went through the entire series without using any sort of Arte. Hell, Natalia at least used one by the time Van went deaders, and as I said before during the first Van fight, it would’ve helped emphasize Van’s superiority over Luke in terms of swordplay if Van backhanded him everytime Luke used one; not that Van needed to demonstrate it anyhow…at least when he was shrugging off attacks like mosquitoe bites before Tear started to sing and “Oh dear, you’re singing is atrocious!” enough to cripple him worse than a Pokemon affected with every status defect facing it’s opposite element with one hit point left…and it has no PP left…and it’s Cynthia from D/P.

Wild VAN fainted.

…How the fuck does Luke stab him when the Key looks like a gigantic popsicle stick?

Yup, game ended EXACTLY like this.

The ending was abrupt, but this is unsurprising since the the game ends the same way. Obviously, the person at the end is Luke/Luke-dominant fusion of the two/something dumb like that. Would’ve been nice if they chose to add onto the ending, if anything to silence the Asch-believers. At least the ending illustrations are different…they don’t do anything really, but it’s different.

Closing

Overall, I enjoyed Abyss’ story. It’s unfortunate that any given episode has a sense of hastiness, as no matter the significance of an event, it will never be doted on for very long before moving on. I also wish that the anime would add on or elaborate on the ending, it’d help bring something new to the table and have another reason to watch it other than being an extremely loyal adaptation. Still, as a loyal adaptation, it does it’s job in condening an 80-hour or so RPG into about 8 hours. A bit of a hit or miss (especially if you don’t like Luke for the first 9 episodes…or the show for the first few episodes), I’m sure only Tales fans and/or those who’ve already played the game will appreciate it, and even then still prefer the games, but Abyss can stand on it’s own as a fantasy series…or at least coerce people to spend $30 bucks in order to gain a better understanding of this Planet Storm, Seventh Fonon/Fonim, Memory Particle nonsense. Then you can enjoy it more…I think…

The true villain of ToA.

Anise is evil in the game, I renounce any compliments I ever gave her (…I don’t remember giving one?)

-Jay (Next up, explanation for my leave of absence and how this will continue for a while…)

Luke’s sword always seems to grow longer than it’s sheath the minute it’s pulled out (hurr hurr).

Not one technique in this fight.  ;A;

As expected, the rest of the God Generals have died pretty quick deaths, thanks to Tear’s hax song that instantly “ZA WARUDO” effects all enemies (I’d complain more, but I herd she’s pretty broken in the game too), though I did find Sync’s attitude towards Anise and during the battle in general to be satisfying enough to excuse his particular death: he spends the entire time speaking down on the defunct Ion and guilt tripping Anise over his death (which also gives Anise a chance to announce her HEROIC RESOLVE, except without the part where she starts kicking ass). When he finally starts disintegrating, he merely laughs over how he’ll finally be released from the world, having absolutely no redeeming values whatsoever; all of the other God Generals had at least a semi-justifiable reason to fight (Largo’s loss of his family, Arietta’s love for Ion), but Sync leaves with emotions other than his hatred of those who created him. You could argue that he’s being a bit emo, but at least he’s still badass while bitching.

The non-explained past doesn’t work well with Legretta though, other than the fact that “I want my beloved to achieve his dream.” We know that the Generals were treated like shit before they came to Van (except for Asch, who was treated like shit before AND after meeting him), but it’d be nice to understand where Legretta’s POV stands. Oh well, she was a poor shot anyway, it must not be a very clear one (hyuk hyuk).

Asch is past the point of “pissed off” and seems to just be whining over how he thinks Luke sucks compared to him just because he’s a replica, yet considers him a threat enough to want to challenge him to a duel in order to back up his ideal/ego. It’s funny that in this way, he’s almost a bit like spoiled, pre-haircut Luke in that he seems to be fairly immature about the issue. On the other hand, the issue about the replication process fucking over his life seems to explain why he’s been so agitated, especially considering the fact that whoever dies first gives their remaining fonons to the other, which I assume may stop the other one’s decompisition. Regardless, he doesn’t accept his defeat very graciously, but at least does seem to at least reach the same level of understanding that the two are different and goes back to using the name “Luke” once more…RIGHT before he’s skewered by three swords (he pays that back, but damn. o.o).

Asch’s death marks the end of the God Generals, and now only Van stands in the group’s way…

Abyss is already over, so no preview thingy this time (I’m not so sure they were even as useful as when I did them for Clannad, either. o.o) Stay tuned next time for review of the finale!

Poor Natalia. 1st choice is dead, and 2nd choice is going to choose someone else.

 -Jay