Real Phantasm Adeleide

It's funny how a holiday brings both relief (in that you can break your routine and do whatever you want to do), and headaches (in that your schedule can get completely thrown off while you're doing whatever you wanted to do).

Since I had Memorial Day off from work, I spent it sleeping in, catching up with some cartoons I've been following, eating barbecue, and most importantly, watching a movie I really enjoy. Namely, 1997's Men in Black. The third film in the series was released during the weekend leading up to the holiday, but considering that I extremely disliked the second (as did a lot of people, apparently), I couldn't find myself particularly pumped up to go and see the third. However, the release did plant the idea to go back and watch the first again on my day off, so I guess that's something.

For this week's swag, I have three items that I've been looking forward to obtaining for quite awhile. A Figma of "White Moon Princess Phantasmoon", the comical, tongue-in-cheek magical girl alter ego of my favorite character in anything ever, Tsukihime's main heroine, Arcueid Brunestud (AKA Arc); an HG 1/144 scale kit of the mass production robot RGE-G1100 Adele from Gundam AGE; and a Real Grade (RG) RX-178 Gundam Mk-II (AEUG-type) from Zeta Gundam.



Figma and HG kits are nothing new to me, but RG is the most recent creation of the boys at maker Bandai's think tank. It effectively takes Master Grade (MG), the most long-standing "premium" class of Gundam plastic model kits (Gunpla), which only exists at the 1/100 scale (and is thus a fair bit more expensive than the norm), and shrinks them down to the 1/144 scale of the vast majority of their other kits, allowing them to be posed and placed in dioramas alongside their HG and FG (First Grade) brethren. It also means that semi-cheapskates such as myself can get all the detail and posability of MG without having to shell out upwards of $60. Since RG is a relatively new line, the selection of robots available is very small, and I was waiting for just the right one to get started with. Although the original RX-78-2 Gundam (which I also like) is available, it was the Mk-II that finally got me to plonk down the funds to purchase. As you can probably tell, I'm very much looking forward to putting it together, though I'm going to place it at the bottom of my model to-do list for the time being, so I can relish the moment I take those parts out of the box after I've finished putting together the other three kits I have waiting to be built.

Until next time, a Marble Phantasm... Right to your heart!

Sadly, a Figma of Arc in her normal attire doesn't exist at the moment. I'm hoping they sell enough of Phantasmoon to justify doing it...

Lunar Fantasy 0 Arc

April (and most of May up to this point) were busy as all hell for me. Between work, exercise, my studies, and trying to squeeze in time for gaming, I just plain haven't had it in me to write up any posts. Oh well...

I finished playing through Climax U.C., which I mentioned in an earlier post. It wound up being every bit as much fun as I'd heard, despite the fact that CPU-controlled characters cheat very, VERY blatantly. Somehow, I managed to unlock everything in the game 100%, something I'm not particularly known for doing. I guess that's the best testament I can give as to how much I really got into playing it (or how easy it is to do so, either way).

Aside from that, I've also been pretty wrapped up in playing The King of Fighters XIII. Although I'm not all that great at versus fighting games, they've been something I've enjoyed ever since I was little and they first got really popular. This particular entry in SNK's long-running series took me a little aback at first, as practically every character on the roster had had significant parts of their movelists cut or changed since XI, the last entry I had played (I skipped XII due to various accounts both from strangers and people I knew that it was a rushed project with very few redeeming qualities). Still, I've played and gotten used to (for the most part) a lot of the changes, and found myself having great fun (despite my inability to even score a single win against any of my friends online. The chagrin of it all...)

A few weeks ago, I went to an electronics store with a friend (he was looking for a new keyboard), when I noticed that they also sold games at heavy discounts. My curiosity piqued, I went to see what they had, and found three titles of interest, all for the PSP, and all under $30 - my kind of pricing. Remakes of the very first Final Fantasy game (which I played both on a friend's NES back in my teens, and again on the Game Boy Advance some time later) and Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (itself a Remake of Lunar: Silver Star Story, neither of which I had a chance to play before now) were what I picked out, along with a game I'd never heard of, named for and based upon the legendary Jeanne D'arc. I scoped it out based both upon the fact that I love historical fiction, no matter how wildly it may deviate from reality (because it's more fun that way), and because it happens to be a tactical role playing game, one of my favorite genres.

Also pictured is my 1/144-scale HG 0 Gundam (Actual Combat Deployment-type), which I bought about a month ago, but hadn't gotten around to building until two days ago. As a fan of the original Gundam's design, I was very much interested in a kit of this machine which was designed in its likeness as an homage. It's a very basic kit with sparse accessories compared to many of its contemporaries, but I enjoyed building it all the same. My only major gripes with it are that the ball joints used on the neck section are very, very loose, to the point where using clear nail polish (a known solution for this kind of problem) only made them slightly less fiddly; as well as the fact that while there are foil stickers included to decorate the eye area (my less than stellar fine motor control means that I have a very hard time with precise painting) as per the norm, there weren't any included for the two cameras on the head (one just above the red and white head crest, and the other on the back of the same section). I was more than a little surprised, as usually those kinds of things are always provided for. Maybe it was just an oversight that slipped by production until it was too late...

Anyway, that's enough rambling out of me for one night. Until next time.

Magical Miko Hands

This week has been pretty tiring thus far, due to various things at work. Hopefully it'll slow down over the next two days so I'm not too exhausted when the weekend comes.

I finished Capcom's Irregular Hunter X (AKA Mega Man Maverick Hunter X) recently. The game was a very huge enjoyment for me and brought back a ton of nostalgia from when I played the original Rockman X as a child (when I couldn't get very far in it) and again as a teenager (when I finally managed to clear it, along with its various sequels). Despite being a remake, the dev team decided to throw the old pros a few loops here and there, mostly by changing the locations of certain power ups. I was surprised, but I rolled with the punches, and now I'm quite glad that they took the trouble to do something like that without making thinks too much harder. I also greatly enjoyed the Vava (Vile) Mode, in which the player assumes the role of a recurring boss with a unique array of weapons and feel a bit sad that nobody ever decided to take that mode's gameplay and design a whole game around it. I'm certain it'd be a blast to play.















It's been awhile since I talked about toys, hasn't it? Partly because I haven't been writing posts much lately, and partly because I haven't really been buying toys all that often. Here we have some stuff I bought with a bit of my tax return check for this year:

• Tomoe Mami is my favorite character from last year's Magical Girl Madoka Magica, here rendered as a figure in Maxfactory's always superb Figma line.
• Hakurei Reimu is the main character of the Touhou Project games, and the playable character I use most when (feebly attempting to) play said games. This figure of her comes from Liquid Stone, and is part of their Mameshiki line, which as far as I know, consists only of Touhou Project characters rendered in adorable super deformed glory.
• The last item is a set of specially made high-detail hand parts for my 1/144-scale "remastered" Buster Gundam plastic model kit. As my favorite of the five Gundam units from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, I couldn't pass up the chance to give my kit just a little bit more detail, even if I'm not confident enough to go around painting it like other modelers do.

Knightly Record 2012

After poking around in the game a bunch, I finally finished The White Knight's Tale: Awakening of Light and Dark (AKA White Knight Chronicles II). All told, it's very easy to see that the game was built from the dried-out husk of an MMO and repurposed as a single-player Role-Playing Game (with multiplayer online missions). The story was kind of bland and forgettable, though it did have some well-executed twists that I enjoyed. All told, I feel the game's true strengths lie in its gameplay, character customization, and free quests. I'll probably get play around in the postgame for a week or two before moving on to Climax U.C. (Which I've played a bit of and enjoyed despite the lock-on system being a bit wonky at times).

I've had a couple of plastic model kits lying around unbuilt, and this past weekend I finally got around to building one while watching Yuu Yuu Hakusho with a friend (A Super Deformed version of my favorite Gundam, the Force Impulse, pictured below with my High-Grade Nobel Gundam).














Yep. Another Gundam game. This time around, it's Mobile Suit Gundam: Battlefield Record 0081, which I've been wanting to play ever since it was announced, but only now have had the financial stability to be able to afford importing. This one features some customization of the player's Mobile Suits, up to and including being able to change some of the weaponry they carry. I'm looking forward to playing through both the Federation "Phantom Sweep" and Zeon "Invisible Knights" storylines, though I'll of course be starting with the former when I actually get around to playing.

Fantastic Phantom Climax

I finished Fantastic Children last night and the "Another Marrone" scenario of Phantom Brave Portable earlier today. The former was a pretty good show. Nothing too spectacular and filled with a few too many flashbacks for my liking (flashbacking can be a useful tool in telling a story, but sometimes you've just gotta lay off and show something right from the beginning). Though I do have to admit that I found it satisfying that the reincarnation of the lead girl's love interest didn't turn out to be the lead guy, or even anybody featured as a major character in the series at all. It felt like a nice change of pace from the norm without trying too hard to be different for the sake of being different.

As for the latter, I enjoyed Phantom Brave tremendously. While I do tend to get attached to characters in stories that I'm watching, reading, playing out, etc. a little more easily than others, this game in particular had a cast of characters that I grew particularly fond of. The principal lead Marrone (Marona in the English version) is simply such so much of a kind, thoughtful, endearing little girl that I think it'd be hard for most people to not grow attached to her and want to see her succeed. This goes double for the bonus scenario's eponymous alternate dimension version of the character, who has been thoroughly broken emotionally, and yet under it all, you can still catch glimmers of the wonderful person at her core. The endings for both the normal game and the extra scenario had me emotionally invested enough to shed a tear or two of joy.

And now, on to today's swag.














Various Gundam video games, especially ones for the PS2, tend to be not so great. This title, Mobile Suit Gundam: Climax U.C., is one I've heard many fans speak highly of, and so I decided to procure a copy for myself to check it out. I'm particularly looking forward to playing the game's "Progressive Mode", in which the player takes control of a succession of somewhat customizable characters taking part in battles throughout the Universal Century timeline. Of course, I'll be doing my first run aligning with the Earth Federation and AEUG factions.

FUKKATSU

So yeah, I pretty much abandoned this blog for awhile, mostly because I found myself writing waaaaaaaaaay the fudge too much and it took an hour minimum for each post. Gonna try not to do that anymore.

And now for something that will probably make up the bulk of my posts for the foreseeable future, the swag report.

So while watching Eureka Seven a few months ago, I was checking out the trailers, and was intrigued by this show called Flag. Just got the boxset in today:

Surprisingly, the second volume is apparently the only one that is difficult to find, as very few of my usual go-to places (Amazon, Rightstuf, etc.) had it, while they did have the other three. Luckily I found the whole set on ebay for a decent price. Looking forward to watching it.

Magic Radio: SRW Original Generation Sidestory

I get a lot of requests for MP3 download links to the music that I post to my Youtube account. Generally speaking, the stuff I upload there is strictly video game BGMs taken from imported soundtrack CDs that I've bought, then processed through Audacity to improve the volume and add an extra track loop or two, since I like having this stuff last long enough for me to enjoy it, and the tracks on the CDs will usually only include 1-2 loops in order to save disc space.

Anyway, I've decided to give in and upload an archived version of a game soundtrack, and provide it for those to wish to hear it. I'll probably continue to do this in the future, but I'll only provide a download link after I've finished uploading all the tracks to my aforementioned Youtube account (that way, people have incentive to tune in, after all). In addition, should I ever receive a cease and/or desist order from the government or the fine folks who make this music, or whatnot, I will comply without hesitation.

That said, here's the first of many EST (Extended Sound Track)s that I'll leave up here for the public, the music from the PS2 game Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation Gaiden.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=W7PNKP7K

Since OG Gaiden reuses almost all of the soundtrack from its predecessor, Original Generations, there's only 15 tracks here. Naturally, the OGs EST will come at a later date.

- Azure out.

Of Devils and Angels

I've been playing Megami Ibunroku: Devil Survivor (Another Story of the Goddess: Devil Survivor) for the last month, and while the game itself is really fun, the bosses are punishingly difficult. This is largely because of the fact that they're at levels that are a lot higher than what you'd be able to achieve because of the low EXP yield of the only enemies you're allowed to fight instead of engaging them on the spot. Basically, instead of grinding until you're powerful enough to win, you're supposed to come up with a strategy to help your weaker characters prevail.

There are several ending paths to take, all of which are determined by your interactions with the characters in the game. Things like responses to questions and being around to witness certain events factor heavily in. In the end, I was given a choice between helping the possessed girl Amane establish absolute law under God; or taking the advice of Yuzu, who acts as a real person would in the game's demon-infested, locked-down and completely forsaken city and try to run the hell away. From what I've heard, doing the latter nets you an extremely depressing ending, which I'd rather not go for on my first playthrough, so I went for the former.

I'm a little disappointed that I'm not getting the chance to help the depressed musician Haru banish the demons from the city, since she's the character I sympathize most with, but oh well.
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Back during Christmas week, Aroduc (who has some very interesting views on anime) released an English-language patch for Galaxy Angel, a combination romance-sim/strategy game that's piqued my interest since I'd been enjoying the antics of the core cast of five's (largely exaggerated) animated selves. Yesterday, a good friend surprised me by hooking-me up with both the game and the English patch, and I've been playing for the better part of today.

The graphics (especially during the 3-D strategy battle sequences) aren't the best (especially for a game released in 2002), but they suffice. The real star, so to speak, is the wonderful characterization. Each of the five heroines has her own distinct personality, and they're all very endearing (my personal favorite, by the way, is the clever, rabbit-eared telepath Mint). Unlike Devil Survivor, it's not a very difficult game, instead being great for relaxing with due to how fun the interactions with the characters are.
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In other ramblings, the Borders bookstore in a not-so-local mall that I frequent due to the fact that other, unique shops that I like are in the same place is closing up shop soon, which means a going-out-of-business sale. While that's not exactly a good thing, me being able to get half-off on manga certainly is. I managed to pick up around $140 worth of such comics, including the first collection of Ishinomori Shotarou's Cyborg 009, as well as volumes of Lucky Star, Yotsuba&!, D.Gray-man, Fate/stay-night, Rosario + Vampire, and Pandora Hearts. Sufficed to say, I won't have any shortage of reading material for the next month.

- Azure out.

Anime 2009: Best & Worst

So, we're a few days into the new year, and it's time to look back and have ourselves a retrospective. Since I am (as previously mentioned) an anime nerd, my retrospective will be on the Japanese animated shows, direct-to-video specials, and movies that caught my eye in one way or another.

Note: I won't be going into too much detail on the entirety of each series, for full details, go look up the titles on Wikipedia or Anime News Network.

Let's-a-go!
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BEST OF 2009:

• Best Action Series: Canaan
• Best Comedy Series: Nyan Koi!
• Best Drama Series: White Album
• Best Film or OVA: Kara no Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners (Film 7)
• Best Soundtrack: Casshern: Sins
• Best Story: Casshern: Sins
• Best Opening Theme Song: "Alternative", Asura Cryin' OP 2
• Best Opening Sequence: "Shugoshin ~The Guardian~", Shin Mazinger Shougeki!: Z-Hen OP 2
• Best Ending Theme Song: "Prototype", Mobile Suit Gundam 00 ED 3
• Best Ending Sequence: "Don't Say 'Lazy'", K-On! ED
• Best Main Character: Kouji Kabuto, Shin Mazinger Shougeki!: Z-Hen
• Best Secondary Character: Lockon Stratos (Lyle Dylandy), Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (Second half)
• Best Love Interest: Holo, Spice and Wolf II
• Best Potential Love Interest: Ami Kawashima, ToraDora!
• Best Villain: Alphard, Canaan
• Best Character Development: Cecily Cambell, Seiken no Blacksmith
• Best Minor Character: Unnamed taxi driver (AKA "TAXIMAN!"), Canaan
• Most Moe Girl: Azaka Kokutou, Kara No Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners (Films 6-7)
• Badass of the Year: Adam Blade, Needless
• Seiyuu of the Year: Haruka Tomatsu (Misao Minakami in Asura Cryin', Yunyun in Canaan, Kisaragi Yamaguchi in GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class, Mileina Vashti in Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Kotone and Akari Kirishima in Nyan Koi!, Mana Mizuki in White Album, Yumiko Christina Ichinose in Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou, Rouge in Basquash!)
• Coolest Giant Robot: Mazinger Z, Shin Mazinger Shougeki!: Z-Hen
• Coolest Weapon: Kitchen flatware as utilized by Sebastian, Kuroshitsuji
• Coolest Special Attack/Superpower: Saten's Daiyon Hadou, Needless
• Coolest Upgrade: God Scrander/Big Bang Rocket Punch, Shin Mazinger Shougeki!: Z-Hen
• Most Awesome Moment: Hyakuretsu Rocket Punch, Shin Mazinger Shougeki!: Z-Hen
• Funniest Moment: The reveal of Nagi Ichinose's gender, Nyan Koi!
• Sweetest Moment: Mikiya's release from the hospital and subsequent reunion with Shiki, Kara no Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners (Film 7)
• Best Show I Didn't Watch: Bakemonogatari
• Best Show You Didn't Watch: Pandora Hearts
• Best Running Gag: Inko-chan the ugly bird, ToraDora!
• Best Original Concept: Giant robots playing basketball, Basquash!
• Best Reference: Making fun of Dragon Ball: Evolution, Seitokai no Ichizon

WORST OF 2009:

• Worst Action Series: Queen's Blade
• Worst Comedy Series: Kampfer
• Worst Drama Series: Aoi Hana
• Most Overrated Series: Mobile Suit Gundam 00
• Biggest Letdown: Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (Honorable Mention to Slayers Revolution/Evolution-R)
• Least Interesting Lead: Layfon Alseif, Koukaku no Regios
• Lamest Villain: Kaede Sakura, Kampfer
• Biggest Godmoder: Setsuna F. Seiei, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 / Layfon Alseif, Koukaku no Regios (tie)
• Most Annoying Character: Pokota, Slayers Revolution/Evolution-R
• "Isn't it Sad?" Award For Underdeveloped and Underutilized Characters: Allelujah Haptism, Mobile Suit Gundam 00
• Most Pointless Death: Nena Trinity, Mobile Suit Gundam 00
• Idiot of the Year: Whoever on the staff of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu that thought "Endless Eight" was a good idea
• Coolest Concept That Didn't Quite Work: Combat Librarians, Tatakau Shishou: The Book of Bantorra
• Lamest Giant Robot: Ahead, Mobile Suit Gundam 00
• Lamest Weapon: Super-Special Awesome Katana (not official name), Koukaku no Regios
• Lamest Special Attack/Superpower: Kandatta String, Needless
• Lamest Upgrade: 00-Raiser/"True Innovator", Mobile Suit Gundam 00

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And there you have it, my best and worst in anime of 2009. In case you're the kind of person who likes to flame people for their opinions online, be forewarned that I. DO. NOT. CARE.

- Azure out.

New Year, New Attempt

Yeah, I've been pretty terrible about blogging as of late, but it's more for the fact that last fall was insanely busy than the fact that I'm lazy (although I certainly am).

Planned things to blog about this year:

* Anime 2009: Best & Worst - Exactly what it sounds like. My thoughts on last year's anime.
* Adventures in Language-Learning - My new year's resolution? Learn a new language!
* Game Chat - Rants about video games.
* Anime 2010 - Rants about anime airing this season.
* Things That Cheese Me Off - Angry ranting!

That's all I've got for the moment, but it's a start. See you later in the day for that best & worst list.

- Azure out

Anime: Fall '09 Season

Ugh, too much crap to deal with recently.

Anyway, I'm an anime nut, which means that of course I'm checking out the current season of new shows as they air over in good old Japan. That said, I'm going to post my thoughts on a few of the shows I've watched thus far.


Kampfer (Warrior)

First episode rating: 3/5

Synopsys: Girly-voiced ordinary high school boy is given a magic bracelet by a disemboweled tiger plushie and told that he has to fight against others with similar bracelets. The catch is that all fighters in this game, as a rule, must be female; so when it's time to fight, the magic bracelet turns him into a drop-dead gorgeous female version of himself who has the ability to shoot fireballs. Partnered with an adorably shy bookworm whose bracelet turns her into a gun-toting, foul-mouthed spitfire, our hero must not only figure out how to win against a mysterious, chain-wielding opponent, but also how to deal with going to the bathroom in female form and finding out that the girl he's been crushing on has the hots for his female half.

Opinion: It's very rare for me to find a series which uses Gender Bending as a central premise that I actually kind of like (See Ranma 1/2 for an example of one that does it right). However, the idea is played with somewhat skillfully here, despite the sorta forced reveal that resident cutie Kaede (enthusiastically played by Megumi Nakajima of Macross Frontier fame) has a lesbian crush on the well-endowed female form of cookie-cutter wussboy Natsuru (played in both male and female forms by Marina Inoue of Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann). Aside from the eyecatches and the ending sequence, Natsuru's female form is not particularly played for pure fanservice, as it might be in just about any other production. For example, the scene where s/he tries to figure out how to use the little girls' room is amusing if only because it's presented as a short gag and not too much time is wasted on it.

This episode was largely made up of exposition, with the mousy librarian Akane explaining what she knows about the combat system after accidentally attacking Natsuru while she (Akane) was in her much more violent battle mode. There were a few gags thrown around to fill time (such as in-character jokes about how Akane and her talking eviscerated black rabbit plushie sound a lot like their respective CVs, Yui Horie and Yukari Tamura), and the episode was capped off with Natsuru and Akane being attacked by a mysterious assailant wielding a chain tipped with a blade. Hopefully the next episode will focus a bit more on the action and a bit less on comedy, although I'm not getting my hopes up too much.


To Aru Kagaku no Railgun (A Certain Scientific Railgun)

First episode rating: 5/5

Synopsis: Located somewhere in Japan, Academy City is a technological metropolis boasting science that is 20-30 years ahead of the rest of the world. This science has in turn lead to the discovery of psychic powers in human beings, and a good 80% of the city's population is made up of students who are working to develop their abilities. The third most powerful esper in the entire city is Mikoto Misaka, whose ability to create and manipulate electricity allows her to accelerate objects and launch them with violent force, hence earning her the nickname "Railgun". Despite her high level of power, Mikoto herself is an ordinary tomboyish girl who likes hanging out at arcades, eating sweets, and collecting frog goods. But she also has a strong sense of justice that drives her to get involved in incidents ranging from beating up on guys trying to coerce unwilling girls into going out with them, to espers using their powers to rob banks.

Opinion: First things first. Railgun is a spinoff, detailing the adventures of the ensemble darkhorse from last year's To Aru Majutsu no Index (A Certain Magical Index), and because of that, it would have been easy to have characters and concepts dropped in with little explaination and just move along riding the popularity of its originator, as many spinoffs are wont to do. However, one of the things making Railgun an excellent watch is that there is little to no knowledge of Index required to enjoy it thus far. The exposition is delivered at a slow pace (unlike Index's, which tended to consume the vast majority of any given episode), and terminology and backstories are given out in just enough detail to make it accessable to those who had never seen Index, while still keeping it short enough to allow for the majority of the episode to focus on showing the relationships between Mikoto and her friends who will be making up the core cast. The grand finale pits Mikoto and her associate Kuroko Shirai (who has teleportation powers and harbors an exaggerated lesbian crush on Mikoto) against a group of bank robbers, and is capped off by Mikoto using her trademark Railgun ability to shoot a coin at an oncoming car, thus striking it with enough force to actually flip it over.

JCStaff, the studio behind both Index and Railgun, has been catching a lot of flak lately for shows like Shakugan no Shana, which fizzled out in its second season, and Zero no Tsukaima, whose later seasons have been showing a marked decline in quality. However, if the first episode of Railgun is any indicator, there may still be a spark of life left in them. Here's hoping the rest of the show is just as good.


Nyankoi! (Mewlove!)

First episode rating: 4/5

Synopsis: The Kousaka family is made up of a mother and daughter, who both love cats, Nyamsas, the family pet and a large, mean-looking female black cat, and the eldest child, only son Junpei, who ironically is completely allergic to cats and must keept them at a distance of 1.5 meters. Because of his allergy, Junpei hates cats. This unfortunately causes a major problem in his life as one day, he accidentally beheads a statue of a cat whose spirit supposedly protects his town; and is promptly cursed with the ability to understand what cats are saying and vice-versa. Unless Junpei can perform one hundred good deeds for cats, he'll become one and quite possibly die of his allergies. His first task is to help out a trio of felines who are the victims of excessive cuddling at the hands of Kaede Mizuno, a bubbly girl who doesn't understand that her overly affectionate manner is causing them psychological stress. Unfortunately, Junpei happens to have a major crush on Kaede, as they are classmates. Whether or not Junpei successfully completes his deeds may just be up to Nyamsas, who has no qualms about playing dirty to get what she wants.

Opinion: What we have here is a somewhat typical love comedy peppered with some novel ideas. Most people (especially in Japan) like cats, but having a protagonist who is allergic to them and yet is the only one who can understand them is an amusing little paradox. The show is obviously opting to go more the comedic route than the romantic, which is fine by me since there are so few shows that do so these days. Nothing has been hysterically funny thus far (although Kaede's reveal that she loves yakuza stories because of how manly the characters are comes pretty damned close in my book), but it's a decent production and shows real promise. Unless it succumbs to the usual lovcom sins of fanservice and unnecessary drama, it should be an enjoyable watch.


White Album

Synopsis: The year is 1986. Aspiring idol singer Yuki Morikawa, having just taken a major step towards stardom by selling out a concert on a hotly contested Christmas Eve, looks to be on the fast track to happiness... Or at least, she would be if not for the fact that her boyfriend Touya has become alienated by Yuki's inability to find time for him. Touya, who aside from dealing with his frustration with Yuki, also has to deal with his father (whom he had a falling out with) having suffered a heart attack, as well as being caught in a web of attraction between himself, Yuki, Yuki's friend and fellow idol Rina, and Yuki's manager Yayoi.

Opinion: Strange as it may sound, airing a single two-season show over the course of three or four seasons by stopping broadcast for one or two seasons seems to be becoming a big fad in Japan for some reason, and White Album is simply the latest victim of this effect. The first thirteen episodes aired last fall, and the new season starts up right where the previous one left off, with no character reintroduction or flashbacks at all, contrary to one would expect.

That aside, White Album is crushingly real. The characters (Touya in particular) make foolish decisions and endanger their relationships with each other just like people in real life. Seeing Touya act like a complete jerk to his ailing father simply because the latter had told a visiting Yuki to return to her schedule and not wait for Touya's arrival makes him look the villain, despite ostensibly being the "hero" of this story. However, there are very few people in reality who could accept the fact that Yuki didn't have time to be hanging around, and that makes him (slightly) sympathetic. A later decision Touya makes at the end of the episode concerning Yayoi, who has been repeatedly attempting to have Touya use her as a "physical replacement" for Yuki, further villifies him despite the fact that many real people would do the same thing.

What ultimately makes White Album an interesting watch is that it has the drama of a soap opera, without the cliched and overdone plot devices that soap operas rely on.

Of course, what would a show about idol singers be without good music? Aya Hirano (who voices Yuki) and Nana Mizuki (Rina's voice) put their musical talents to good use by performing insert songs (and in Mizuki's case, the opening theme).

The Sacred Blacksmith

First episode rating: 3/5 (average)

Synopsis: Ever since the death of her father, Cecily Campbell has been bound and determined to succeed him as a knight in defense of her home, a trading city independant from surrounding kingdoms and empires. However, Cecily herself is inept and undertrained, and when faced with a crazed war veteran, is promptly knocked on her back, her sword and family heirloom broken. Cecily is saved by Luke, a mysterious young man wielding a sword of unusual design, which allows him to cut through the veteran's sword and defeat him. Cecily seeks Luke out to ask about his sword and who forged it, but Luke is unconcerned with others and refuses her questions. However, when they come under attack by monsters and Luke's "katana" is broken, he and his young elven companion Lisa reveal the sword's secret, that they are able to forge weapons in a short span of time through an unusual magic ritual.

Opinion: The "average" rating I've given this one is reflective of my feelings on two seperate aspects of the show. The first fifteen minutes are purely generic and uninteresting european fantasy coupled with a pitiful female lead who tries to act bold with her proclaimations of being a knight and upholding her family's honor, but who is such a poor fighter that she has to be saved by Luke not once, not twice, but thrice within that span. If I had to rate just that stuff, I'd probably (generously) award it a "2".

However, the last five minutes completely turn things around with a wonderfully well done action sequence, including Cecily finally showing that she just might have what it takes to become a proper swordswoman, and the unveiling of Luke and Lisa's magic smithy, which allows Luke to create a sword on the fly simply by placing in materials and speaking aloud the steps that would be used to create a weapon of real quality (nothing like the "pour-in-the-mold-and-cool" work that today's replica swordmakers use which ultimately yields brittle display pieces). This sequence is done with such love and attention to detail, that I'd probably give it a complete "5" if the entire show were as good.

So this leaves me with mixed thoughts because the show could go to either extreme, balance itself out somewhere in a mediocre middle (not that mediocrity is entirely a bad thing), or go someplace else entirely. It's really hard to say whether or not this one will be worth sitting through the whole way through, though I'd say that a lot of it depends on whether or not our heroine continues her pitiful losing streak or not. It's not a completely bad thing for a woman to be weak and protected, but when you're supposed to be a freaking knight, you'd expect a little more capability.

As a side note, a couple of minor gripes for me on this one are the katanas > western swords trend that Luke seems to embody, and Cecily's decidedly useless wardrobe, made up of a literal breastplate (there are a multitude of reasons why armor shaped to resemble boobs is just not a good idea), a frilly headband, a miniskirt, and kneesocks. It's not all that bad (especially compared to the near-nonexistant armor in Queen's Blade, which I won't even touch with a fifteen foot pole), but for a show that gives such careful detail to blacksmithing, it just seems kind of off...


The above series are the ones I've seen that I will most likely watch all the way to the end and return here to complain about/sing praises of once they've run their courses. Tune in next week for more.

- Azure out.

Games - PS3, GET!

I'll be honest here. I am an extremely late comer into the seventh generation of video game consoles, primarily because of the fact that the only system in my price range was the $200 Nintendo Wii. No offense to the Wii, which is a neat little console that does a lot with very little, or Nintendo, whose consoles I grew up on and who continually have the best damned customer service around; but the Wii's lineup of games was not particularly what I was looking for (Though I may consider getting one later on down the road, much as I did with the Gamecube last generation).

That said, when I heard about Sony's Playstation 3 - which to me, represented an untouchable black colossus - was getting a smaller iteration of itself coupled with an astounding price drop to $299 (around half the asking price for the original's 120 GB incarnation), I was ecstatic (The other console I was considering was the Xbox 360, whose 120 GB Elite model is also getting a price drop. However, fear of being hit with the dreaded Red Ring of Death loomed over me, thus influencing my decision; along with the fact that most PS3 games are not region-locked, which is always gold for an import gamer such as myself).

So, now I have a PS3, along with a rather cheap copy of a little giant robot boomfest known as Armored Core 4 Answer (cute naming there, From Software...), and the system is currently installing the latest firmware. Although I still have a rather sizable backlog of PS2 games that I still need to run through (I'll probably wind up rationing my free time between the two systems), I'm looking forward to being able to enjoy all kinds of awesome new games, the first bunch of which I'm considering are Blazblue, Tekken 6, Gundam Musou and its sequel, and Disgaea 3. I'm also looking forward to games yet to be released like Samurai-dou 3, and WWE: Smackdown VS. Raw 2010.

- Azure out.

Wrestle Angels - Long-Ass Wrapup

So, what happens after you've finished playing card games and watching girls pound the snot out of each other as a direct result? Well, that depends on your results. For the first three chapters, while you're competing in team matches, losing best two of three results in you being shown a graphic of the last member of your team who got to fight being humiliated by being forced to expose herself to the crowd.

Poor Toshimi...

After this, you're shown a screen listing all five members of your team and their current stats. Here, you're given two experience points, which you can then spend levelling up stats exactly twice (Example: levelling up Toshimi's default level 6 in joint moves to level 8). The maximum level for any stat is 10, represented by the letter "A" due to space restrictions. After levelling up, you're shown another exchange of dialogue against the boss you failed to defeat and sent back to the roster menu to try again.

Should you win, then you're shown a graphic of the enemy team's captain being humilated (whether or not you actually fought her in the tiebreaker), and then taken to a screen which allows you to copy a move from the enemy captain and give it to one of your members for use. The number next to a move's name is the level in its stat category required to learn it (In the picture example, Yukiko's "3" rating in Power will only allow her to learn a body slam from Beauty's extensive power repitoire, but since she already knows it, it's a moot point). Then you're shown the EXP screen, only now you're allocated five experience points to use on your girls. Once you're done, you're sent off to the next challenge.

The third match of the first three chapters is against the local champion, Panther Risako in Japan, mysterious masked luchadora Em Sande in Mexico, and hard-hat wearing powerhouse (and Reggie Bennet expy) Remy Dadarne in America. Defeating their teams simply earns you the five experience points. In order to gain access to copy their moves and view their humiliation CGs, you must send a single member of your squad to face them in a title bout. Losing a title bout gives you a single experience point and sends you back to the roster screen to try again. Winning gets the above mentioned rewards, and yields two experience points as well as allowing you to move on to the next chapter.

On the subject of the roster screen, there's a reason you're asked to select five girls to form a squad instead of just three. See, damage sustained in one match carries over to the next, so it's not a good idea to simply send the same three girls in repeatedly, lest you start racking up losses, which can be kind of embarassing when you're shown the win/loss record after clearing the game. HP lost in one match are partially restored for the next, but allowing a girl to sit a match out will restore them completely. This places a great importance on building up your entire team as well as knowing the makeup of the CPUs, so that you can play the enemy's weaknesses to your advantage (No CPU-controlled character will ever have more than a single stat at max).

However, after the third chapter, everything changes. At the end of the third chapter, Beauty reveals to your team that while they were out touring Mexico and the US, she captured the world championship from Risako, and in order to flaunt her superiority is organizing a tag-team tournament. This tournament takes up the entirety of the fourth chapter, and you're only allowed to select two fighters to participate for its entirety. The fourth of the four buttons at the bottom of the combat screen (Data, Situation, (Pin)Fall, and our subject, the humorously misspelled "Tuoch" ("Touch", in other words tagging in/out) finally comes into play, as enabling it before initiating an attack allows you to switch characters should that attack be successful. It's an interesting feature, but one that isn't very important here as you'll usually have at least one character leveled up enough to take on two CPU opponents all by herself (the feature gets refined in the later sequels).

During the fourth and fifth/final chapters, each match itself is treated as a title bout, with humiliation CGs and all (actually, it's the only way to see the CGs of the lesser non-Japanese girls). The final chapter is, instead of an elimiation-style tournament, a round robin-style tournament in which each participant fights every other contestant, and the one with the highest number of wins takes home the gold. Winning the whole thing sends you off to the final title bout, and througout the entire chapter, you're only allowed to use one of your roster. This effectively means that the game layout was designed to get you used to the 3v3 system in the early chapters, ween you off of it in the fourth, and have you use your most upgraded fighter in the last.

Final Thoughts:

At the end of the day, the original Wrestle Angels is a fun little title to play. It has limited character buildup and only moderate replay value (You can finish the whole game in under three hours if you know what you're doing), which will either be spent trying to get a better win/loss record for the challenge gamers, or trying to see all of the humiliation CGs for those who like that sort of thing. However, what it does with what little resources it has to do them with is pretty damned impressive. The card game takes some getting used to, and easy to exploit once you start maxing out stats, but is very addictive once you get going.

The only thing that I find didn't need to be here was the humiliation CGs (and it would seem that fans at the time agreed as they were completely phased out of the series following the third installment), but then again, that's one of the things about Japanese 18+ games. It seems to be that the best ones are those where the gameplay or story is so good that the naughty stuff feels tacked on.

On the whole, WA1 is an interesting take on the fantasy sports genre, combining team management (something that would eventually become greatly expanded upon and would become the secondary purpose of the series, after watching cute girls beat each other up) with a combat system that rewards not just stat progression, but (some) critical thinking as well.

Hmm... How to end this long-ass rant that most people would only take a single post to write about... I know! Boobies! Everybody likes boobies, right?

Funny, it's almost like she wanted to show her "selves" off...

The luchadora tag team "Pink Pirates" give you the same CG no matter which of them you beat at the tournament.

The American wrestler Bunny Bomber, who was unceremoniously dropped after this game and didn't show up again until last year's Wrestle Angels Survivor 2.

- Azure out

Wrestle Angels - Gameplay

So, after picking out the five members of your team, you're shown a short exchange with the first boss character, Beauty Ichigaya, after which you're sent... straight back to the exact same menu screen as before, only now there are only five names on the list instead of eight. This is where you make your preparations for each coming bout, and it seems to be another memory/cost-cutting decision.

The way the game works for the first three chapters is simple enough. You select three members of your team to go out and face the three members of the opposing team. Each member faces a member of the opponent's team once, in the order they were selected. For example, if I select Toshimi, Bomber, and Yukiko to face opposing team members Hitomi, Riyu and Beauty; then Toshimi will face Hitomi and Bomber will fight Riyu. If either side wins both of those matches, then their team is declared the winner of the contest. If the score comes up 1-1, then Yukiko and Beauty will face each other in a tiebreaker.

The matches themselves are played out through the use of a simplistic card battle game. The blue corner is where the player's stats are displayed, and the red is used for the CPU. As for the stats themselves, they're read from top to bottom, left to right:

• Throw: Grappling moves (body slams and backdrops.)
• Joint: Submission moves that attack the joints.
• Power: Full-on attacks (shoulder blocks, powerbombs)
• Fly: Acrobatic techniques (flying kicks, top-rope maneuvers)
• Body: The character's main hit points. The lower these are, the easier it becomes for the opponent to successfully land harder-hitting moves and score pinfalls.
• Arm: The amount of stress the arm muscles can take.
• Leg: The amount of stress the leg muscles can take.

The fact that there's three sets of hit points might lull you into a false state of security, but the fact of the matter is that the Arm and Leg stats only count for submission moves and even at max will each only be able to take half as much punishment as the body. Submissions each attack one of the three HP stats, and if a single one is emptied by (or already depleted prior to) an opponent attacking that area with a submission, then the afflicted character will give up and lose the match.

When a match is started, both sides are given a hand of five random cards and the player cannot see the CPU's hand. A single new card is issued for each card used and there is an infinite supply - As long as your character can keep fighting, you'll recieve a new card after each exchange. Each card is marked with a character representing the four main Throw/Joint/Power/Fly stats and a number which shows how strong the move performed will be.

After selecting a card, a sub-menu pops up, asking you to select a move from the category represented by the character on the card face (Example, selecting a "Throw" card will give you options such as body slam, front suplex, and backdrop). Each character starts off knowing a number of different moves, and will usually have more moves for the categories where their default stats are highest. Moves that are lower down on the list are stronger, but are less likely to connect if the opponent's HP haven't been successfully whittled down a bit first.

When both card and move are chosen, they're brought up to the center of the screen to compare against the opponent's and see who will attack successfully that turn. The general jist of the calculation involved in deciding this is that whichever character has higher stats will win the exchange and get to attack. Using the image above as an example, if Yukiko and Beauty were to both play Fly-type cards, Yukiko would most likely win the exchange since her Fly stat is much higher. If both were to play Throw-type cards, then whichever side has the higher-number card would win. In the unlikely event that both players play the same type of card while having equal scores in the represented stat, then it would come down to HP and the power factor of the move. If all factors are equal, the CPU will generally concede you the exchange and let you attack.

Aside from the four main cards, there are also defensive cards (colored black with white lettering) and rare special cards (red with gold lettering). Defensive cards are designed to be used if your character has an otherwise unusable hand for her stat build and allow her to execute a known defensive action. Most characters have access to an illegal maneuver for defense (Use of a steel chair inside the ring and slamming the opponent into the turnbuckle outside), as well as a general-purpose guard; however, the more acrobatic characters will have access to special defensive holds such a small package or rolling cradle pin. Defensive cards work by matching up against the opponent's card and checking the user's stat for the opponent's action and matching it against theirs, although a high enough numbered defense card can still override an opponent whose card-stat match is higher.

As mentioned above, the special cards appear rarely (although they can show up at the start of a bout, something which seems to happen to the computer more often than the player...) and grant the use of one of two special actions. A taunt, which will allow the character to automatically cancel out the opponent's next move, or the character's finisher, which does high damage and always has the greatest priority over all other card-types. Special cards are always ranked higher than any other card, and if both the player and CPU put them forward, the player will win the exchange.

The last feature of the battle system is the cyan colored border surrounding each character's portrait, which serves to monitor the physical condition of each fighter. In its default state, the fighter is alright and will slowly recover lost HP for each of the three bars every turn they are not hit with an attack to that body section. However, some moves have a chance of hitting hard enough that they cause the opponent to bleed. When this happens, the cyan condition border turns red, and the fighter will no longer be able to recover their HP each turn. A fighter in this condition has a significantly harder chance of coming out on top.

Well, that's enough about that. Tomorrow: Match aftermath and stage flow (also boobs for those who like that sort of thing).
- Azure out.

Wrestle Angels - Characters

Upon starting up a new game, you'll be asked to pick five out of selectable eight characters to form a team and chase after various championships. The selectable girls are:

Mighty Yukiko: The main character. Even if you don't select her for your team, she'll be the one appearing in all the cutscenes (probably due to the amount of memory it would take to do event CGs for each and every character). As you'd expect from a combat story heroine, Yukiko is honest, straightforward and gutsy, but also kind of dumb. She has a decent amount of HP by default and specializes in flying and acrobatic moves like her moonsault press finisher.

Mimi Yoshihara: Coming off a tough loss against Panther Risako in the intro, Mimi is just about the strongest member (statistically speaking) that you can choose. She has high scores in throwing and submission, but low ability in power and acrobatics.

Bomber Kishima: One of two power-type wrestlers you can choose, Bomber's a hot-blooded sports fan. She's depicted as kind of pretty in the early games, but she got somewhat butched up in later installments. Her finisher is a strong lariat.

Akira Ijuuin: The other power-type, a rich girl who nonetheless works hard and always has a smile on her face. Akira is, despite being more experienced in the ring than any other playable character save Mimi, completely interchangable with Bomber as far as stats go. She does however, have a few different moves, including her trademark piledriver.

Toshimi Minami: My personal favorite of the playable characters (Get a load of that cute bowlcut hairstyle!), Toshimi is a submission specialist who falls slightly behind Mimi in terms of ability. Unlike later games, where she's depicted as a cool, lone wolf-type, Toshimi is much more open with her emotions in this game.

Teddy-Cat Hori: A nice girl whose balanced stats make her a decent addition to any team. TCH is completely average in all areas (Including HP and arm/leg endurance) except submission and power, where she falls short, but her finisher, a backdrop, suggests that you should start by leveling up her throwing ability.

Hitomi Fujishima: An idol wrestler who is more focused on being cute and winning over the crowd than winning matches. She's statistically the single worst pick for your team and should only be picked up by those looking for a challenge. Her highest stats are throwing and acrobatics, both of which are in the middle of the board. Her finisher is an enzuigiri kick to the back of the head.

Riyu Kikuchi: Another fragile character, Riyu is saved from Hitomi's "Jobber" branding by virtue of her unusual stat mix. She has decent scores in power and acrobatics, which is useful at picking at the weak spots of the early opponents. She'll need careful leveling up if she's to win later matches, though. Her finisher is the infamous DDT.

Wrestle Angels - Intro

The Wrestle Angels series of games has something of a cult following here in the states, which I happen to be a part of. Most US fans more than likely got accquainted with the series through the Super Nintendo incarnation Super Wrestle Angels, or the more recent PS2 outing Wrestle Angels Survivor. I happen to be one of the former, and now that I've accquired a means of playing the elusive first game of the series, I decided to use my first real entry to show my readers what exactly they've been missing out on.

Game: Wrestle Angels

Platform: PC-9800 (PC-98)

A very plain main menu shows that this really was a first attempt, and while not particularly impressive by today's standards, its simple looks belie an addictive and fun little game.

Here's a brief rundown of the backstory:

The IWWF (International Women's Wrestling Federation) champion, veteran Panther Risako, has been challenged by a group of upstarts representing New Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (SNJ, for "Shin Nihon Joushi" puroresu). The girls of SNJ issue their challenge based on rules set by "Beauty" Reiko Ichigaya, a fellow competitor who has major pull within the organization due to her status as a corporate heiress. Simply put, two teams of three wrestlers face off in best-two-of-three bouts, with the losing team having to shame themselves by exposing their naked (or near-naked, as is most often the case here) bodies to the cheering crowd.

Yes that's right, the whole thing is an elaborate setup to allow you, the player, to see some pixellated T&A.

I imagine most of you who read up to that last sentence have already labelled me a pervert and closed your browser tabs, but for those of you choosing to read on, know that I was not lying before when I spoke of a great game beneath the lowest-common-denominator stuff.

The options in the main menu are "Single Mode", which allows you to play a single match against the computer, utilizing all but one of the game's cast at their default stats, "Tag Mode" which lets you play a single match under tag team rules, "Profile Mode", which (after switching disks) allows you to view a brief blurb about each of the game's characters; "New Game" Which is where the meat of this package is, and "Load", which lets you pick up a previous story mode file at the start of the most recently-started match.

Since this post is getting kinda long, I'll break up my review of the game into several. Next up, the story mode menu and characters.

New blog!

So I've decided to start up a new blog. My old one over at livejournal fell apart pretty quickly because I didn't really think I had anything to write about. Now I've decided to start fresh at a different site.

What will I be blogging about? Pretty much anything that strikes my fancy, I suppose. Video games, movies, that sort of thing.

That said, there's three things I'm probably going to write about in the next few days, so best to throw out a list just for the hell of it:

• Games: Wrestle Angels
• Toys & Models: 1/100 HG Strike Freedom Gundam
• Music: Touhou Nengara Nenju

This won't be a terribly original blog for sure, but I beg your favor all the same.
- Azure out.