Anime Review #10: Green Green

As a reviewer of anime and games, and sometimes movies, it is my job to tell you the truth about what's on my mind. That's why everything I say can't always be good. So with that in mind, this is Green Green.

Green Green is a short anime. It's 12 episodes long, but there is an OVA called Erolution that is considered to be the 13th episode, as it advances the storyline just a little further, and with some...things in there.

It has a pretty unique story, but before we can do that, we have to do...
ROLL CALL:
Takazaki Yuusuke - The main guy in Green Green. He is found in a harem-like setting after girls come to his school, which I'll explain in more detail later. He is often found in situations that lead others to believe that he is a pervert, but in reality, it is his friends' faut. Yes, he hangs out with 3 other friends that are REAL perverts. Yup. What a guy.

Chitose Midori - Probably the main girl character in Green Green. Or one of them. She has a crush on Yuusuke and believes that they are meant to be together. Yuusuke kinda gets annoyed at her, but she never gives up and constantly tries to be with him and tries to make him fall in love with her.

Kutsuki Futaba - A purple haired girl. She hates pervs and is an aggressive person in general. But while her exterior looks tough, she is actually very weak on the inside. She gets scared easily and her feelings sometimes get the better of her. She has a sister, who I'm going to talk about next.

Kutsuki Wakaba - A very strange girl. She is Futaba's sister, which already makes her strange. I'm just kidding. But what I'm not kidding about is that she always carries a cactus around with her. She even named it Togemura. And what's even stranger than that is that she is able to talk to it and recieve information that nobody else would know about. It's hard to explain.

Minami Sanae - She is a sickly girl who has bad health. That was redundant...anyways, she always has to take her medication because her health is that bad. And...she's quiet. Sometimes. There's not a whole lot to say about her.

Morimura Reika - She is the semi-antagonist of the series. And I say semi-antagonist because she only serves as the anime's antagonist for about half of the series and then later tries and helps out the other characters and even befriends some of them. But in the beginning she is a decieving person who has her way most of the time.

Ijuuin Tadatomo - The first of the 3 most annoying characters. He is fat, perverted, and shameless. He always tries to peek at the girls and has fantasies of doing...things...with them. He also has the loudest voice, which makes him more annoying. And he hangs out with Yuusuke and the next 2 characters I'm going to talk about.

Ichibanboshi Hikaru - This guy thinks he's hot, but evidently he's not. Whenever he tries to get girls, he fails miserably. And he just looks horrible. And he is also a shameless perv.

Tenjin Taizo - Ok this guy I really don't understand. He wants the girl he likes to call him "big brother" but he still has a crush on her. What the hell? And to top it off, whenever he sees a cute girl, he has to eat rice. Enough said. This guy is weird. And with the previous 2, he is also a shameless perv.

Ok enough about the characters. Let's get on with the actual story. So to start it off, an all male school in the mountains is scheduled to have a trial run. What kind of trial? Well, it was planned to have the school co-ed, so an all girl school would stay there for 1 month. During this month, the guys and some girls are excited to be with the opposite sex in school. And that's pretty much what this anime is about.

The story of this anime is pretty unique. I haven't seen a concept like it, and I'm not sure how they could have done it better. But the problem I had with this story was the ending. It was so rushed, no suspense, no buildup, no nothing. It just twists at like the last episode and BAM. You just have to accept it.

The characters are fun to watch, with the exception of the 3 perv guys. They are unique and have interesting adventures. If that's what you like to call them. Now, the 3 guys, on the other hand, are so annoying that this anime review was delayed by about a month because I couldn't stand em. But I finally grew a pair and watched the anime all the way through while enduring their stupidity. I wouldn't be surprised if someone quit because of them.

This anime isn't a hentai, but it's pretty damn close to being one. Now what classifies a hentai? Uh...well it has to be an anime, it's gotta have nudity, and the characters have to sex it up. Green Green is all of that except for the sex. Oh wait that's in the OVA (the 13th episode). So, it's very close to being one, but it's not just because the 13th episode is the only one, with those things. I actually felt kinda guilty watching this, but IT'S MY JOB TO. Hehe. You didn't hear that laugh.

So overall, it's not a bad anime, if you're horny as heck. Otherwise, look elsewhere, because this anime does not have a whole lot to offer for normal people. It has a unique story and all, but it's ruined by the other elements that make this anime really...not for kids. I enjoyed about half of it. If you're thinking what I think you're thinking, don't think it.

Storyline: 7/10
Characters: 6/10
Mood: 6/10
Uniqueness: 8/10
Overall: 6/10

Anime Review #9: Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad

I just got a new paddle for dragonboating. Right before the big race. Well...at least I got one.

I'm really behind in reviewing. I finished this series about 2 days ago, and usually I come out with a review right after I finish, so I appologize.

Well, I'm here with the 9th review, Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad.

This anime was kinda recommended to me by Ryan and Jeff. Thanks, guys.

But just because they're expecting me to say good things about it doesn't mean I will. Or will I? Wait and see ^^.

This anime is classified in the "slice-of-life" genre, meaning that there isn't a real storyline, but instead you get to see "slices" of the lives of the main characters.

Speaking of characters, you know what time it is...
ROLL CALL:
Tanaka Yukio - Also known as Koyuki, Yukio is a guitarist in the band, Beck. He is an average guy who learns how to play guitar and uses his talent to try and make great music. He is also our main protagonist. Nothing much to say here that won't spoil stuff.

Minami Ryusuke - A guy who lived in New York for quite some time. He is fluent in both English and Japanese, but he sounds awkward when he speaks either one. In fact, he sounds drunk all the time. He has a dog named Beck, and that's where the band name came from. He has a sister named Maho, but I'll get to that later. He's the other guitarist in Beck and seems to have mad skills.

Taira Yoshiyuki - This guy is pretty cool because he has white hair. Unfortunately, he doesn't play as big of a part as the other band members. He is the bassist in Beck, and often moves from band to band. He also plays with his shirt off sometimes, which is a plus.

Chiba Tsunemi - He has an afro. He's the vocalist in Beck and often protects Yukio from bullies and stuff like that. I like his rapping. Kinda. Doesn't play a huge part, but is an important character.

Sakurai Yuji - Also known as Saku to the other band members, this guy is the drummer in Beck. He joined after the previous drummer left due to problems at home. His skill is above average, and he is Yukio's closest friend in school. I've never seen his eyeball, which means he's like Brock, and that's kinda cool.

Minami Maho - Ryusuke's little sister. She can sing. She meets Yukio and frequently spends time with him throughout the anime. She is kind of a celebrity so sometimes, she is not able to have fun with him, and it can also be a bother when she's talking with her other friends in English or her other celebrity friends are bitches. She slowly develops a romantic relationship with Yukio. Whoops, did I say too much?

Kenichi Saitou - A perverted man that taught Yukio how to play guitar.


Well, that's about all the characters you need to know. Now on to the story.

Oh wait, there is no story. That's right, it's a slice of life. Well let me try and give you a little background.

Yukio was a normal kid when his friend introduced him to rock music. He liked the sound and imagined playing in a band of his own. He met Ryusuke by encountering his dog, Beck. Ryusuke later recruits him in the band, Beck. From there, more members are recruited and they go perform live in front of many people and gain fans.

So that's the basic setting. A question you might have is: "Why the hell is the anime called 'Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad'?" Well, let me explain. In the anime, they call themselves Beck. But their music traveled overseas to the United States, and somehow, their name became Mongolian Chop Squad. Don't ask why.

So so so...now on to my opinions. Let's start off with the bad stuff, just cuz I feel like doing things differently today. First of all, what the hell? In this anime, there are many times when certain characters, main or...unmain, speak English. But their "English" sounds like shit. Like, everyone sounds either drunk or high when they're talking in English. Even the people that come from America (in the anime) speak awkwardly. That, I have a big problem with. So while I was watching this, I thought that the English speaking parts were bad. But, damn, what word can desrcibe the English SINGING parts? Oh my fuck. It is so bad that it's just awesome.

Surprisingly, those were the only 2 things I had a problem with. Well I had a minor problem with the animation style, but that doesn't really count. Anyways, for the most part, I liked this anime. I like it a lot. It's enjoyable, it's 26 episodes long, and it's about rock music. It's awesome. I enjoyed the story...or rather, I enjoyed the slices. The characters were just great. I liked every single one of the band members. In fact, I liked every character except Saitou. What an annoying man. Oh, and I didn't like Maho's celebrity friend; I forgot his name, but he had white, big hair. Well, this anime is all about music, and I actually did like the music in here. I might even get some of the soundtrack to listen to.

So overall, I recommend this to anyone who is willing to watch. It's an entertaining 26 episodes and most people would be satisfied. I say most, because I don't want to be blamed if you watch it and you hate it. But I think that you'll like it. If you're who I think you are. Are you?

By the way, the opening and ending songs kick ass.

Storyline: 8/10
Characters: 9/10
Mood: 7/10
Uniqueness: 9/10
Overall: 9/10

It doesn't make sense. It breaks sense.

I have a chair. It's black, it sits on the floor, it rocks back and forth. It has 2 armrests for 2 arms, and it has a nice headrest for sleeping, if you like to sleep in rocking chairs. It has all the things for comfort.

Oh yeah, there's a speaker in the back.

Yeah, you can plug in your iPod, your computer, some video games and the sound will come out the back. I'm pretty surprised with the quality of the sound. There's quite a lot of bass. So much that when I was playing my music on it, my glass of water actually shook. The first time I did that, I reached down to the volume knob to lower the sound a bit when my hand came across another knob. I looked down. It was a smaller one next to the volume and it was labeled "bass." That's a problem.

Take a look at a car radio. Somewhere on there, there's gonna be an option for speaker balance, trebel, and...sigh...bass.

Probably on your music player there's an equalizer. And wouldn't you know it? There's an option for less bass.

Ok.

Let me ask a question. Who doesn't like bass? Why would you have a knob on there to turn it DOWN?

Like, I don't understand it. Bass is an important part of music. Bass is especially a big part of MY music, which includes trance, house, minimal, etc. I admit that people who just turn it up for the whole city to hear from their car are annoying, but if you're just listening to a song or something, shouldn't there be tons of bass?

Does it matter what kind of music you listen to? In rock, there's the bass guitar. In pop there's also a bassline. Even in classical music there's actually an instrument called A BASS. All of these parts are important in their respective music genres.

I vote to remove all bass options from every sound system and just keep them permanently on full. If you don't like it, get some iPod earphones. Those things are horrible.

Top 10 Newspaper Comic Strips

Nowadays, when people say "comic", they're usually referring to comic books (such as Superman or Spiderman or Batman) or manga novels (such as Naruto, Bleach, or One Piece). The first thing that comes to my mind is the 2 or 3 pages of comic strips on the newspaper. I read these almost every day and the Sunday ones are pretty damn good too. A lot of these are very entertaining to read, but some of them just suck. Like, it's so bad that the creator should just retire and maybe spend the rest of his/her life in a hyperspace capsule. That's why I'm making this list, to prove that there ARE good comic strips in the mix with some bad ones.

These are the top 10 best comic strips to ever grace the pages of a newspaper.


10) Mutts
Mutts is a comic strip that focuses on the life of two particular house pets, Earl the dog and Mooch the cat. The animals steal the show here and it's just an interesting comic strip because it takes you into the perspective of animals, even when described by a human. The characters are cute and many other animals make regular appearances, such as Crabby the crab, two cheeky squirrels, and a whale. At times it's funny and at other times it's just darn cute.


9) Bizzaro
This is one of those one panel strips that doesn't have any set characters. Instead, it just takes you around to different situations and makes fun of certain things. And that's why it's funny. In general, I enjoy one panel strips because it's brief and you get a quick laugh. In this particular strip, there's something interesting. In almost every strip, there are hidden pictures. At least one of them is present per strip, and they include things like a pie slice, and alien in a UFO, an eyeball, the characters "K2", a rabbit, a lit stick of dynamite, and an upside down bird. See if you can find the 2 pictures in this strip.


8) Get Fuzzy
Get Fuzzy is one of those comic strips where the animals talk. But this time it's a little different. The humans are also a main part and the animals and humans can have conversations. This brings funny and crazy elements to the strip itself. The main human character is Rob Wilco and he has two pets, a dog named Satchel, and a cat named Bucky. Satchel is a nice dog, but Bucky is mean as all hell. And this comic strip focuses on their daily life and the weird conversations they strike up. The comic is so random that it's just funny.

7) Baby Blues
This is the story of a girl, a boy, a baby girl, a mom, and a dad. They're all little kids. What do you think the parents' life is like? Hell. Hectic pandemonium that erupts at every second. Ok, I'm being dramatic. But the comic does focus on that part. Reading this reminds me of the good times I had when I was a kid. And it also forshadows the hell that awaits me if I have kids.

6) Zits
I think this is the comic that most people are familiar with when it comes to modern comic strips in today's newspaper. I see strips of this in the hallways at school sometimes. Well, how appropriate. This comic strip focuses on the life of Jeremy as a teenager in high school. Most of us can relate to this because we're teenagers ourselves and this is probably a favorite to people who actually read newspaper comic strips. It's entertaining and puberific. LOL yeah I made that up.


5) Peanuts
Everybody should know what this is, so it hardly needs an introduction. After many decades, Peanuts is still enjoyable to read today and is a classic. And that's why it's at number 5.

4) Argyle Sweater
I have no idea what the title means, but then again, a lot of comic strips have titles that don't make sense. It's another one panel strip which makes it crazy right off the bat. Agryle Sweater borrows ideas commonly found in fairy tales and children's stories, but sometimes gets very creative and funny at the same time. I have a 365 day to day page calendar with Argyle Sweater on every page. That's how much I like it.


3) Foxtrot
This strip used to be a regular on the LA Times, but is now reduced to a Sundays-only-comic. I liked it then and I like it now. This comic revolves around a family of a nerdy boy, a teenage girl, and an older teenage boy, and their parents. The different personalities in each character give this comic strip a certain flavor. My favorite character is the nerdy kid, Jason. He just kicks this comic up to a higher level by himself.

2) Calvin and Hobbes
Now if you wanna talk about classics, here's one for you. Once on the newspapers, Calvin and Hobbes stopped making appearances on newspapers and now you can pretty much only read them online or in book collections. I have 7 myself. If you don't know what Calvin and Hobbes is about, 1st of all: why the hell not? 2nd of all, it's hard to explain. It's about a 1st grade boy, Calvin, and his tiger, Hobbes. Hobbes is where I got my screenname: hobbes9469. Not from Thomas Hobbes. Anyways, Calvin has some pretty crazy adventures and has some pretty crazy imagination. What a comic.


So what in the world of crazy comics in the galaxy of awesomeness in the universe in the gigaverse in the terraverse in the omniverse of power can top Calvin and Hobbes?

How about a comic with a pig, a rat, a goat, a zebra, a family of crocodiles, a duck in the military, a trigger happy cat, a leashed dog, and cameos from other franchises?

1) Pearls Before Swine
Oh boy oh boy. I LOVE this comic strip. I've never seen a bad one. Some other strips have their off days and you can tell the author was running out of ideas. Not this one. This one reeks of a unicorn's asshole. And that's good. You are immersed into the world of Pig, Rat, Goat, Zebra, the crocodiles, and everyone else. And yes, those are their names. The crocodiles have actual names though. And so do the rest of the characters. And what other comic has the author himself as a character in his own comic strip. That's right. No other. This has my seal of approval. If I had one.




So by now you must have noticed that the main segments that make up my blog are the anime reviews and the video game reviews. Starting with this post, I'm going to make top 10s a regular also. So send ideas if you have them. Actually, send ideas for anything.

Anime Review #8: Ouran High School Host Club

This is the first anime that I'm going to review that I have never watched before. Yeah, all the other animes I've reviewed I've seen at least twice, once before, and once right before the review. This was recommended to me by Priscilla and I have to say, I'm pretty happy with it. It was a great anime and much different from what I was used to.

The series Ouran High School Host Club is 26 episodes long, you know, your average length. This anime is in the comedy genre and oh boy it doesn't disappoint. It's pretty heavy on comedy, if you're into that kind of stuff. But then again, why wouldn't you be?

Now you know what time it is...
ROLL CALL:
Fujioka Haruhi - In the first episode, you see Haruhi as a nerdish looking character walking around Ouran High School trying to find everything. He finds the Host Club in the third music room and has to join the club (for reasons explained later). Then you find out that Haruhi is actually a girl. Well, how could he...I mean she...not be? With a name like Haruhi, you have to be a girl. She's a pretty average person and is what the students of Ouran call a "commoner" which is just another way of saying middle class. Oh yeah, Ouran High School is for rich people. She looks like a boy after she got her hair cut and the rest of the Host Club try to hide her gender from everyone else.

Suoh Tamaki - He is the leader of the Host Club and is classified as a "prince type." And hell yes he is. He can have control of any girl in seconds if he plays his cards right. But after he finds out that Haruhi is a girl, he's pretty much only interested in her. He provides most of the comic relief in this anime, considering that he is beat up verbally by almost every character. You either hate him or you love him.

Ootori Kyoya - I think he's the financial manager of the Host Club and is classified as a "cool type." He only does things if they benefit him. If they have no merit, as he says, he doesn't bother. Usually he will do things for other people if they are the children of some powerful business executive or something. And his character is secretly evil at some times. Haruhi picks this up immediately.

Hikaru Hitachiin/Kaoru Hitachiin - I'm putting these two together because it's unfair to have them have seperate character descrpitions. After all, they're identical twins. They're classified as the "devilish type." They follow each other everywhere, do everything together, and literally say things together. Which is kinda bizzare and freaky. Besides being identical twins, they do have their own individual personalities when they're by themselves. Hikaru is the more aggressive one and Kaoru is less harsh. There's no way to tell them apart except certain episodes, like where they dye their hair different colors. Haruhi seems like the only person who can tell them apart at any given time.

Haninozuka Mitsukuni - Also known as Honey-sempai by the other club members, this senior is the "loli type". Even though he's a senior, he looks just like a little kid. And he acts like one too. He constantly eats cakes and sweets, he carries a stuffed bunny around, and his overall attitude is like a child. But no matter how you look at him, he's cute. Even his voice is adorable. Mitsukuni is a martial arts master that comes from a family of kung-fu experts. He always hangs around the next roll call character, Morinozuka Takashi. Or rather, Takashi hangs around him. Let me explain.

Morinozuka Takashi - He is Mitsukuni's closest friend, but more like a bodyguard. He is classified as the "silent and cool type." Which is right because he rarely talks. By the way he also looks like this other character, also named Takashi. Yamamoto Takashi from Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Anyways, the Morinozuka family has always served the Haninozuka family as servant type people and bodyguards. Even though that relationship had died down several generations ago, he still tries to protect Mitsukuni.

So those are the characters of the host club. Although there are others that show up periodically, I'm not going to attempt to describe them because you can just look at them.

The story goes like this. Haruhi is accepted to Ouran High School because of her outstanding grades. However, everyone else got in because they're just rich. So she's the only middle class student there. While looking for a place to study, she comes across a room called the third music room. She enters and finds the Host Club.

Now, what is the Host Club? It's a bunch of guys that have tea with ladies and talk with them and show off their good looks. Yeah. They make money like that.

So she meets the Host Club and just decides that they're a bunch of rich bastards, as she puts it. However, she accidentally knocks over an expensive vase that costs a lot of money. I think it was 80 million yen. So she is forced into the Host Club and has to work off that money by being a servant kind of. But then they discover her potential to be a host and dress her up as a host because they think that she's a guy. She tries out being a host and the club decides that they should let her do that instead. After the day, Tamaki comes in the changing room while she is changing and finds out that Haruhi is actually a girl. And that's what this series is all about, the Host Club, their adventures, and Haruhi's secret.

What did I think about this anime? I loved it. It was way different from what I was used to and a breath of fresh air to watch. It was entertaining and creative. I liked all of the characters, who each had their unique personalities and features. The storyline was way awesome and kept me watching, and I was able to finish this series in under a week.

One thing I noticed about this anime is their use of captions. They use subscripts for a whole lot of things to enhance the mood. Sometimes it's awesome, but some other times it's annoying. Didn't bother me too much though.

Probably the only thing I didn't like about this anime was some of the characters. There are some characters that just reek of poo. Fortunately, I only saw them in 2 episodes. The main characters are absolutely loveable.

The whole atmosphere is elegant, being a rich school with classy people. And being in the perspective of Haruhi, you see everything through her eyes, which is brilliant of the creators. This anime also gets bonus points for having good opening and ending songs.

Overall, it's a great anime series if you're a casual watcher, or just looking for some entertainment. I don't think there's any other series like this, so you'd probably be interested after watching the first episode.

Storyline: 9/10
Characters: 8/10
Mood: 10/10
Uniqueness: 9/10
Overall: 9/10

A word on eye contact

Isn't it really awkward when you look up somewhere and you find yourself making eye contact with another stranger at a distance? It is incredibly uncomfortable for me, so usually, I look away. But sometimes, I may not care and just keep my eyes at a fixed position, just to see who will give up first. The backfire is awkward off the scale. If they also decide that they're too lazy to look away, then the situation just got very weird because it looks like you're staring at a stranger and possibly plotting against them or something.

That happened to me at church today, and luckily I didn't go for the staring contest. After those kind of things happen, I feel really weird, and I also try to imagine what's going on in the other person's head and if he/she thought that the situation was weird.

In general, eye contact is a problem for me. I rarely make eye contact with people unless they're pretty good friends or family. But sometimes I can't even make eye contact with THEM. Other times when I'm talking to someone I find myself looking off to the side. I know it's incredibly rude and I know it's a problem; what confuses me is WHY is it a problem? It shouldn't be that hard to look at someone's eyes right? And it's obviously a common problem because in school, teachers always tell you to make eye contact with your audience when you're presenting. I'm not alone, see? Why is this such a problem for us shy-eyes?

I don't have a definite answer, but I do have some theories.

1) People just look intimidating
It's true. Probably 30% of the time I don't make eye contact with people is because of this reason. Many people's eyes just look like hell to others. It's not their fault, but it's an explanation.

2) The shy-eyes are just shy in general
This is what I mean by this: I don't think I'm a shy person unless it comes to eye contact. Just in the area of eye contact I'm shy. Some people are just regular shy. You know what I'm talking about. They always look down on the floor when they walk around, they don't talk unless they have to, and when they do talk it's really, really quiet. Those people might also have a problem with eye contact, because it comes with the whole shy package.

3) Just a rare case
You know, like some people might have autism, which is a social disorder. Other people might just be crazy and think that psychics will have total control over them if they look into their eyes. Maybe some people are just OCD or something and might not be able to look at people's eyes unless they have sunglasses all the time or something.



So yeah, there's my post for the day. I don't know if I should be doing movie reviews regularly now, cuz I already did 2 of them. But I don't watch enough movies to do them regularly. Well, we'll see.

Coming up: Ouran High School Host Club, Beck Mongolian Chop Squad, and maybe some VGs

The Forbidden Kingdom

So I just rented a movie. Guess what it was.

This movie is one of those...action types. Haha. I'm not sure what genre it is, but it belongs with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and stuff like that. This movie was not what I expected. And I don't mean that in a good way. But first, we gotta take a look at the details of the movie.

As you can see from the poster, it stars Jackie Chan and Jet Li. But they don't show up till later. The story goes like this. There is a prophecy that the staff of the Monkey King will be found by a "seeker" and the seeker will return the staff to the petrified remains of the Monkey King to bring him back to life. That's the prophecy in a nutshell. Meanwhile, in Boston, there's this nerdy kid who has a big interest in kung fu related material. However, he just appreciates it and cannot do any himself. He goes to the local pawn shop and finds a staff in the back room. To make a long part short, it somehow ends up in his control and he gets warped to China or something. Damn. Since he is stuck there, the only way he can return home is by returning the staff to the Monkey King.

Now on to editorials. First, let's start with the good things. No matter how many martial arts action movies I see, the fight scenes always entertain me. They're so ridiculously great. It also helps that Jackie Chan and Jet Li take part in a lot of fight scenes.

No joke. That's the only good part I liked. Luckily for me, the fight scenes take up about 40-50% of the movie. Now on to the problems. First of all, what's with the main character? I'm not trying to sound racist or anything...but he's white. It's so out of place. At first I thought I rented the wrong movie, or the discs got swtiched because it was so different from what I expected. Maybe that's what the director was going for: to be different from all other movies. But it just didn't do it for me. I couldn't see it. Another thing that really bothered me was the bad acting. Most of the diologue seems screwed up just because of this. Lastly, the storyline was pretty far fetched, even for a movie of this type.

But one thing could be changed to solve all these problems. Have the actual movie be in Chinese. If that was the case, several things might have changed, probably for the better. First of all, the main character would either have to magically, somehow know how to speak Chinese, or be replaced by a Chinese main character, or get rid of the main character and just shift the story around a bit more to fit the circumstances. Also, if the main character is gone or changed, the story wouldn't have anything to do with the US, and actually be all about fighting in ancient China. Which is what movies like this SHOULD be about. Most of the time. And since the main character is altered, the storyline would have probably been much better. Lastly, if the movie had been in Chinese, the acting would have been much smoother, and I know this for a fact. There were certain parts in the movie where Jackie's character and Jet's character would converse in Chinese. I couldn't sense any awkwardness in their voices. I'm used to Jackie speaking in English, because I have seen many movies where he does so. Other characters though, they sound really awkward and kinda fobby. If they were able to do the movie in Chinese, the acting problem would have been corrected instantly.

Overall, it's not really your basic Asian martial arts movie. It has a bit of a twist, and that can make or break it for you. It didn't do it for me, but everyone has their opinion. I would probably recommend this to casual movie watchers just looking for some brief entertainment. I don't think it would be much, but it's something. I would not recommend this to people who are hardcore fans of things like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. If you are, go watch Hero or House of Flying Daggers. Those are awesome.

Rating: 4.5/10

Push

Holy crap, this movie is amazing. Obviously, the movie is called Push. And...think of it as...something from the Bourne series, but...with psychics. Yeah. Awesome.
Ok, I just wanted to talk about this movie really quickly, because it seems to me that not a lot of people have seen it, but this movie deserves more views.
But before we talk about the actual movie, it's time to look into the different...thingies that you have to understand.

First of all, there are several types of psychics in the movie, Push. Here are brief descriptions on each of the types.
Movers - These are the commonly known kind of psychics. They are able to move objects and manipulate them within a field. Kind of like Ness. Or Lucas.
Pushers - These people can force thoughts into your head. They can make you have memories that you never experienced or put in different emotions in your head. So, in short, it's mind control. Pushers are able to manipulate people's actions this way.
Watchers - Another commonly known type, these people can see into the future. This need no further explanation.
Bleeders - I fail to see how this has to do with psychic powers, but these people can emit a high pitched noise to pierce your ears and make you bleed your own blood from everywhere by having the frequencies break your vessels. They also look really freaky when they screech.
Sniffers - This is really amazing. It's kind of hard to explain, so let me give an example. Let's say a sniff got a hold of your toothbrush. By sniffing or touching it, they can tell where it has been since and who used it recently. Things like that. With this power, they can track people easily.
Shifters - Also another amazing ability. These people can make you see things that aren't real. A common example used in the movie is that a shifter took a piece of paper and turned it into a dollar bill. The effects of the illusion don't last forever, but they last a long time.
Wipers - Not very versatile, but a useful ability nonetheless. These people can erase your memory. They can permanently erase it, or temporarily. They can also select parts of your memory to erase.
Shadows - My least favorite type, just because it's not as useful as the other ones. These people block the sensors of the sniffs or the watchers by making things unclear and dark.
Stitchers - These are the people that can heal you and regenerate your cell health to 100%. But they can also reverse the effects and make you in worse health.

So there are the different types seen in the movie. I did a bit of research and it seems there is another type, called phasers, that can pass through solid objects. But whatever, that's not important.
I'm not going to go into character roll call, just cuz I'm too lazy this time to do it, but I'll explain the characters along the way.
This is the story.
The Division, a special area of the government that researches psychics, is out to track all psychics for government testing and experimentation. They use a specific drug in all of these tests, but none of the patients survive the drug. One does, and she escapes. Now the Division is after her. Nick (a mover) lives in China (I think), to hide from the Division after an encounter 10 years ago. Sniffs that work for the Division still find him, and they are after the girl that escaped. This girl, Kira (a pusher), is someone from Nick's past and someone he knows very well. With the help of a 13 year old named Cassie (a watcher), Nick helps out Kira avoid the Division. And that's a vague description of the plot.

I didn't describe as much this time because I'm not supposed to put spoilers in here. But shouldn't that get you interested enough to watch? I was very happy with this movie when I rented it and I enjoyed all of it. It was interesting to explore the world of the psychics and open my mind to things that I thought were impossible. After watching this movie, it all seems plausible. Or maybe a pusher is trying to make me think that. The characters were pretty well developed. The important ones, that is. And a few of the actors were moderately good looking. Especially the actor that plays Nick. MmmMMmmm.

There were a few problems I had with this movie. I thought the ending could have used a bit more...epilogueish stuff. I thought it ended kind of abruptly and I wanted to see what happened to the rest of the people. Also, some of the actors had horrible acting skills. Not all. Just like, 1 or 2.

But overall, this movie was entertaining to watch. Not just for sci-fi fans, but for pretty much every person. The movie was very suspenseful, I was hooked, and it didn't disappoint me. I enjoyed seeing new things and because this was a unique movie, I didn't know what to expect. But what came out of it was awesome shit. Yeahh.

So. That's it.

Rating: 8.5/10

Anime Review #7: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Holy crap, I've been waiting to do this one for a long time. And at lucky number 7, this one's gonna be the best.
This is Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. What a cool name to go with a cool anime. But before I get on with my reviewing, I have some questions I want to ask.
Well, imagine an animal piloting a robot mecha. What the hell can be cooler than that? How about a human stealing it and using it as his own weapon to fight. What's cooler than that? Using a smaller mecha to combine with the bigger, stolen mecha to create a huge combination mecha. What's cooler than that? Having even more people steal robots and join the orignal stealer to fight against the animals. What's cooler than that? Taking over a battleship-sized mecha with that same team and using it as your base. What's cooler than that? Flying with it, sailing with it, and taking down four other ships of the same size with that same battleship. What's cooler than that? A city bigger than 1000 of your battleship-sized mechas shaped like a tornado. What's cooler than that? The city transforms into a gigantic robot. What's cooler than that? Kicking ass and destroying the pilot and the robot. What's cooler than that? A person piloting a mecha piloting another, bigger mecha. What's cooler than that? The bigger mecha piloting an even bigger mecha. What's cooler than that? Using a drill bigger than yourself to bust a hole through the enemy. What's cooler than that? Being big enough to throw galaxies at your opponent as weapons. What's cooler than that? An explosion that stretches lightyears across.

So that, in a nutshell, is TTGL. This anime is from Gainax, the same people that produced FLCL. So it's bound to be good. At 27 episodes, this series delivers hours of excitement and fun times. So let's dig into this.

Before I go into character roll call, it would only make sense to talk about the story first, otherwise roll call would get kind of confusing. This anime can be split up into two sections. To my knowledge, each part does not have a distinct name. So I'll call the first one Surface Arc and the second one Future Arc.
Ok, now we can do roll call for the Surface Arc. Oh by the way, as far as I know, the characters don't have last names.
ROLL CALL:
Simon - A boy from Jeeha Village, an underground settlement. He enjoys digging to find treasure and one day he does. A tiny robot mecha, which is later named Lagann. He then travels out of the village and out onto the surface with his "bro", Kamina, and sharpshooter Yoko. Simon's character is pretty wimpy in the beginning, but through the experiences he has with Kamina and everyone else, he mans up and takes on the responsibility of a leader.
Kamina - This is Simon's "bro". I'm not sure if they're blood related, but they seem to be. He is the one that pushes Simon from behind (By the say you pronounce "Simon" as SEE MOHN). He encourages Simon to do the impossible and work all the way to the top. He helps Simon break through Jeeha Village and out onto the surface. He hates being in the village and that's why he went with Simon to the top. He is way older than Simon but probably just as immature as a kid. He steals a mecha, which are called Ganmen in this anime, from an beastman, and uses it to fight. He names his Ganmen: Gurren. Hence, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Gurren and Lagann can combine to form Gurren Lagann. Which is way more kickass. It's a shame that Kamina died early in the series though. Oops, spoiler.
Yoko - A woman from the village next door to Kamina's and Simon's. She uses a rifle as her weapon and is a sharpshooter. She meets with Simon and Kamina and travels with them on their journey on the surface. She also provides lots of fanservice. If you don't know what that is, look it up.
Roshiu - Roshiu is a boy about Simon's age that comes from a religious type village that worships Ganmen as gods. Kamina recruits him for his team and he also travels on the surface with the rest of them. He looks like a girl, and I think he's gay.
Leeron - I'm positive that this guy is gay. But he's a very important character in the series, as he serves as the mechanic for Kamina's group, giving the Ganmen upgrades and repairs. Without him, the whole group would be in ruins. He is also recruited for Kamina's group pretty early, or rather, he joins himself. He does not have his own Ganmen (neither does Yoko), but he is an important person nevertheless.
Kittan - He has the same personality as Kamina. He and his 3 sisters make up the Black Kinsmen and also fight against beastmen. All 4 of them join Kamina's group.
Dayakka - A person from the same village as Yoko, and is kind of like second in command to Kamina because he gets to steer the big ship they steal later on in the series. He is a nice man. Yep. Not much to say here.
Gimmy and Dari - Two little children from the same village as Roshiu. Gimmy is a little boy and Dari is a little girl. They go with Roshiu and travel along with Kamina's brigade to fight beastmen.
Boota - You'd think that he wouldn't be that important. Because he's actually a small rat. Yep. Kinda like Simon's pet, he travels with him and Simon treats him just like any other member of the brigade. But he more important than you think.
Attenborough - This guy looks like a trigger happy clown. Trigger happy is right. All he does is fire at anything that moves. He's always ready to aim the ship's cannons and fire at the enemy. Which sometimes is useful, and sometimes it gets them in trouble.
Viral - The main enemy in the first part of the anime. He is a beastman and is out to destroy all humans that come up to the surface world. He first meets Kamina and they immediately become rivals and fight intensely whenever they meet.
Lordgenome - I'm not sure if it's Lord Genome or Lordgenome, because I see both ways in the anime. Whatever. This is the helix king that Kamina's brigade is out to get and destroy. Later it is Simon and Lordgenome that have the final battle.

Ok, I know there are a lot more characters, but there are way too many to describe. That's why I only listed out the important/semi-important ones. And that's why this anime is so great. So many damn characters. You will love most of them, if not all of them. So this is the story of the Surface Arc. Simon is from Jeeha Village. He is digging and he finds this small Ganmen and uses it to fight a huge Ganmen that breaks into the village. He and Kamina and Yoko help fight it off and in the process, they make it up to the surface. From then, Kamina steals a Ganmen for himself and fights beastmen like that. He then establishes the Gurren Brigade and picks up whoever wants to fight for their right to stay on the surface. Most of these new additions also have their own Ganmen because they heard of Kamina and copied him by taking Ganmen for themselves. This way, they can fight against whatever comes after them. They also find a huge ass ship Ganmen that is big enough to have people live in, store their Ganmen, and travel around at the same time. Kamina's Gurren Brigade steals the ship, and head off to the Spiral Capital, Tepperin, where they will face the Helix King, Lord Genome.

And now for the Surface Arc Roll Call.
ROLL CALL:
Nia - She actually appears in the Surface Arc, but it's so late that it doesn't count. In the Surface Arc, she meets Simon because he finds her in a box. She also travels with Simon's group, because Kamina died, and sort of does Kamina's job by helping along Simon. Other than that, she's the cook of the entire ship. In the future, she is abducted by the enemies, the Anti-Spirals, and Simon and his crew are out to save her.
Simon - He's not new, but many major changes in him take place in the Future Arc. He is now the Supreme Commander of Kamina City, the city that was created after the defeat of Lord Genome. And I can't describe him any better than the words of Ryan Ruan can: "Simon becomes such a badass." That's perfect. Because that's what he is in the future. A badass. He becomes the leader after Kamina dies in the beginning, but he wasn't that confident. He later becomes more confident, and then in the future, he virtually replaces Kamina.
Roshiu - Roshiu plays a much bigger role in the future. Your first impression of "future Roshiu" is that he is a giant dick. Big enough to F a whale. Because he is the one that orders Simon's arrest and excecution. Wow what an asshole. But later you'll see that he is actually a good person, and helps Simon in the final fight with the Anti-Spirals.
Viral - Viral becomes Simon's cellmate after Simon is arrested, and Viral still has a grudge against him. But when the Earth is in danger, he then combines powers with Simon and works together with him to pilot the Gurren Lagann to save humanity.

So that's pretty much it...the rest of the characters are pretty much the same, just older. Especially Gimmy and Dari; they're teenagers now. Ok, so in the future, a new enemy appears, the Anti-Spiral. They oppose Simon and his people, who are the Spirals. Get it? LOL. This part of the story is about Simon's fight against the Anti-Spirals, his rescue of Nia, and saving all the people on Earth. Because the MOON IS GOING TO CRASH INTO THE EARTH.

Now more of an overall review. This anime revolves around two symbols: spirals and faces. The spiral is a symbol of evolution and the shape implies improvement and progression. The most important version of the spiral is the drill, Simon's weapon. The drill itself is also an important symbol, as it represents the will to fight and the will to reach the heavens with a blazing soul. The second symbol is the face. This is commonly seen in the Ganmen. Ganmen are just faces with arms, legs, and guns. The word Ganmen is derived from the word face. Somehow. The face represents looking forward and never looking back. Always seeing the future and looking towards what you are going to achieve.
I really liked this anime for its different use in symbolism. Another thing I liked is that in almost every episode, there are at least 3 memorable quotes. There are so many manly quotes out there that I even have a wallpaper with all of those slapped together with a picture of Gurren Lagann. It's awesome. It just shows that you can have a kickass show that teaches you lessons on life.
The music is pretty awesome too. This anime gets bonus points for having good opening and ending songs. Especially the second ending song. But the music almost always fits the mood and just enhances the experience. I love it.
But where this anime really shines is the storyline itself. Every part of the story is just exciting and awesome. Even though I already watched this one other time before, I kept watching because it was that gripping. The fights are always awesome, the characters are really moving and funny, and the cinematic effects are off the charts. The best way I can put this anime is...a combination of Code Geass and FLCL. YES, IT'S EXACTLY LIKE THAT. Probably because it's from Gainax.

Overall, this anime is just plain awesome. I love everything about it and is a possible candidate for 2nd favorite anime of all time. For me. If you like mecha anime, watch this. If you like Gundam, watch this. If you like FLCL, watch this. If you like Clannad, watch this. If you like Death Note, watch this. If you like Elfen Lied, watch this. If you like Pokemon, watch this. It doesn't matter what you like or don't like. This anime will satisfy all. And I guarantee it. Or your time back. Just kidding. But watch it, it's definitely a keeper.

Storyline: 10/10
Characters: 9/10
Mood: 10/10
Uniqueness: 8/10
Overall: 9.5/10

VG Review #4: Kirby 64 - The Crystal Shards

I'm gonna try to make this quick. But it's probably not going to be. I like to write a lot. I mean type. I hate writing, but love typing. Anyways, this is Kirby 64. Right off the bat, you might be thinking, "Another Kirby game...they're all the same." Well you're wrong. DEAD wrong.
Kirby 64 is a great game although I've never heard it receive the good comments that it deserves. And today, I'm going to be talking about why it's so good.

Obviously, Kirby 64 is on the Nintendo 64 and is the first game I'm review that isn't on the NES. WOW! This game has several elements that set it apart from most Kirby games. In the Kirby games before this, you pretty much wander around different worlds, eating enemies, copying abilities, fighting bosses, and getting items. In Kirby 64, you pretty much do all that, but with one main difference. YOU CAN FUCKING COMBINE ABILITIES. That is the best thing that can happen to Kirby. Also, it's the first game in the Kirby franchise to have this element. And the only one, besides Squeak Squad for the DS to have this feature. Why the hell didn't they have this in other Kirby games. I guess some DS or GBA or SNES or NES games just couldn't handle that much win. With about 20 different copy abilities, if you can combine any two, the possibilities are endless. Combine spike and electricity, you get lightning rod. Combine rock and fire, get volcano. My personal 3 favorites are Super Big Jaws (shown in the picture above and made by combining cutter with spike), Fireworks (fire and bomb), and Shuriken (bomb and spike). The whole point of the game is like most other Kirby games: you get to the end of the level, you keep going till you get to a boss, you fight it, and on to the next world until you beat the game. And I love it. The difficulty isn't that hard, but it's not too easy that you're bored. Throughout the game, food is placed everywhere for you to heal up. Also there are these stars that build up your star meter. When it's full, I think you get an extra life. And that's kinda cool.
The music is pretty awesome. I enjoy playing kickass games, and when I have some kickass music to go along with it, it's on. Like Diddy Kong. Diddy-fucking-Kong. I'm pretty sure that these will be among the most memorable tunes from my childhood.
I'm pretty much giving this game good comments right now, but it wasn't ALL good. I had a few problems with it. First of all, Kirby moves awfully slowly. Even when he's running. Compare him to any other Kirby in any other game. He'd get his ass kicked in a race. If he moved faster, I could have been done with the game more quickly, but maybe that's what the game designers had in mind: to take in all the scenery.
Which is also pretty nice. The graphics are pretty nice for 64 bit. Nice and colorful areas, unique backgrounds, and just crazy settings for a Kirby game.
The story is also...kinda...more developed than in any other Kirby game. In pretty much any other Kirby game, the story is on the box. Like in a paragraph. This one actually has cinematics. Which are entertaining to watch. Yay.

So overall, I would say that Kirby 64 is definitely a game to pick up if you're bored. I find myself just combining things together just to see what I get. And that's the fun of Kirby 64. Just running around eating things and getting powers. Actually, that pretty much describes all Kirby games. Why do I keep talking about "other Kirby games"?

Gameplay: 9/10
Controls: 7/10
Difficulty: 4/10
Graphics: 8/10
Music/Sound: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

Freehand

Today, I'm just gonna take it easy. No talking about anime or games. Just writing whatever comes to my mind. Although, if I write whatever comes to my mind, it's probably gonna go to anime or games. Whatever, we'll see.
Ready,,,GO

So today I went to Cerritos College. But Blue Yoshi isn't about me. It's about anything else. So...A Link to the Past is hard (I KNEW IT). Yeah, I'm a nerd. But whatever.

Ok, on to something else.

You know what always interests me? How teachers always praise the good students but never acknowledge the ones that don't do as well. It's like, "Hey good job, you're gonna do great, just fantastic." And maybe to the ones that don't do well, they might say, "Try harder." Kinda like...eh never mind. But let's take a different perspective. Let's say each student put in the same amount of effort, it's just one got a better result, and the other didn't. Teachers never acknowledge that. They don't care if you put in effort. Which is a big problem for me; I know, I had it happen. They're like, fuck them dude. And I know I might sound kinda bitchy, but that's what happens. That's what happens when this shit just flies into your face. IN YOUR FACE. Ew.

Ok, on to something else.

I got a new wallpaper. It's so damn bad ass, but only if you know what it is. It's a Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann wallpaper with quotes from Kamina pasted all over. I love it. I'm never gonna take it down.

Ok, on to something else.

Back to A Link to the Past, now that I'm playing it again, I just realized that I've never ever played a Zelda game without going to the Internet for help. It's that hard. And if someone here is reading this and they HAVE completed a Zelda game without the help of an Internet FAQ/Walkthrough...no...no that's impossible. Every person who has played a Zelda game HAS TO have had to go to the Internet for help. And I'm pretty sure that last sentence was grammatically incorrect.

Ok, on to something else.

Why are dolphins the only animal besides humans that get it on just for fun?
...
Maybe I shouldn't talk about that.

Ok, on to something else.

I left my initials on a beam support holding up the roof of the line area in Ghostrider at Knotts. I wonder if they're still there.

Ok, on to something else.

I remember watching a Pokemon episode. It was one of the earlier ones where Ash met Charmander for the first time. I disticntly remember that the Pokedex told Ash that if the flame on the tail goes out, it dies. But wait. Pokemon never die. Pokemon just faint. Even in the Pokemon GAMES, if you submerge a Charmander in a Surf attack, it just faints. What the ass?

Ok, on to something else.

Speaking of Pokemon, I'm hungry.

Ok, on to something else.

Next year, if I don't go to Anime Expo, man I'm gonna be pissed. I really have to go at least once. I don't know about cosplaying though. People told me to go cosplay for next years. Yeah, already. Seems you can cosplay as anything, even non-anime things. Such as...video games. LOL there's no escape.

Ok, on to something else.

Ok, I should probably wrap this freehand up. Just cuz I'm getting all over the place, and I don't want to make this too long. So stay tuned for more posts. Here's what might be coming up: Death Note, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, A Link to the Past, Kirby 64, XXXHolic.

Why is the term "all nighter" always associated with the verb "pull"?

VG Review #3: Balloon Fight

This game is a butt kicker. I love it. So much fun.
If you couldn't already tell from the picture above, this game is for the NES.
Also, if you couldn't tell from the picture above, you're a dude wearing a helmet with 2 balloons tied to him.
Yep. That's only the start of the awesomeness.
As the cover implies, this game is 2 players, but even playing alone is a bunch of fun. Your mission is to kill all other people in the game. If you're playing 2 players, you can even kill your partner, but all you need to do is obliterate all enemies. Each stage layout is different, but the main goal is the same: pop all balloons. You yourself have 2 balloons on your back, but all enemies have one, which makes your job a whole lot easier. Fly around with the A and B buttons. You can take 1 hit before you die. Once one of your balloons is popped, you need to keep your guard up. Another hit will kill you. But that's ok because you have 2 extra lives. But anything past that, and the game has no mercy. You start all over.
During each stage, the game gives you a head start and the enemies just sit there for a while. You can use this opportunity to kick some enemies off the screen to increase chances of survival. Don't wait too long though, or they'll pump up their balloons and fly around trying to pop your balloons with their noses. Yeah, by the way, the enemies in this game look like mosquitoes. Speaking of which, I got 2 bites. Ow.
To kill an enemy, just pop a balloon. Oh wait, that's not enough. Once you pop the enemy's balloon, they float down on a parachute. Stomp on the parachute to deliver the death blow. If they reach solid ground, they will sit there for a few seconds. If you wait too long, they pump up their balloon again and pursue yours.
As far as I know, this game is endless, meaning, it will loop as long as you play. Once you reach the last stage, you'll go back to the first. Also, in between several stages, you get this bonus round or something. There are 4 pipes that spit out balloons randomly. Just pop them for extra points.
This game really kicked my ass. It shouldn't be that difficult right? Just popping balloons? But really, this is one of the most challenging mothers I've ever played. Even though the AI looks kinda dumb, they will gang up on you if you don't start getting rid of stuff. I haven't gotten that far in the game and it's the first game I've reviewed that I haven't finished. But it kicks so much ass that I don't care.
The music kicks ass too. Classic sounds from the NES time.
Definitely play this if you are bored, it'll give you plenty of entertainment for hours.

Gameplay: 8/10
Controls: 8/10
Difficulty: 9/10
Graphics: 6/10
Music/Sound: 9/10
Overall: 9/10

Anime Review #6: Air

It feels kinda weird to be already writing a review right when I get back from a trip. Like I should be doing something better with my life. I dunno if I'm just wasting time here or whatever.
...
Nah, fuck it. Blogging is the best.

Now before I talk about Air, there's one other thing I want to talk about that's anime related. (Deep breath) I FUCKING MISSED ANIME EXPO. I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. DAMN YOU RYAN RUAN FOR NOT REMINDING ME. WELL IT'S NOT LIKE I WOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GO ANYWAYS, BUT I REALLY CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT ALL ABOUT IT. I BETTER BE ABLE TO GO NEXT YEAR. Actually, lemme check to see where and when it is next year.
...(checking)...
Nope, I guess it's not decided. But the when is still the same. Just...not the where.


Ok. Enough of my gripes. On to Air.

Air. Also known as Air TV, apparently. It's 13 episodes long, the last of the 13 being a summary. It has its own summer specials (2 of them) and a movie. I only watched the first 12 episodes because that's all I needed to write this review.
I really don't want to say this, but this anime has pretty much been a waste of my time. And it pains me to say that about any anime that has a lot of potential, but somehow they F it up.
But before I say any more, you know what time it is -
ROLL CALL:
Kunisaki Yukito - Male protagonist of the series. Silver haired puppeteer that freeloads off the next character on the roll call, Kamio Misuzu. He befriends Misuzu and vows to stay at her side forever. He also meets several other characters that make his stay at the town interesting.
Kamio Misuzu - One of the girls that Yukito meets, but is the main girl character. She is a very lively, but sickly, girl that travels around with Yukito. She tries to befriend him during this whole series and eventually succeeds. She lives with her aunt, who she calls "mom", and is a very childish person in general.
Kirishima Kano - Another girl that Yukito meets. She is pretty random and unpredictable and takes care of this one dog named Potato. At least I think it's a dog. She has fantasies about flying in the sky and using magic and sometimes asks Yukito's opinion on her thoughts. She is the younger sister of the only doctor in the town. I don't even know what the town's name is, so I'm just gonna call it "the town."
Tohno Minagi - A quiet, calm, collected girl that also meets Yukito. She usually hangs out with a younger girl by the name of Michiru. She is almost always serious, but seems to be fun to talk to. Sometimes though, she gets very emotional.

So those are the characters. Sounds familiar right? Wait. It does sound familiar. Haven't we seen this kind of character setup before? YEAH WE HAVE. Let's recap. If you remember before, I talked about Clannad. I didn't talk about each character back then, but now I can.

So here are the Clannad characters:
Okazaki Tomoya - The male protagonist that meets a bunch of girls.
Furukawa Nagisa - Okazaki's closest girl friend.
Fujibayashi Kyou - Okazaki's lively friend.
Ichinose Kotomi - A quiet, intelligent girl.

And here are the characters of Air:
Kunisaki Yukito - The male protagonist that meets a bunch of girls.
Kamio Misuzu - Yukito's closest girl friend.
Kirishima Kano - A lively girl with a good imagination.
Tohno Minagi - A quiet, intelligent girl.

There are other characters in Air that resemble those of Clannad. Like Michiru (Air) is like Sunohara Mei (Clannad). Potato even has a counterpart in Clannad. Potato is a small, white dog that runs around saying, "Piko Piko." In Clannad, a small, brown pig named Botan runs around saying, "Puhi Puhi." I'm not trying to say they copied. All I'm saying is that the similarity of the characters was only the start of my disappointment.
This anime, like Clannad, came from a visual novel, which is kind of like a manga that you go through in an game-like fashion. The choices you make determine the ending.
The story is about Yukito stopping by the town in order to try and make a living there with his puppet show. He seems to have little success. During his stay, he meets several characters that make it sort of an adventure to stay there. The main story is interupted, however, by a flashback that takes about 3 episodes, which is way too long. But I'll talk about that later. During this flashback, you're introduced to what seems like the ancestors of the main characters in medieval Japan, I THINK. I don't know my history that well so don't criticize me please. Then it cuts back to the main story, which seems to have started over with a minor difference, that I won't spoil for you.

Ok, now on to the editorials. The biggest problem I had with the story is that there is little or no continuity. Things just seem to happen whenever they want, however they want, to whoever they want. The effect it had on me was that it left me confused and really hesitant to continue watching. In fact, the reason this review was so delayed was probably because I was so reluctant to keep watching. IN FACT...even though I have all 13 episodes, 2 summer specials, and a movie, I only watched 12 episodes because I really didn't want to watch the others. Not a keeper for me. Knowing that I have precious space being taken up by this make me nervous. I gotta delete this to make room for more things. The other problem I had, if you remember from my last post, was the damn flashback scene. When I'm watching an anime, I expect maybe a few flashback scenes. And of those, I expect them to be, maybe, 10 minutes, or the whole episode at max. NOT 3 whole episodes. And that's where this anime really kicked me in the balls. I waited forever to get back to the main story, because the flashback was as boring as shit. And after that, it was like getting flicked in the balls. The main story wasn't much better after that. It was painful to watch; not because the characters were struggling, but the anime was just...bad.
The characters weren't bad, but like I said before, they were repetitive. Nevertheless, it was entertaining to see each of them live out their lives and have their own little adventures. The ending was also cheesy as all hell.
Overall, I don't recommend this to you if you're a casual anime watcher. Hell, I don't even recommend this to you if you're a hardcore anime fan. I recommend this to people who play visual novels and like this kind of weird, mediocre stuff. This is similar to things like Clannad and Kanon, which are also visual novels. So if you like those, watch this.

Storyline: 6/10
Characters: 7/10
Mood: 4/10
Uniqueness: 2/10
Overall: 5/10

Top 10 things I DON'T like about ANIME

You've heard me talk about how much I like certain animes and some of their features. Now it's time to turn the tables around and talk about what I don't like. Hate is a strong word, and I really wouldn't use it toward anime, but even in good things, there's a bunch of poopy shit.
So here it is: the 10 things I don't like about anime~

10) Bad opening/ending songs
Some people might not agree with me here, but I think that an opening pretty much defines the anime and its style. It's kinda like a first impression. And you want it to be good so you can feel comfortable about watching the series. If it sucks, sometimes you don't feel like watching. I'll give you a perfect example. Probably 80% of you reading this has seen Naruto. I thought the first opening was crappy. I almost quit right at the first minute of episode one, but people kept telling me to just get through the first season. It did pay off, but they shouldn't have to tell me that. The SHOW should have a better introduction. Ending songs people don't usually watch. I like to watch them because there's a preview right after and sometimes a little extra. Ending songs aren't as big of a deal because you can pretty much stop watching right when it starts. When it's bad though, it's really a pain to fast forward to the preview.

9) Bad story
After listening to me talk about how much I like a good story, you may be surprised to find this pretty low on the list. But trust me, some real shit is coming your way. Anyways, story is always a big part of ANY anime series. It's what keeps you interested and wanting more episodes. So if it sucks, you stop watching. Simple as that. A bad story is really sucky, but not as sucky as these next few things.

8) A stupid-ass catch phrase
There are good catch phrases and bad ones. It's something a character says that gives them personality and gives the whole series a certain flavor. A good one is like Kamina's "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?" from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. But that was in moderation. If you keep saying something over and over again, it's going to suck. Going back to Naruto, remember how cool it was when he kept saying "dattebayo"? It was kinda like some kind of hope emerging from him and almost always signaled victory. But then, episode 100 comes along, and he's still saying that. Goddamn. Shut up. It was nice the first time, but geez, limit yourself.

7) Corny events
This is in no way limited to anime at all. Movies have this, other TV shows have this. But anime has it too, unfortunately, which is why it's on this list. Awkward moments are the worst. Personally, I can't stand em. I would rather speed up ahead, but then I might miss something important. So I have to sit through them. It's alright if they're at the VERY END of a series, like the last episode, but sometimes, they're scattered everywhere in the middle, and that ruins it for me.

6) Predictability
If a series has this, it's not necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn't help make it better. It's like, if you've seen the first episode, you've seen the whole anime. That should NEVER happen. Seeing something that you didn't expect brightens up the anime, thus, you become addicted to it, waiting to see what happens next. That's why series should keep this down to a minimum today.

5) Annoying characters
Annoying characters are awful, especially if you have to see them every episode because they're a main character. This alone doesn't stop you from watching a series, but can help contribute to it. Every time you see them you cringe and you just wait for it to be over, like getting a shot. And when it IS over, you feel relieved. That's how annoying they are. No series should have this, and if they do, it's either to balance the characters or the anime just sucks. Just kidding.

4) Long flashback scenes
If you can put up with this, you're the man. I can't. It's a horrible way to continue a story, or rather, discontinue it and replace it with a new setting. I've seen two animes that do this: Tenjou Tenge, and Air (I think). These two in particular could have had a lot of potential, but as for Tenjou Tenge, I didn't like it only because of the long flashback (it took like 10 episodes). Air I haven't finished watching, but I remember a long flashback from when I tried to watch it earlier. And yes I do mean tried. Long flashback scenes...ew.

3) Killing off a good character
Although I have never cried while watching an anime, it's still sad to say goodbye. Many series I watched do this, and although it does make the series better in a way, it's hard on me, and I wish they didn't have to do this. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Mahou Sensei Negima, Kanon 2006, Clannad After Story, and many others do this in some way, shape, form, size, or color. Every time it happens, my view isn't the same anymore. Which is why this is number 3.

2) Guys who are too pussified to cash in
This annoys the hell out of me. And I'll explain what I mean by this. In my previous post about Rosario + Vampire, I talked about Aono Tsukune and all the girls that were in love with him. What I forgot to mention is what a pussy Tsukune is. He has like 4 girls after him and he is always hesitating. It's ridiculous beyond belief. I mean, the first time I saw an anime like this, I couldn't believe that they weren't taking action. Another anime that does this is Maburaho (which I might be doing later this summer). I know there are others, but I just can't think of them right now because it pisses me off that much.

Oh, God, are you ready for number 1? I'm just gonna include a bunch of empty space down here just in case you change your mind and decide to turn back. If you think you want to hear about this, go ahead and scroll down.













It's not too late, you know.












You got your whole life ahead of you.











Heh, you're brave.










Yeah, I'm just kidding, it's not that bad, but it's the worst thing ever, and I think many people will agree with me.

The number 1 worst thing about anime is....

1) Fillers
You just knew this was gonna be on number 1. Fillers are even worse than long flashback scenes because at least the flashback scenes had something to do with the actual story. Fillers don't do shit. For those of you who don't know what a filler is, imagine this: You have a tray of brownies, and there's a square in the middle that someone ate and now there's an empty space there. Someone uses a piece of dog shit to fill up that space. Yup, that's a filler. There is absolutely no point to it. Actually, there is. The point of a filler is to trick you into thinking that it's actually the real story and then later realizing that you've wasted your time watching some fuck. I remember back when I watched Bleach, I sat through this horrible section called the Bounto Arc. Yeah I know some of you cringed when you just read that. I was actually tricked into thinking it was the story from the manga. But then I wasted my time because it was actually just some shit to tide you over until the arrancars kicked in. I was actually glad that it was a filler because if the Bounto Arc was the actual story, Bleach would have sucked. Hard. Naruto is famous for its fillers and sometimes loses fans through them. Many other long term series include this to wait for the manga to make more chapters, but I tell you this: I would rather wait for years and years without an episode than to watch this crap ooze out of the series that I used to love. It's just shit. It deserves the #1 spot. I can't even talk about this anymore. I'm out.

Anime Review #5: Rosario + Vampire

I meant to talk about this one earlier, but didn't get around to it. Anyways, this is Rosario + Vampire. I don't know what "+" is all about, but I guess it means "and" from the way they use it in each episode title.

It's not the most original anime, but it's pretty damn unique. So this guy, Aono Tsukune, is regular old boy who sucks at life. Recently, he failed his last year in middle school and could not continue to high school. However, his dad finds an admission to Youkai Academy (Youkai means monster, I think. Hint, hint) and Tsukune can now continue to high school at this Youkai Academy. However, just like the title of the school, the people at this school are not normal. Every single one of them is some kind of monster, whether it be werewolf, mermaid, humanoid bugs and spiders, etc. Regular human beings are not admitted into this school, or rather, it is impossible for a human to enter Youkai, due to some protective barrier. Tsukune is able to get in though. And nobody suspects him of being a human...yet.
He thinks that he won't be able to fit in, but most importantly, he is scared to shit of all these monsters surrounding him. however, along the way Tsukune meets other students that help him cope with life in Youkai. What's weird about the people he meets (with the exception of Akashiya Moka) is that each one first appears to him as an enemy and attacks him, but after Moka defeats them, they become nice to Tsukune and start to fall in love with him. Kinda like Pokemon. Catching friends in Pokeballs...WHATEVER

ROLL CALL:
Akashiya Moka - This is the first person that Tsukune meets and is the pink haired girl on the photo above. She will be Tsukune's closest friend at Youkai, always tagging along with him and protecting him from other monsters (I'll get to that later). She has a crush on Tsukune almost instantly and is obsessed with his blood. Why? Because she is actually a vampire. Going to Youkai. No surprise there. Vampires love human blood the most and almost every day she sucks his blood. Even though that might seem mean, she supports him and helps him get around the fact that he's surrounded by other monsters.
Kurono Kurumu - This is the second person that Tsukune meets and is the light blue haired girl on the far left in the photo. She is a succubus. For those of you who don't know what a succubus is, it's a monster that seduces men to become their love slaves. Yeah. Oh, she can also fly with her huge bat wings, grab things with her tail, and extend her nails to slice things. She is probably the most sexual thing on the show. LOL. She also falls in love with Tsukune and wants him to be her "chosen one."
Sendo Yukari - The 3rd person that Tsukune meets is a witch. You can guess which one she is in the photo. She is a genius so she skipped several grades to get to Youkai. She gets around mostly by using spells, as witches do and usually causes trouble for people. She initially falls in love with Moka (YURI ALERT), but then later goes after Tsukune. She and Kurumu become rivals for Tsukune's love. I mean, there are other people who like Tsukune, but they have the biggest rivalry.
Shirayuki Mizore - My personal favorite and the 4th person that Tsukune meets to join the Newspaper Club. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, all the people above are in the Newspaper Club. Including Tsukune. Anyways, on to Mizore. She is a very shy, and quiet person that never attended class. Until she met Tsukune. Her monster identity is a snow lady. That is, she has the power of ice at her fingertips. She befriends Tsukune thinking that he is a loner like she is, but later discovers that he cannot understand her feelings. Tsukune comforts her and invites her to the Newspaper Club. And she falls in love with Tsukune, too. Of course.
Toujo Ruby - She is the last main girl character that Tsukune meets and is not pictured in the photo above. She is the same species as Yukari, which is a witch. The Newspaper Club meets her in a field of sunflowers and after a big fight, she befriends them later in the anime. She is rarely seen in the series, however, and makes only 2 or 3 appearances.

Away from the characters now and more about the anime. It's classified as an ecchi genre. If you don't know what ecchi is, imagine hentai (if you don't know what hentai is, you're the cleanest person ever). Ecchi is the midpoint of normal anime and hentai. Which means there's fanservice up the ass. Frequent upskirts, cleavage shots, swimsuits, changing rooms...yeah. Watch this if you're a perv. Just kidding, there are other reasons to watch.

For example, the storyline, although picaresque, is pretty decent. The characters are either really likeable or annoying to you. For the most part I liked most of the main characters. This anime is only 13 episodes long, so you won't spend that much time on it. Which is probably a good thing, because if it was any longer I think I would crack.

Which brings me to the bad points. There were some things that I didn't like about Rosario + Vampire. One of the things is that the episodes usually followed a pattern. Like House. But this is anime. This made the series really predictable and sometimes not fun to watch. Every episode, Moka makes the super transformation into the mega vampire (or, almost every episode) which was cool and all, but I wish it was more suspenseful and kept for other times. Also, there was this one scene that really annoyed me. In nearly every episode, Moka and Tsukune's eyes would meet, the screen would go all flashy, and they would say each other's names until Moka couldn't resist it and then she would suck Tsukune's blood. It was funny the first few times, but then after the 4th episode, man, fuck that. I thought the last episodes were kind of rushed, but yeah, you gotta fit this in 13 episodes, so I guess they tried their best.

The good side greatly outweighs the bad side. I mean, I just found out that a second series from Rosario + Vampire is out, called Rosario + Vampire Capu2. Just the fact that I want to see the second series, pretty much proves to me that this was a good enough anime. I really liked the variety of each show, seeing different kinds of monsters and a new story in pretty much every episode. From what I've heard, the manga is better than the anime. Since this anime was good, I'd really like to see the manga. But then again, I haven't read manga in a while so probably not now. I also like the opening and ending songs.

It was a great series.

Storyline: 8/10
Characters: 9/10
Mood: 5/10
Uniqueness: 8/10
Overall: 7.5/10

Charlie Chen requested reviews on Code Geass (for anime) and Battletoads (for VG). Which reminds me to tell all you readers: if you want something reviewed - a video game, an anime, a movie, whatever - request it, and if I find it reasonable, or possible, I will attempt to.

Here's what you can expect later this summer:
ANIME - Air, and maybe Death Note
VG - I'm looking around. Nothing so far.

By the way, I've been looking into some GameCube stuff, so if you're willing to let me borrow some games, let me know =]