Quick update and Winter/Spring Gaming: Hakuouki, Tales of Graces f, Xenoblade Chronicles, and more

Back again with some interesting news. Went to see the Korean music groups FT Island and CN Blue concert on March 9 at the Nokia theater. It was fantastic. Both group has so much energy and were great with the crowd. They were singing their main hit sogs and also some of their Japanese songs too. CN Blue had some English single released in Japan so they were able to sing some English songs. Live music was just the best. I had a blast at the concert.

From February on there has been tons of RPG games that I have been wanting to get my hands on.

February:

Hakuouki Shinsengumi Limited Edition
First English translated otome game(visual novel love simulation gears toward female audience) on PSP. It's a VN so lots of reading but I do love the Shinsengumi. The character designs and CGs are gorgeous. Lots of ikemen and bishounen. Thank you Aksys

March:

Tales of Graces f

I'd been waiting for 2 years for this RPG on the PS3 ^o^ it was just so fun. Gamestop was having the special preorder of special character costumes from the Earlier Tales game and ToGf PS3 theme(my current theme on PS3). I finished the childhood arc, the skits were adorable and starting out the adult arc. Looking to be a fun game...waiting for Tales of Xillia to be localize in the US too.

Good finds for March:
Alice Madness Return
Roaming around at Target near my area and found this being on clearance for 14.98. I was so happy, I grabbed it in a heartbeat. I've been wanting to play this game since last summer. This was a very sweet find cuz most of the other places has it for twice the price. This game is the sequel to the previous American McGee's Alice on PC. It's lovely and colorful with awesome darker and twisted Alice as she returns to Wonderland.

Jeanne D'Arc
Fry's Electronics had this for about 9 bucks on the PSP. PSP games are dwindling now even though it's so popular in Japan. The game is a grid based RPG develope by Level 5 studio. The story is a version of Joan of Arc and it has great chibi character design with vibrant CG background. Turn based like FF tactics. Heard it got good reviews for its time so I decide to pick it up.

April:

Xenoblade Chronicles

One of the beset Wii RPG out there. Monolith Soft studio bring us this visually appealing saga of Xenoblade Chronicles. I heard this was the prequel to Xenogears and Xenosaga. Anyways, the story follow the journey of a young boy named Shulk with his powerful weapon, the Monado fighting with mechanical monsters with the help of his friends. Love the terrain and roaming space in this game. So many quest and menu systems takes a bit to get use to. It's a Gamestop exclusive game for the Wii and I got the artbook with the pre order. I was really happy that this was brought to the US cuz Europe got it way before us and it was out in Japan 2 yrs ago. What's even cooler is that you can change the vocal track to Japanese so you get to play it with the original Japanese vocal with English subtitles. The Japanese voice actor for Shulk sounds so adorable. Definitely a great pick up.

here's a pic of the game case and the artbook

Future U.S. release games:

Next up on my to get RPG game list would be...

Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland coming out in May. The next Ateleier games for PS3. Another atelier game..alchemist, mixing, and magic. I got the Atelier Rorona Lim ED and Atelier Totori Lim ED so will probably get this one too. Same character design as the previous game..hoping it will be fun.

The Last Story on the Wii releasing in July. The next game on operation rainfall list of RPG for the Wii that they want it to come out(Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Pandora Tower). I do have the original Japanese version of this game...I played a bit of it, pretty straight forward and fun but I'm not that good at Japanese so the US version will help me understand to story more.

Growlanser Wayfarer of Time on PSP out in July. It'd been a long time since I played Growlanser. Missed it a lot. Hopefully the battle system in this one will be good.

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch on PS3 sometime in 2013. This is suppose to have a different story than the NDS version that I have.

These were the prospect games so far..and whenever I get a PS Vita..Gravity Rush looks really cool.

The Last Story

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Quick Fall 2011 Anime Review

So Fall 2011 Anime...

Kk..so here's a sampling of new anime that came out in Japan this fall(Oct'11 on). This is a quick review of the new series and what I thought of them. Since there are so many, I can't review them all but I'll do some. I'm not a pro or expert in anything but just a person who loves to watch anime.

Un-go

A very interesting anime with unique characters. I love studio Bones. This animation studio tend to bring out cool title. Un-go is a murder mystery in the post war world of the present. It's a sci-fi murder mystery with interesting twist. Our main character is a young male detective with his sidekick(appears to be a hyperactive lil boy in a cat hat) who solve murder cases. The twist here is that his sidekick, Inga, can transform to this sexy lady who can ask anyone one question to get the truth to the murder. I watch 4 eps of this and it just gets better.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai

A show about a yankee(rebel) looking transfer student who has no friend who got drag into a friend making club w/ a girl who has no friend. They later gets more club members who wants to make friend. It shows that even the most popular person still can't find true friend. It's an ok show.

Hunter x Hunter (2011 remake)

A remake of a great series Hunter x Hunter that came out in 1999. They recast the voice actors and redid the animation. I guess they want to reintroduce the series to the new fans. It's a great series about Gon Freecss who wanted to become a hunter like his father and travel the world by doing doing hunter assignments along with 3 of his Hunter friends(Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio). Hunter in this case means mercenary so they do random task for money.

Fate/Zero

^O^ Yay. Another Fate series by Type-moon and animate by studio ufotable(who did Fate Stay Night Unlimited Bladework). Being a Fate Stay Night fan, seeing its prequel is like a dream. Based on a light novel, the series talk about The Holy Grail battle where individuals are chosen to summon servants to fight each other. By winning the Holy Grail, the master can get any one wish granted. You get to see what happen in the previous holy grail battle before Fate Stay Night. Although the first ep is a lot of text explaining the setting and story, it was very well done. The animation is terrific and the voice actors are great. There are random comedic moments in the series(Waver and Rider are just hysterical). I'm a fan of Saber so it's great to see her again. The servant in this round are very interesting. Fate/Zero Lancer is such a bishie and Kiritsugu Emiya(Shiro's adopted papa) is very cool. I'm liking this show a lot. Definitely will continue watching it.

Ben-to

A comedy about people fighting to buy half price bento(Japanese lunch box set). This light novel turned anime is about a high school boy who got beat up while trying to purchase a half price bento. He later joins a club that trains you how to fight to get that half price bento. One of the ridiculous yet entertaining show I've seen this season. I was glad I got to watch it because it's pretty fun. You get to see how different groups' intricate strategies in order to obtain bento. Lots of fun characters, great casts(many familiar voices), and fluid animation(the fighting scenes are pretty good). Random fanservice moments here and there. A fun comedy for fall.

That's it for now. I'll update more later. ^O^

Kokuhaku (Confession) 2010 Review

I watched Kokuhaku a few months ago and just thought I'd give a short review about it. It's an amazing film. It's not a happy film but it's a dark, twisted, and clever film in many ways. Although slowly moving in the beginning, it later progressed with each confessions being done beautifully. The movie started out with Yuko Moriguchi(Takako Matsu) resigning from teaching her junior high school students due to the death of her daughter and confessing that she knew that two students in her class killed her daughter(student A & student B). She also said she planned to get back on them(watch it to see what happen..it's so good).

So a few months pass the next semester came, a new homeroom teacher was assigned and the class was back to normal. Not quite. The treatment on student A and student B was different. Bullying occured. Student B was so traumatized by what Ms. Moriguchi did, he wouldn't even come to school. Pretty much a third of the film showed the deterioration of the class and how the lives of student A and student B change after the incident. These are shown as confessions even the student B mother has a confession. Overall, it was an amazing film. The scenery and music can bring about various emotions in this film. The cinematography was beautiful. Great acting. Good twisted ending too. It also showed how students can turn on each other so easily and become very scary at times. I recommend it if you want to watch something different.

Below is the trailer w/ Eng sub:

Fall 2010 Anime Sampling Review

I am a fan of Japanese pop culture. So anime, manga, and videogames are some things I love too. Watching anime is one of my hobby. It's always fun to watch some new series out there. It's relaxing and enjoyable. I wanted to write a short review of the anime sampling I've done for Fall 2010 anime. These shows are series that premiered in Japan in October 2010. I'm reluctant to give a letter grade or number grade because I've only sample the first episode. I found out after watching anime fore several years that some anime can turn really awesome a few episode later on so I can't be bias by just the 1st ep. I will, however, say which one I'll pick up for frequent watch though and those that I won't keep. This season there's a lot of returning shows as well as manga turned anime...and some harlem,mystery, and shows I have no clue what it is? No pics yet because I'm just getting use to this. OK Let's start ^O^


Arakawa Under the Bridge x 2 ep 1

(Arakawa Bridge Bridge)Couldn't be happier to see the return of Arakawa season 2. Episode 1 hadn't fail to make me laugh with the typical Arakawa silliness and humor.
Recruit and Nino was awesome as always. The opening was called Cosmos vs. Alien..the lyrics made no sense but it's good. A new character was almost introduce in this episode(a buff amazon lady). We got to find out that Shiro-san was not a dead beat after all. It was pretty good. The Arakawa sentiment and charm continued. Definitely a lighthearted show I'll pick up. ^O^

Psychic Detective Yakumo ep 1

Interesting new show. It involved a college protagonist who can see spirits and helped people solve mystery murder cases. Somehow the main character reminded me a little of Light Yagami(from Death Note) but not as evil. A bit of drama, ghost, and mystery. Clique..I'd say yes but it does have potential. Will have to watch more to see if it's good or not.

Toga inu no chi ep 1

Nitro Chiral yaoi game turn anime. ^o^ So many bishies. Akira, the main character, is being accused of murder and was blackmailed into an assassin game to collect dog tags in a live or dead battle with many dangerous groups of people. The character design looks really good and we get to see 2 of the main guys so far(I so adored the red eye dude with the sword). A light hint of shounen ai in this episode but I don't know how much they are gonna go with that. Thank you Nitro Chiral and A1-Pictures studio for bringing this goodness to us fans. Hopefully if this series does well they will turn their other game Lamento into an anime. Some blood and violence and boy love so. Not for everyone. A keeper for this one.


To Aru no Majutsu no Index season 2 ep 1

Yes!! The cast of To Aru Majutsu no Index is back. I didn't get to see Railgun yet so I don't know a lot of the new characters(will watch that soon). A little refresher was done to tell us a bit of season 1 and the first bad guy appeared. He was ok. The episode was good though. Touma and Index quarrel like always. It's great to see Touma and Index back in action again. This will also be in my to watch list.

Panty and Stocking with Garter Belt ep 1

What the??? The girls are cute but they are more mature than what they look like. This show is kind of like an adult version of the Powerpuff Girls. Got through half of the episode and gave up cuz it's not something I'd expect from an anime. It's really different. Panty is a sex addict and Stocking is a sweet tooth. The premise is the girls are fallen angels that try to solve different cases so that they can go back to heaven. The first episode has an excrement thing that wasn't for me. Don't think I'll continue with this one.

Yosuga no Sora ep 1

Totally not what I thought it would be. Why do I feel like this was an eroge game turned anime. Oh wow and I was right. The twins(Sora and Haru) were really cute and apparently many of the girls had a crush on Haru-kun, the main guy twin. Character design is really good. Quite a bit of fan service and definitely Sora-chan has a total brother complex(to a really great extent). I can see a formidable love triangle/square going on..Aiming for fanboys mostly. A forbidden love will ensue but it's just too harlem for me. Not really good for younger audience due to some suggestive scenes. >o< Not really my thing. Drop. The World God Only Knows ep 1

My friend told me about this manga and coincidentally it got popular enough to have an anime on its own. Episode 1 was good. It stick to the manga most of the time but a few scenes wasn't there. The main character's voice fits him well and the shinigami girl's voice is good too. Looks like it's gonna be a fun romantic shounen comedy. It was kind of fun to see how the gal game obsessed main character try to win the heart of a real girl based on his gaming skills. Will look forward to this one. A good watch for light fun series. Pick up..gonna go read more of the manga too.

Otome Yokai Zakuro ep 1
Shoujo manga turned anime. Character design is pretty but the background and colors are a bit average. Pretty ghost girls with cat ears paired up with bishonen boys to defeat spirits. One of the main guy is afraid of spirits so he provide the humor to the anime. It was fun..I'd have to see more of this to have more input about it. Pick up.

Bakuman ep 1
It's amazing that the story writer and the manga artist of the infamous Hikaru no Go and Death Note brings out an anime about 2 teenagers becoming manga artists. A total turn from the serious and dark Death Note..I haven't read much of the Bakuman manga but the anime seem to be following the manga nicely. It's pretty good. The fake opening kind of make go "what??" but the real opening came after. I can see shonen comedy in this. It looks fun so will keep.

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru ep 1
I keep thinking Maka from Soul Eater when I heard the main girl's voice in this anime. It's an interesting comedy where the main girl work as a maid in a cafe trying to be a maid cafe. Her female friends started to work there too and we started to see their relationship with their guests. A slice of life manga turned anime. The first episode was fun and interesting. We see character development and an attempt of a love triangle. Will keep.

Fortune Arterial ep 1
Harlem with more bishounen too. The main male character returned to his hometown to dorm in a school in that area and meet many childhood female friends(yes clique). Coincidentally the female Student Council VP feel in love with him at first sight(or just have a jolt when she touch him). He's getting use to the school in the first episode and something interesting happen at the end of this episode which makes it a bit more interesting. >o< Will try out the next episode. Keep.

That's it for now. There are still more shows that I haven't seen yet in this season. Will put some more reviews after I've watch them.

Sept 2010 B's Log and Girl's Style ^0^

I went to Kinokuniya in Little Tokyo in LA yesterday and got me a few otome game magazines. It's super rare to find them because most of the time they'll be gone. I got into otome games about a year ago. Otome games are girl dating simulation or visual novels where you play the a girl trying to win the heart of a bunch of hot guys. They are geared toward female crowd so you'll see typically see stereotypes of male you find in shoujo manga: smart one, sporty one, cool ones, bad boys, pretty boys and so on. Let's talk about the 2 magazines.

Sept. 2010 B's Log



B's Log is a monthly magazine that covers up and coming otome games, BL games, yaoi games and otome anime. The cover of September 2010 B's Log has 3 of the guys from NDS game Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side: 3Story (TMGS3) with freebies which contain Hakuouki chibi characters stickers, Saitou from Hakuouki photo, a SYK chara photo, a TMGS3 full poster(2 side/ one side has the cover of b's log and the other has all the guys in TMGS3), and a sticker of one of the TMGS3 chara. Inside has info on new otome, BL, and yaoi games that are coming out and info on current games. This issue also covers Gakuen Hetalia Portable, Sengoku Basara 3 game and Last Ranker game. It's a full color magazine with lots of bishies(pretty boys) in it ^O^.

Hakuouki stickers



Other goodies





Sept 2010 Girl's Style




Degenki Girl's Style is also another of otome game magazine that cover otome games and Visual Novels, yaoi games, and BL games. September 2010 Degenki Girl's Style magazine cover has 3 of the guys from the PSP game Storm Lover with a freebie of double sided poster of the guys from Durarara. This month Girl's Style cover many otome games and has hints of how to win different games characters. I'm seeing a lot of history related games in this issues too. A new Durarara! game is coming out on PSP and it has a male character I haven't seen before. It also cover a bit of Hakuouki season 2 anime where you'll see the bishies in their western clothing. Yes, lots of bishies too.

Movies review: School Days with the Pig

Here's a review of a movie I watched recently >o< Schooldays with A Pig Basics: The story is about a six grade teacher who brought a baby pig for his whole class to raise for a year. At the end of the year, they will eat it. But will they eat little P-chan? That is the main question centering in this movie. Will the kid's attachments to the pig make them change their mind or will the piggy be sent to the slaughter center? Reaction: I've read pretty good reviews about this film and I had to agree. It was an enjoyable film to the very end. The teachers and students interaction in this movie was realistic. I absolutely love the debates the students had on what to do with P-chan. Also the baby pig was so adorable and I was able to see it grew as time pass. The movie really hit the topic of what's the value of a life that was not human. It was a very tough decision for them...I was crying with them toward the final debates too because it was so emotional. To me there was no right or wrong in their decision. >o<

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