Why not the PC version of Battlefield 3? Well my computer can’t support the game hence I decided to use my PS3. Well regardless most of my friends are on PS3 so yeah, PS3 ver. it is for Battlefield 3!

To start off, what did I not enjoy about the multiplayer mode?

1. Campers camping in Rush Mode

Majority of my games are Conquest, whereby we have to capture flags. The number of points varies from A-C or A-D. What I realised is – Rush mode requires attacking side to arm the bomb while defending side has to disarm. Most of the games I played were horrible. I see people just camping in a corner, in a building, spamming RPG. Like seriously? Rush mode is useless. I am so much better off playing Conquest!

2. Tehran Highway Lags Like Hell

This is the only map on Conquest that lags A LOT when I’m playing the game. I can barely see where I’m running to at times. At times I even miss the spot to plant the C4 on the tank -_- However I heard that there’s a server patch which will fix the problems to the lag issue. Hopefully it will..

3. Forming a squad before joining a game only to be alone.

Seriously I don’t know what’s the point of offering the squad formation before joining a game if they decided to disband us in the actual game -_-. Sometimes I’m on a different team from my friends!!

4. It’s hard to pilot the Jet with my DualShock 3

Lol. I spent like 30 mins to 1 hour on the Jet, most of them crashing and dying off xD. It’s tough to control. And more so, hard to kill anything!!

Well there are a lot more but these tend to piss me off a lot. :P

Overall the game is fairly enjoyable – I haven’t tried the co-op mode of single player campaign, but I suppose it is quite fun? Yeah. I love the graphics of the game too. It’s awesome to jump off a heli-pad and wait for the moment to pull my parachute out ^^ .

Kanzaki Kaori, Shinonono Houki, Seraphim

Well, similar voice actors may sometimes come packaged with the same characteristics that they are well known to expressing (e.g. Rie Kugimiya = tsundere). These characters above are the ones I can think of currently since last season’s anime are still fresh in my mind. I don’t know about you guys, but this is a recurring problem for me. After watching so many series, the anime database in my mind starts to get a little fuzzy.

The main problem I have is with names actually. I just can’t seem to remember Japanese names well and having characters with similar traits just makes it worse. What about you guys? What other characters can you think of that confuse you with another?

Yoko Littner, Oda Nobunaga

No, I do not have a fetish for girls with ponytail…

Title: The Legend of the Legendary Heroes / Denestsu no Yuusha no Densetsu
Genre: Fantasy, Magic, Comedy, Action, Adventure
Duration: 26 Episodes – 30 minutes each
Main Seiyuu Cast: Daisuke Ono, Jun Fukuyama & Ayahi Takagaki

Quick overview of the plot

Basically, the series is set in a continent made up of multiple countries, each with their own form of magic. Wars break out every now and then in a bid to ensure stability for one’s own country by flaunting supremacy against all the other countries.

That’s basically the overview of the series. A giant chessboard, with each chess piece holding different kind of abilities. But wait…. there’s more. You didn’t think that would be the entire plot of a series that uses the word ‘Legend’ twice now would it.

Yes. I’ve left out 2 key element that separates this show from the others.

1. The deception & sneakiness that hovers around the entire series once you get past episode 6-8.
2. The search for Legendary Artifacts – Weapons that grant users crazy abilities.

Characters

Name: Ryner Lute

Ryner is the aloof hero. He isn’t your usual pumped to go guy. His favorite pastime is to take an afternoon nap whenever he can. Despite his air of aloofness, he carries with him a great power, the Alpha Stigma. It’s power lies in his eyes, and when he evokes it, it allows him to analyze magic his opponents are using and be able to use it as well.

Name: Ferris Eris

I may have taken a wrong screen capture of her here, cause she actually does look calm and amicable in this shot. I assure you, she is not. Ferris is a beast. Even without using any form of magic abilities, her raw skills enable her to go on par with large group of opponents, even able to put fear into Legendary Artifact users. Oh.. and she loves Dango.

Name: Sion Astal

The legendary hero who ’survived’ the ambush battle he and his classmates were sent to a few years back. Back then, he was still a nobody, keeping his illegitimate royal blood a secret. Too bad for him, the nobles caught wind of it and sent his entire squadron into an ambush against a rival army. Only 2 others, excluding him, survived that day.

Sion is the calm and hardworking king that every citizen loves because everything he does always benefits the middle and lower classes somehow, something that drives the nobles totally mad.

Why You Should Watch This

It’s just magical. Granted that the first few episodes seem a little dull, but it’s all in the name of building up a plot and its characters, creating linkages, linking every character one by one.

I wouldn’t say that the show’s darkness, deceit and sneakiness is unique to the show alone, but the presentation of it is excellent. As you would know, no kingdom is flawless. There are always the extremist who always want things a certain way and let’s just say that there is one such person on Sion’s personal guards that would try to take things to an extreme.

Another reason to watch would be the adventure. Every episode seems to throw me into the world of LOL-Heroes and watching each plot unfold is just breathtaking. While there aren’t super page turner scenes, it’s still a good watch.

So why should you watch this? Because it’s better than half the shows being shown in this season. And also, it’s currently at Episode 17, so there’s a good 9 more episodes to go, so catching up won’t be that bad.

I give LOL-Heroes 4.5/5 stars

]]> http://zotaku.com/2010/11/06/a-look-on-the-legend-of-the-legendary-heroes/feed/ 0 http://zotaku.com/2010/11/02/yosuga-no-sora-watch-it-at-your-own-risk/ http://zotaku.com/2010/11/02/yosuga-no-sora-watch-it-at-your-own-risk/#comments Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:29:48 +0000 guuzen http://zotaku.com/?p=11226 Yosuga no Sora is an anime adaptation of Sphere’s adult visual novel. With that in mind, it is natural to expect some pantsu or conveniently covered body parts. However that is not the case for this anime.

You should already get an idea of the level of nudity and the amount of sexual content right from the first episode. If by any chance you missed out on the masturbation scene at the end of episode 1, it is important to note that there is an intimate scene shared between two of the characters in episode 4.

Some of you may be thinking that it is a little too late to give a warning when there are already 4 episodes released. However there are some rare cases like my friend’s parents, whereby they are fine with nudity and gore (e.g. Elfen Lied) but sexual interactions are a big no-no. So if you happen to have those parents and the story is too interesting for you to pass up, then be careful from now on because there is no telling what will happen in future episodes.

Apart from all that, this show has a really wonderful opening and insert song. If you haven’t listen to them, you can watch the videos below as a sample! Those interested in purchasing the singles can head over to CDJapan.

Opening Song – “Hiyoku no Hane” by eufonius

Insert Song – “Tsunagu Kizuna” by Team Nekocan feat. Junca Amaoto

*Note: This review will contain some spoilers to a light extent.*

Well so the Gundam 00 movie had a same day screening here in Singapore as in Japan. I watched it together with guuzen while zenical watched it at a later screening. So yeah, I’ll be giving a short summary of what happened.

Short Summary
Set 2 years after the end of season 2, the gundam 00 movie continues off, showing the events that occured after the takedown of A-Laws.

While the world has achieved peace at  certain level, a new enemy takes center stage. The meisters show off all their new gundams. Cameos from the side characters like “Immortal Patrick” and “Graham ‘Mr. Bushido’ Aker” appear throughout the film.

So basically, a new enemy has appeared in the form of the alien substance, the ELS. The ELS can assimilate anything it touches and basically yeah, the goal of the ELS is to gather everyone’s thoughts into a single collective.

Put it simply, everyone puts up a stellar fight and it ends with Setsuna saving the day. Hooray.

Impressions
Well, if you ask me. There are alot of bones I have to pick with the movie. For instance, the plot about extraterrasterial life. The Gundam series to me has always been about suits fighting suits. Season 1 had the Gundams fighting the Flags, the Tierens and the…. others.  Season 2 had the Gundams fighting the Aheads. The movie? Some weird alien that can absorb you after it fires a barrage of fang like items.

And don’t get me started on the Independence Day-like scenes in the movie. I don’t know. Kinda cheasy for me. And the ending. To each his own but, I’m pretty sure much of the audience crowd echoed my thoughts when the end credits started rolling. Oh, if you are catching the movie, there is a final scene after the credits.

But, I shall not nitpick any further. I like Gundams and Gundam 00 was the first Gundam series I actually fully understood and followed through. There are nice characters, awesome voice actors, brilliant suits and a magnificant plot from start……… well the end crashed and burned for me….. but yeah. A 9/10 is still an ‘A’.

So if you ask me if you should watch the movie, I would say Yes. If you’ve followed through all 2 seasons, no reason to miss this.

Score: 9/10 <*If you ignore the ending
Actual Score: 7/10<*Taking the ending into consideration.

ACHOOO!!!!!!

So much for wanting your fringe to be short. This is why you don’t cut your hair on your own! I laughed so much while watching this episode. It’s sad indeed that K-ON!! is ending in a few more weeks! Gahh >_<.

Firstly, I’m going to try and keep this impressions post as spoiler-free (about the series’s ending) as possible.

Just a little fact sheet first.

1. FMA(manga) has been running since 2001 and ends with this month’s Issue of Gangan at Chapter 108.
2. The anime will end at the end of this month with Episode 64.
3. FMA has had 2 anime adaptations. The first one sprouting an anime-original twist and the current one following the manga to the T.
4. Hmm. I guess there’s not much facts left other than that the ending left my speechless in a good way, but that could be me only.

Anyway, on to the impressions.

I started with the first FMA anime about 2 years back before jumping onto the manga bandwagon to satisfy my FMA thirst. Back then I didn’t know that the 1st Anime wasn’t 100% cannon so no surprises that I got really confused with the Homonculus names and where I was, so yeah, I decided to throw all the 1st Anime knowledge away and re-read FMA from Chapter 1 onwards. It was a daunting task I tell you with each chapter being 30-50pages long as it’s a monthly manga.

There are quite a few mini-arcs, such as the Lior Arc, Sho Tucker Arc or even the Rush Valley Arc just to name a few that are small arcs that more or less link the different characters together. Edward along with Alphonse set off from his hometown at the beginning of the story to become a State Alchemist in order to find the Philosopher’s Stone in order to regain the body parts they lost due to attempting Human Transmutation.

The overall story of FMA is pretty fluid and they all transition well from one arc to another. What’s best is that some of the characters that were introduced in the individual arcs were ocassionaly revisited later in the manga, albeit being small cameo roles, but it’s better than being totally forgotten. (e.g. Rose from Lior, Hughes’s wife Glacia)

Along the way, they meet new allies such as Roy Mustang, Ling Yao, May Chang and even Olivia Armstrong I guess. But what journey would it be without having villains which in the story is mainly portrayed by Scar at one point before the villainy focus moved towards the Homunculus and their elusive leader, let’s call him Father as well.

The characters of FMA are generally strong in their own points. Take Scar for example, Scar transitioning from villain to ally was established as a common-goal thing. You don’t start seeing Scar becoming chummy with the rest of the Good Guys because that’s not him. He was established as a straightforward Ishavalan with a ‘tragic’ past and that weight stays with him throughout the manga, leading him to new abilities and new realisations. Even the Homunculus, they were strong representations of their names. Greed(later LingYao+Greed) really stuck to his Greedy Creedo throughout the series despite jumping from Bad Guy to Good Guy back and forth most of the time. Really an excellent piece of work defining the characters that well.

The pacing of the story is at a nice and steady, unlike other mangas that tend to move at a snail’s pace. The last major arc of the manga although taking place all in the span of a day, doesn’t feel lethargic because there are action scenes everywhere. The anime has been covering this arc since Episode 45 or 47 if I’m not wrong. And yes, it’s all in 1 anime day’s time span but it doesn’t feel tiring because just sooo much happens.

The animation of FMA:B itself is beautiful. Their budget must have been pretty nice, seeing as how they produced quality episodes week after week. My favourite points of animation was when they focused on Lan Fan’s automail and Winry. YES. Every Winry scene was a winning scene. (No surprises that I’m a big WinryXEd fan here.)

The seiyuu cast is awesome. Both the Elric brother are voiced by the same women who voiced them back in the first Anime. Yes. Romi Paku voices Edward and Kugimiya Rie voices Alphonse. Even Winry’s seiyuu (Megumi Takamoto) who is someone totally unknown to me sounded awesome, like the perfect Winry I had in mine.

Other notable Seiyuus include Ling Yao’s Seiyuu (Miyano Mamoru, Setsuna F. Seiei-Gundam 00), Roy Mustang’s Seiyuu (Miki Shinichiro, Lockon Stratos-Gundam 00), Kimblee’s Seiyuu (Yoshino Hiroyuki, Allelujah Haptisim-Gundam 00), Riza Hawkeye’s Seiyuu (Orikasa Fumiko, Kuchiki Rukia-Bleach) and May Chang’s Seiyuu (Goto Mai, Ryuubi Gentoku-Shin Koihime Musou).

Last thing to talk about would be the songs. Doesn’t everyone love them? The OPs and EDs used for FMA are oozing excess awesomeness.

From Yui’s again to SID’s Rain, they were all awesome OPs but my favourite OP has to be Chemistry’s Period(4th OP). It wasn’t that long ago that I actually hated SID’s Rain cause it replaced my favourite FMA OP.

For the EDs, we had range from SID’s Uso to the current Ray of Light by Shoko-tan. Mm. None of these 2 are my fave EDs though. Haha. Yes, it’s Shunkan Sentimental by SCANDAL with Let It Out by Miho Fukuhara coming a close 2nd.

To end it off, here’s my favourite mid-episode eyecatch this season.

Well, there isn’t much to talk about FMA other than do watch it before the series ends, or you’ll be badly spoiled for the ending. ( Or in my case, I read it already so… Yay!!) Right. And I’m out.

Title: Baka to Test to Shokanju
Air Date: January 6, 2010
Episodes: 13
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Producer(s): SILVER LINK
Official Site: http://www.bakatest.com/index2.html
Trailer: http://www.bakatest.com/
Seiyuu: Hiro Shimono, Hitomi Harada
OP: Perfect-Area Complete by Natsuko Aso

It isn’t everyday that an anime will come out and present that many LOL or ROFL moments that really invoke the real Laughing Out Loud or Rolling On Floor Laughing. Well this anime is one of the few. The show more or less takes place in Fumizuki Academy where students are sorted out based on their academic results of their entrance exams. The test also serves as a way to see what type of ammenities a student get to enjoy.

BakaTestTo’s harsh school environment has 6 classes in each level. From A through F, the students are given classroom amenities of decreasing usefulness. The A class students enjoy lounge chairs, laptops, fully stocked libraries while the F class students are treated to a shabby tatami-matted classroom with tea tables and cushions as their desks and seats. While I’m pretty sure that the wordy explanation I’ve just given isn’t all that appealing, much less humorous, you’ll really need to watch the show to get it, which is what I’m trying to do.

The characters of the anime are beautiful and brilliant. From the extremely dumb but gullible Yoshii to the cool yet still somewhat dumb Yuuji, the show’s characters are one of the key factors to this show’s brilliance. Now I’m going to introduce the main characters of the show:

Name: Himeji Mizuki
Well, I would be blatantly lying if I said that she wasn’t my very first reason to start watching this show. Yeah yeah, I have a weakness for Pink haired characters(e.g. Louise from ZnT, Lala from TLR). She’s this super genius that ended up in the F class due to her fainting during the Entrance exams and thus getting a 0, effectively placing her in the last class in the school. Despite being in the F class, she has the mind of an A class student and is the Shokanju MVP for the F class. Appears to like Yuuji.

Name: Akihisa Yoshii
As I’ve mentioned earlier, the very dumb and gullible main lead of the show. Dumb as in exam grades-wise dumb and gullible as in, will listen to anything that Yuuji says about him. He is constantly dead broke, always making the wrong comments about Shimada and is totally oblivious about how Himeji feels about him. Hilarity ensures whenever he’s around.

Name: Sakamoto Yuuji
The mastermind and self-appointed leader in the F class. In the class of idiots and weirdos, he appears to be the most levelheaded and capable person in the class. His intelligence though is very much undesirable. His childhood friend is the valedictorian of Fumizuki Academy and let’s just say that whenever they’re seen together, I just can’t stop laughing.

Name: Shimada Minami
The tomboy-ish girl which has no breasts but is still very hot cause of her almost-pinkish hair. WOOHOO!! All hair-related matters aside, she’s also another Baka who excels best at Math. She has very apparent feelings for Yoshii but can never express them due Yoshii’s constant mockery of her + her never ending ‘killing’ of Yoshii. She also has a kouhai that goes ONEE-SAMA whenever they meet. Haha.

Name: Kinoshita Hideyoshi
The bishounen character of the series. Yes. I will not lie. This is a trap. This is NOT a girl. In a completely seperate matter, Hideyoshi does have a sister who looks exactly like him but is wayyyyyyyy smarter and in the A class. Yea. Their complete look-alike-ness totally reminded me of Maria+Holic’s Maria & Shizu.

Name: Tsuchiya Kouta
And the last main character of the series, Tsuchiya Kouta aka. the main pervert of the show. Yes. He will not hesitate in catching a glimpse of a girl’s pantsu. His specialty is in Health Ed. Well, to be honest, he isn’t exactly noticable as much as the other characters, playing more of a supporting main character but his antics usually do add to the humor so…. ah well.

And that’s the last of the main character I’ll be talking about. Too bad that my current favourite character of the series isn’t one of the main cast and crew though. She’s the valedictorian of the A class and has at best, had a 5-minute scene in episode 2 and 2 30-second scenes in episode 3. Hope to see more of her though.

Currently, the first 3 episodes are out and it is time to catch the series if you haven’t already. It’s one of the 4 shows I’m catching this season and I’ve had no regrets watching it. Come to think of it, despite my initial thoughts that this would be a very ecchi-oriented show, this is perhaps the least ecchi out of the 4 shows I’m following. (Ladies Versus Butlers, Seikon no Qwaser & Omamori Himari).

And yes, I am going to end off this impressions post with a ‘Do Watch This Show’ shoutout to everyone who reads the post. To end off, here’s the ED of the series. (My 2nd favourite song of the new season, the favourite being Shunkan Sentimental by SCANDAL, the ED for FMA.)

ED: Baka Go Home by milktub and Baka Test ALL STARS

Ok. That’s all for me. Have a great year ahead guys, not sure when my next post will be but ah well. My boss will understand….. I hope. :D

]]> http://zotaku.com/2010/01/25/impressions-baka-to-test-to-shokanju/feed/ 8 http://zotaku.com/2009/08/21/hana-yori-dango/ http://zotaku.com/2009/08/21/hana-yori-dango/#comments Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:19:12 +0000 bluesnow http://zotaku.com/2009/08/21/hana-yori-dango/

Hana Yori Dango
Episodes: 51
Genres: Drama, Romance, Comedy
Aired: Sep 8, 1996 to Aug 31, 1997
Producer: Toei Animation

For years now I have been hearing about the J-drama Hana Yori Dango, but not being a big J-drama fan I decided to check out the anime instead.

Story: The series revolves around a common high school girl named Tsukushi Makino who just wants to blend into the crowd and have a peaceful high school life. But she feels somewhat out of place Eitoku High School, an elite institution of the richest and most prestigious children in Japan. Basically she is surrounded by *itches and brats who have never worked a day in their life. While school life was at times tiresome, she had one good friend, and had avoided bullying unlike many of her classmates. One day she crosses paths with the notorious “F4″ (Flower 4), a group of the hottest and most powerful guys in the school. She breaks out of her normal passive demeanor and defends her best friend from their rude antics. The next morning Tsukushi opens her locker and finds a “red card.” This card represents a declaration of war by the F4, and the entire school body is obligated to bully Tsukushi so far into submission that she quits school. Tsukushi is abandoned by her friend and physically and verbally abused; her quiet peaceful life is crushed.

Instead of giving up, she decides to become the immortal weed and fight back. She becomes the first person in the school to challenge the F4 and survive. As the story progresses she develops love for the kindest member of F4, Hanazawa Rui, and F4’s aggressive leader, Domyoji Tsukasa falls in love with Tsukushi. Love triangles and drama ensue.

The plot itself isn’t so bad, it actually reminds me of a darker Ouran High School Host club mixed with NANA, but the pacing is off (the series probably could have been 1/2 as long), and I just couldn’t follow the character’s emotions. Tsukushi was a weird mix of Tsundere and Emo on a sugar rush who is so indecisive it takes her 51 episodes to decide what man she wants to be with! In the Universe of Hana Yori Dango “I HATE YOUR GUTS! GTFO!!!” translates roughly to “I passionately love you! Let me bear your children!” And “I’m deeply in love with you” means “You’d make a good sibling, but I have someone else.”

Despite having a long list of characters, only 2 or 3 are developed in any real detail, and even then their personalities are still very simple. The two main male characters are either emotionally dead and needy or psycially abusive psychopaths with egos bigger than their private island mansions. This leads me to the conclusion that any sane woman wouldn’t fall in love with either let alone both! While I was continually dumbfounded by my hatred of all the characters (except for a few select side characters that never got any love), there were quite a few moments in the series that were both suspenseful and emotional. Sometimes this series was a little over the top, but if you are a fan of shoujo-ish dramas you may enjoy this series.

Pros:

• Good Drama Series
• Hot Guys xD
• Decent Comedy

Cons:

• Repetitive Plot Twists
• Poorly Developed Character Consistency
• Lack of Charismatic Characters

Yes. This show is beginning to feel like Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu’s Endless Eight arc, without the repeating scenes each week of course. While I still very much like this show because it features:

• Mahjong
• Cute Girls
• Special Effects
• Powerful Seiyuu Cast
• the occassional Yuri scenes
• the very much frequent Sweaty Thighs scenes
• Haramura Nodoka
• and Amae Koromo

Etopen. Prevents gravity from doing it’s work.

The slow moving pace of the final round of Mahjong is really annoying. Do they really need 5 episodes to show all that? That’s a whole month and more. The match started midway in Episode 15 so let’s see why it took so long.

• Episode 15. 5th Round started midway into the episode. So this is slightly understandable
• Episode 16. Amae ‘Geass-ed Up’ and trashed everyone in the 1st half of the 5th Round.

Code Geass. The Mahjong Showdown

• Episode 17. The 1st half was spent showing how sad everyone is for losing to Koromo. 2nd Half Koromo continues her Geass Dominance but at the end Saki decides to use Kaioken x4 to turn the tables around.

Saki activated Kaio-Ken. ready to take down Vegeta Koromo.

• Episode 18. The most recent episode. With Saki throwing a wrench in Koromo’s way, the rest of the other unknown players finally get some wins in the 1st half of the episode. 2nd half of the episode consisted of Saki winning with cheap wins and ending off the episode with a 3x Kang + Rinshan Kaihou.

Ok. Koromo is actually Charles Vi Britannia which makes Saki, Lelouch. :)

• Episode 19 which will air next Sunday, will more or less end this ‘mini-arc’ as there’s only 2 hands remaining. So unless the producers decided to pull a fast one to extend the 5th round of mahjon, it’ll end here, with Saki more or less winning it.

At episode 18 currently, there’s 8 more episodes to go before the season ends, so I’m predicting the Kiyosumi team (Team Saki+Nodoka) will probably head on to the Nationals around Episode 20. Clear the preliminaries by Episode 25. and in Episode 26, face off against a whole team of Pros which include Fujita, Koromo+ Saki’s Sister. SEASON 2. :D Haha.

Ok. Screenshots.

Apparently Koromo is now Natsu and no longer Lelouch.

This just looks really cool. :) My current wallpaper. You can still hear the Pung slamming against the side of the Mahjong Table.

This is not how real humans win a game in Mahjong. :( How in the world do you get 3x Kang then Tsumo so easily.

Mm. Koromo is Natsu eh. I honestly can’t wait for the Fairy Tail anime to start.

On a side note, I’ve been listening to the OP of Sora no Manimani a lot of times today and I think I’m getting addicted to it. I might just get so addicted I might start a post on it.

(Missing Screenshot: Mihoko Mukuji(Yui Horie)’s Blue Geass – you can hear zenical complaining in the background!)