Kotoura-san: First Impressions

For some reason, I can never get enough of the supernatural anime. No, I do not mean supernatural in the way of Death Note, or Code Geass, but more in the way of cutesy, not overly over thought, dragged out series. When I saw the synopsis for Kotoura-san, this seemed to be right up my ally, with cutesy animation, good light hearted story, and perhaps a character I could some-what relate to.

Watching the first episode, it was dark in tone, but it gave nice back story to our main character, Kotoura: a psychic girl who can read peoples minds. It started with small things, such as knowing what was for breakfast or beating someone in a match of rock paper scissors. However, as she got older, she started reading into peoples feelings, such as knowing who the girls in her class liked. Her psychic abilities drove a crack through her family as well. Her mother who used to be very nice, now was drinking a lot and got angry more often. Her dad also started cheating on his wife and he never came home that much. Eventually this leads to her getting abandoned to her grandpa, and her mom wishing she had never given birth to her. And due to all the teasing, she decided to transfer schools.

Pretty dark right? Luckily for me, that was only half of the first episode. The second half comes when she meets Manabe, a daydreaming boy in her new class. Although he has no interest in her at first, he learns she is psychic and accepts it, except for the part where he has to keep his perverted thoughts under control. After meeting Manabe, she eventually joins the ESP Research Society, where she has friends and is accepted by everyone.

The story for this is actually pretty good due to the fact it is dark in tone at first, but yet light hearted later on. I can't wait to see how Kotoura develops further because in anime there's a magical little thing called friendship and it has been known to do magical things.

The art and music for this anime are also very cute. In the first part, it was dark and dreary, but when she met Manabe, the tone lightened up instantly. Despite being the character that sticks out the most, Kotoura is well drawn with blonde hair and loli-like. Manabe looks, unfortunately, like any harem male lead, despite this not being a harem. The open theme is admittedly very catchy and light hearted, and the end theme is also very good.

For some reason, I find Kotoura very relateable character. Maybe it is because I was always on the getting teased end at school and can understand some of her pain, but either way, she is well developed. Manabe is your average perverted guy lead, but he is a guy lead focused on making friends with the main character, not getting in bed with her, though it might seem like that at times.

Over all, I hope that this anime can deliver what I was hoping. So far, even though it has only only two episodes released, I am very pleased. If you haven't seen this anime yet, please do. I am almost possitive you will not regret it.

Halo 4

Novemeber brings us a lot of good things such as Thanksgiving, hot new movies such as Skyfall, or in the case of this November, the next game in the well known series called Halo. Halo 4 was released Tuesday, and video game lovers from all over were anticipating the release of this game, many with high hopes. So, did it live up to anticipation?

In some ways yes, in some ways no.

The story still centers around our silent hero, Master Chief and his A.I companion, Cortana, and their quest to save the galaxy once again. However, his companion is having issues with an A.I degenerative condition called Rampancy, a condtion known to sging A.I where they think themselves to death. While Master Chief is trying to save Cortana, the Forrunners are making their presence through the galaxy and Master Chief must save the galaxy as well.

Story wise, if you have not read the books (which I have not yet) the story on the Forerunners will be a complete mystery. They could have easily done more with the story of the Forerunners or at least expanded on the story or had them tie in with Cortana's story. Cortana's story was great due to the fact that they help expand on the A.I and their workings and Master Chief's relationship. However, I am not satisfied by the end of the story. I will not spoil anything, but they should have made a better ending and intertwined the stories and made them more fleshed out. I hate super long games due to a short atttention span, I would have gladly accepted a few more hours to the campaign rather than have the end.

For me, the graphics were the best selling part of this game. Requiem, the planet where most of the game takes place, is amazingly beautiful. The trees were well detailed and the other places the game takes place is bizarrely beautiful. The new enemies, the Prometheans, have unique designs. The Crawlers looked like insect dogs and the Knights, although hard to kill, had something interesting going for them. Cortana's design was also updated, giving her more of a bobbed haircut and you could see the circuitry in her design where her clothes were supposed to be. Chief's armor has also been updated again, making it a bit more detailed. Along with  hat, they have made the gameplay seem like it more through the point of chief, giving the helmet interface and when Cortana starts to go a bit rampant, they show the red in the visor, which to  me scored points in my book. (In case you're wondering, Chief looks sexy in 1080p.)

 Sound wise, the OST is amazing. I will admit to buying the OST before playing the game, but the real test was could the match the OST with the mood of the game. Honestly, they mixed it very well and the music matched the mood of the moment very well. I will give them credit, I was very surprised when they brought back some of the first Halo music. It was nostalgic and made me happy from the bottom of my heart.

Overall, I am a little dissapointed by the game, but it makes me want to play Halo 5 and Halo 6 ironically. Maybe it's the quest to know what happens next, or maybe it's the wanting to know more about Master Chief, who knows.   I will admit, the game had its good points, but also its bad, but for good or bad, I enjoyed the game.

Special thanks to Mike who did campaign with me and for lending me the book Cryptum!!

Anyamaru Tantei Kiruminzoo!!

For many of use, turning into animals has been a dream. What it would be like to lay around, have fun all day long and escape life's worries. For Riko, Rimu, and Nagisa, along with Ken, it is not a dream, but rather a reality for them.

Our story starts off with twins Riko and Rimu finding a little pocket toy after chasing a cat in their house. It turns out that the pocket toy is a kirumin, and it allows them to transform into animals, namely Riko into a cat and Rimu in a rabbit. They then get their older sister, Nagisa, into it, and then they start their adventures as animal detectives. They later drag in their two friends, Inomata Ken and Kijima Tamao into their activities and the kids have fun trying to solve mysteries with animals.

Now, I'll admit to being all over this anime but had to wait for it to be subbed. I will admit the story might not have been that strong, but the story was at least cute. While cutesy, it does tend to be overly so cute and might be a bit redundant, it got more serious as the anime went on, even to the point of question moral ethics. By the end of it, I felt dissapoint and wished that they could have extended the story, and explained some more of the stuff that was explained early on. 

The art for this anime was it's strong point. It's overly cute and fluffy, and well done. The transformation scenes were well done, and the sound effects made it even more cute. The "costume mode" was well done, but the transformation sequences, like all "magical girl" series (I'm using this term lightly here), took too damn long. But the animations for it were amazingly pretty, and well animated, and I'll give them credit for keeping up the art over a 50 episode series.

The characters could be looked at as strong or weak, depending on your point of view. We have the stereotypical stubborn hothead, Riko, and also Ken could fall into this catagory as well. We have the overly shy, potential "library girl," Rimu. Along with that, we have the level headed Nagisa, who serves as the voice of reason in most cases when she isn't being pushed to the side by her younger sisters, and then we have Tamao who serves as the tech and brains of the group. As a side character who appears way too often, we have Kanon, who is able to turn into a bat and who also has her own set of ideals. The characters are bearable, but I will admit, they really grate my nerves due to the fact they barely change until the last few episodes.


Overall. I'll admit it was worth the wait for this thing to get subbed. It might not be everyones cup of tea for various reasons such as too cutesy or too long, but if you can make it past that, then you potentially have found your self a diamond among anime.

Return to Ravnica

As all of you Magic the Gathering players already know, the start of a new block started: The Return to Ravnica block. It brings us the joy of the gold standard block, meaning there are many multi-colored cards with a golden border along with new mechanics along the way. This set, you can choose between 5 guilds: Selesnya, Rakdos, Izzet, Azorius,and Golgari, each with their own schemes and mechanics.
First we have the Conclave of Selesnya, the green/white guild of Ravnica. They value the Oversoul, nature, strength in numbers, so naturally if you play a token generator, this is the guild for you.To aid your token swarm, there is the new mechanic, Populate, which allows you to produce a copy of a token you already have. With a land becoming an 8/8 token, and token generators from previous sets, (Increasing Devotion I'm looking at you) your token generation gets even faster and more powerful. Like with green/white, there is life gain installed somewhat in it, but in my opinion, there needs to be more. True, the legendary creature, Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, gives you life equal to creature's power when it enters the battle field, other than that and a few other cards, life gain is few and far between. Over all though, I'll admit to liking Selesnya on a whole due to the fact it's everything it either token generation of life gain. Now, I'm waiting for them to reprint Soul Warden or Essence Warden.

On the contrast to nature loving Selesnya, next we have the mean, party loving red/black Cult of Rakdos. In this set, they have creature destruction, and even a card that allows you destroy planeswalkers(Dreadbore) along with burn spells to help summon the guild leader, Rakdos, Lord of Riots. He is a 6/6 flying trample for two black and two red, but someone has to take damage before casting him, but with the Rakdos mechanic of Unleash, which allows players to put a +1/+1 counter on the creature in exchange for it not being able to block, damage comes easy to those creatures. Honestly, the unleash mechanic is weak just due to the fact that next turn the opponent could have a creature as strong as the one you unleashed, and the fact that they don't have haste. If they made it a bit stronger, then Rakdos could potentially dominate standard more.

Next we have the scientists of Ravnica, the Izzet, led by Niv Mizzet, the smartest being on the plane of Ravnica. While blue/red might seem like a contrast at first, once you delve into the Izzet guild, you'll find that these colors provide for a wonderful counter spell deck with a hint of burn. The Izzet mechanic of Overload makes it so that a spell that only affects one creature, affects each creature that either you or opponent control, depending on the effect of the card. Niv Mizzet, Dracogenious provides for pinging your opponents for a damage while yo draw a card. I'll admit that that he is not as powerful as his counterpart, Niv Mizzet, Firemind, but still provides for interesting gameplay.

The Azorius serve as Ravnica's justice system, and what better to control the people than blue/white? Azorius uses the mechanic of Detain, which prevents target creature from activating activated abilities or from attacking or blocking. While the mechanic might sound amazing at first, you then realize that it's only for a turn that they're detained only for a turn, and next turn they're up and going again. I honestly don't like the mechanics because it just slows the opponent down, but if you can't keep up the detainment, then you will die. Isperia, the legendary creautre, just detains creatures whenever she attacks, but other than that, compared to the other legendary creatures, she is severely underpowered. Azorius is good to slow the game down, but if you're looking to play aggro, then Azorius is not for you.

Lastly, we have Golgari, the green/black guild that believes that in in death, there is life. They run on a mechanic called scavenge, that allows the player to pay the scavenge cost when the creature is in graveyard to put +1/+1 counters on a creature on the battlefield equal to the power of the creature being scavenged. The creture being scavenged is then exiled. Honestly, I'll admit, I hate Golgari with a passion. True they work on graveyard grab so that you can't truly kill them, but I just hate the way it runs. Maybe I just don't value my stuff in the graveyard and prefer to keep my creatures alive as long as possible.

Overall, I am impressed with the Return to Ravnica block so far. It provide a different balance than Avacyn did, but it can still be used in different decks. Personally, I think standard just got a bit more fun, and this provides good chances for people to make multi-colred decks. Now, if only Gatecrash would hurry up and get here.

Accel World

We all have those moments where we wish to escape reality, and just become a part of a video game. However, what if someone told you that you actually could? That you could visit a world that is like a game, where you can fight and level up and become the best of the best? For Arita Haruyuki, that becomes his reality.

Our story starts off with Arita Haruyuki, or Haru, who is miserableat school, who during his breaks at school  indulges in video games to help him escape reality. However, one day, he meets Kuroyukihime, one of the schools most popular girls, introduces him to a mysterious virtual reality game named Brain Burst, where people fight to the death in order to gain points and level up. As Haru gets drawn in deeper in the Accel World, where the game takes place, he learns that people are not always the same in a game as they are in real life.

Personally, I love the story for this anime.As a gamer, I think this story is epic due the fact that they can actually get involved with a video game. True, they fight to the death, and they get hurt when they take damage, but it still intrigues me as how far the technology has come in order to allow them to play a virtual reality game almost anywhere due a special device on their necks.

The characters were very relatable in my opinion. Haruyuki is a guy struggling with his own self worth, a problem that a lot of us go through on a daily basis. I will admit Kuroyukihime was that one chick that is a bit too perfect, but she slowly fades from the picture near the middle and near the end. Chiyu is of course the female lead that does nothing, i.e.Sakura from Naruto.

Overall, this anime is what you make it. On the surface, it is a sci-fi anime that deals with video games, but it could also be looked at as a guy's sturggle to find his own self worth. If you haven't checked this one out yet, it should be on the to watch radar due to the fact that the series is just so epic.

Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai

As you might have figured out, I love ecchi anime to no end. When the anime Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai was announced for this anime season, naturally I jumped on the chance to possibly see another great ecchi anime like High School DxD. Was my wish fulfilled? In some ways, yes, in some was no.

Out story begins with Kaga Ryousuke, a normal healthy teenage boy who is a big more open about his horniness than most. One day, he meets Lisara, a reaper from the world of Grimwald, and then she tells him he only has a few weeks left to live, but then she forms a temporary contract with him so that he can provide her with energy to keep her sustained in the human world. His energy, however, comes from his horniness. As they try and prolong his life, he meets many other interesting girls along the way, including the beautiful Iria and the slightly loli Quele.

Now the story its self sounds amusing from the fact that the energy comes from him being horny, and if she takes his energy he can't get horny anymore. For some reason, just the fact that the whole anime revolves around him being horny is hilarious, and it provides for many ecchi moments. Although people might say that I'm a bit too big on ecchi  and that ecchi doesn't have a story, in this case, your wrong. There are tits and all and it still has a story, and a passable story at that.

The art kind of reminded me of High School DxD, with the main chick the guy is pursuing having red hair and the flat chested loli and a big busted girl who is close to him. True, they aired this anime uncensored, so of course there was an abundnce of boobs, and they if course were well drawn. The background art was nothing to take note of, except when they went to Grimwald, and that just had a green overtone along witha  sort of gothic feel, but I almost expect nothing less from the demon world.

The characters all fell into stereotypes, I am sad to say. Ryousuke was your typical harem lead, except for I will give him credit: he was a lot more open about his perverseness than the rest of the harem leads I have seen. Lisara was a tsundere at times, but was basically the girl he sought after. Mina was the childhood friend and sought after Ryousuke. Iria was our super maniac pixie dream girl, and like all super maniac pixie dream girls, she annoyed the crap out of me. Quele was basically there as the loli/little sister character, but I will admit, she also kind of annoyed me.

Overall, I will admit I liked this anime. It provided me with a senese that my ecchi needs had been completed. While the characters might have been stereotypes like no tomorrow, I still somehow found them enjoyable. I would like to also thank my friend, Mike for watching this with me.

Borderlands

In case you shooter fans did not know, in the coming days, Borderlands 2 is going to be released. Now while the game the proceeds it, Borderlands, has been out for a few years, it was not until recently I had a chance to play it. I will admit, I did not have high standards when starting the game, but I will admit, it left quite a good impression on me, and now, when I need to relieve stress, I can simply turn to this game and just let my worries go.

Our story follows your character on the planet of Pandora (Avatar nerds, don't get your panties in a bunch) searching for the Vault, a rumored trove of glory that only opens every 200 years, though no one really knows what's in it. You can pick to be Lilith, the siren who is proficient in SMGs and elemental attacks, Mordecai, the hunter who rocks at the sniper rifle, Brick as himself, who can use the rocket launcher and shot gun like no tomorrow, and Roland, the soldier who likes to use combat rifles and shotguns. Along the way, you are guided by the Guardian Angel, who communicated to you through the ECHO communication device.

The story it's self sounds promising, but in actual game play, it can be easily disregarded until the very end. It basically becomes a hack and slash shooter midway through, beating various enemies for missions, but the first real cut scene comes at the end. But although the story might be weak, I didn't really play the game for the story, I played mainly for the fact that it was an easy way to relieve stress through a shooter.

The charatcers, like the story, are just there. You have your character, who is like almost every first person shooter character: just a set of hands or a gun. Along the way, you meet various enemies, such as 9 Toes (he has three balls too!) and Commander Steel, and Sledge (p.s. He's not your friend.) The comical relief character Clap-Trap is always present, but he doesn't really add much to the story except at the beginning.  There aren't many "good guy" characters, but the bad guys make the game worth while.

The game play is a basic first person shooter. You start out with the weapon your class is most proficient at and you have one slot open to switch weapons. Later on in the game, eventually the number of weapon slots expands to four. The quest mechanic is also solid, using the waypoint and compass mechanic. Personally, the game play to me is awesome due to the fact I can sit back, relax,and kill some skags.

Overall, for anyone that likes to shoot stuff and not too much story, then this is the game for you. Sure, Call of Duty has all that, but Borderlands does it in a fun fashion and with a random gun generator hat can generate over 17 billion guns that provides for a lot of versatility. If you're ready for a bunch of guns, adventure, and pure hack and slash shooter, then head down to your local game store or steam and get it.