Doki Doki Precure

The magical girl genre, or mahou shoujo,  has always been a weakness of mine, Between the transformations,the fantasy elements presented in it, and the super powers, it has a lot in store for me. Usually, I love any magical girl,no question, but as it seems lately, they seem to be prettier for sure, but at what cost? Doki Doki Precure is very pretty to the eyes, but all it not glitter and roses with this anime.



Doki Doki Precure is like any other magical girl series plot wise.You have your group leader, Aida Mana, and your side Precures, Hishikawa Rikka, Kenzaki Makoto, aka Makopi, and Yotsuba Alice, and later on Madoka Aguri. Granted along the way, you have ultimate big bad guy, King Selfish, and his not so evil at times daughter, Regina, and the evil trio of Ira, Bel, and Mammo, but besides Regina and King Selfish himself, the rest just play the role of making the bad guy of the week appear, so in other words, a completely normal day in the life of mahou shoujo anime. 

The main focus of the any Precure series is indeed it characters,which in this series becomes a horrendous mistake.The mistake of which I am referencing is Aida Mana. In the early episodes, you can tell she has a pure heart and wants to do good, and that she is the center, but this become problematic later on. Throughout the series, you see that each of the characters has their own little flaws, which for the most part are forgotten as the series progresses, but as for Aida Mana, she is shown to have no flaws. She is student council president, she is athletic and she wants to do good, which isn't all bad,but it makes her into a static character. The other three Precures have their own little episodes, but any character development from these episodes, unless it's wanting to make friends with Regina, the daughter of the main villain, is almost completely ignored like the flaw didn't even exist in the first place.  Also, the anime seemsto have seemingly pointless side characters,such as Ai, the little baby found in an egg, and Joe,Queen Ange's fiance, who for the most of the series is not even present.

The art for this anime was its only saving grace honestly. The characters were well drawn out and the animation for the most part was decently smooth. Along with that, the transformation sequences were also very well done, but I, like most people, probably would have been disappointed other wise. The back ground characters emphasize the main cast by all having black hair in contrast to the pink hair or Mana,or the purple hair of Makoto.

Overall, Doki Doki precure is really only worth the watch if you are really into Precure or magical girl anime or have some time to kill. It started out with a whole lot of promise to be a decent magical girl anime in the beginning, but as the series went on, it felt like it could not sustain its self. Compared to the other Precure series, this one is weak and hopefully on the next series, they will be able to polish out the flaws. 

Another

Horror is a genre that many people seemed to be enthused with. Between the suspense of what might happen next or the jump scares that some movies use,or the combination of both, it is a very appealing genre. However, there are times when the suspense makes little to no sense or the jump scares are used so much it is repetitive and boring. The anime Another tries too hard to be suspenseful and while in some cases it succeeds, it doesn't quite get there.



The anime Another starts off with a kid named Sakakibara Kouichi that moves to the small town of Yomiyama due an issue with his lungs. At the hospital he is staying at,he meets up with a girl named Misaki Mei, a girl who is abnormally quiet and wears an eye patch over her left eye. When he transfers into the local school's class 3, Misaki Mei is in the class, but no one seems to notice her, even when he tries to draw attention to her. However, people in the class and their family members start dying from freak accidents, and as it turns out class 3 is cursed due to an extra person showing up on the class roster who in actuality is dead and it is up to class to figure out who is dead in order to stop the calamity. One of the charms used to keep the calamity from happening is for the class to make the class roster numbers right by acting like a person in the class does not exist, whether they're the ones that are dead or not.

The plot of this anime has so many holes it is not even funny. First of all, they say they can't ever get the desk count right at the beginning due to the person appearing randomly,and the fact that when the person does show up, memories get altered, but yet they know an extra person will appear. Another plot hole is the fact they even said in the anime and in the manga this curse is like a cell phone to a cell tower: if you move away from the town, the curse has little to no effect on you and almost everyone knows rumours of this curse though no one is allowed to know specifics outside class 3,so why don't the local people move out of the town? Also the part of no one allowed to know specifics is annoying because literally for the first five episodes Sakakibara is not allowed to know the exact curse but trying to find out because his classmates would not tell him the curse.  You can not tell someone in a show for a god amount of time with out sounding like complete idiots, and that's what happened in this show: his class mates not telling the information and basically being sketchy about was intriguing at first,but got redundant real fast. Worst yet, Misaki Mei knew who the dead person was,and she doesn't say anything.

The art of Another is actually pretty decent, given the abnormal amount of plot holes. The characters are well drawn, though my only complaint is yes you have your two main characters, but amongst other anime, the character designs are not unique. If you try to make the case for Misaki Mei, I might give you that one, but only because Takanashi Rikka's from Chunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai eye patch is on her right eye,nother left.  Another weird thing I noticed about the animation is at the beginning of the anime,the animation does random cuts to pictures of creepy dolls. This is not a SHAFT work, so the random cuts literally did nothing for me because at least SHAFT uses them tastefully; Another uses to the point I actually had to wonder if my video player was glitching.

The characters, like their designs, were not distinguishable or interesting. Misaki Mei is the most interesting character, and she doesn't even have that much of a presence. The classmates of Mei and Kouichi try their best to be interesting, but it turns into their bland and forgettable. In this anime everyone follows a ridiculous stereotype i.e. Misaki Mei is the quiet mysterious girl, Sakakibara is the boy that moves to a small town to recover from illness, the class representative, Akazawa, is a tsundere in a twisted sort of way. I do think this anime suffered from what I have to call "Game of Thrones Syndrome": Do not get too attached to the characters because they might die in the next episode.

Overall, I admit, I enjoyed the anime if only for the plot holes and the ridiculousness of the deaths. If I have taken any one thing away from this anime is the fact that panic will make people do things that are outside of their normal character. Otherwise, this anime,while it was trying to be serious, it became laughable by the end of how bad it actually was.

Hexakill

If you have been playing league recently, then you know that there is a new format called Hexakill. Instead of there being five champions on each team, there is now an extra person making it six vs six. I admit, when I heard about it, I was excited to try it out due to hey something other than Classic Summoners' Rift or ARAM, even though Hexakill is played on Summoners Rift. However, just because something is shiney and new does not mean that is all fun and games: Hexakill is sometimes annoying to play.


With there being an extra champion, that means there is a couple of options to dividing up the champions between lanes. You could do two at top lane, two at bottom lane, and two at middle lane, or you could go two top, two bottom, one middle and a jungle. During champion select during normal matches, especially with queuing in with random people, it is sometimes a mess calling positions, but everything can work itself out by the time champion select is over.In Hexakill however, the mess continues up until the game actually starts because half of the team favors the two in every lane and the other half goes with there being a jungler. While I have found in my experience that sending two in every lane is usually efficient, there is also great power in there being a jungle.

Another problem I have had with Hexakill is what type of champion to send where. In normal game mode, you send your tanks or bruisers top lane, like Nassus, Riven and Tryndmere;you send your Assassins middle lane, like Ahri,Fizz, and Katarina; and you send your Attack Damage Carry,or ADC, such as Sivir, Ashe and Caitlyn and your Support bottom lane, such as Soraka, Thresh or Leona. In that mix you could have a jungler, like Vi or Fiddlesticks, but it almost optional. However, in Hexakill, I have seen them send a tank and an Assassin top lane to disrupt the top lane and them to send tanks bot lane to give the ADC some support. I admit, the main problem is people keep trying to play it like they play Classic Rift during Hexakill due to the fact Hexakill is not classic Rift; Hexakill does not have a clear defined meta, which is also a good quality because it allows people to experiment. I admit, the combo of Nassus and Ahri top would have never happened in classic, but it an awesome combination due to Ahri charming and Nassus farming for the kill.

One of the fun things bout it though is experiment with different champion combos, like the Nassus-Ahri combo. For example if you do pick to have two middle lane champions, you can see how different champions interact with each other. It is kind of funny how mid just starts spamming combos and eventually gets there.

Speaking of experimenting, I feel a greater ease experimenting with different champions. I admit to experimenting with Syndra and Orianna the whole time while I do Hexakill. While you can experiment on Rift, people will flame you if you do bad, but in Hexakill, while there is flaming, the thing that makes it better is the fact that it's not a "real" format, meaning while you do get IP and EXP, its a fun format.It not competitive like it is on rift;it just exists,sorta like ARAM.

Overall, while I have had some bad experience trying to figure out Hexakill, I hope in the coming days, I will continue having fun playing League. I hope Riot can keep giving us these fun formats, such as Hexakill, All for One, Showdown, etc, and maybe keep them a bit longer.

A Few Words on the Banning of Sylvan Primordial

If you are an avid Elder Dragon Highlander, or EDH, player like me, then you know that there is anew card to the banned list: Sylvan Primordial from Gatecrash. Ironically, the card was actually designed for EDH to replace Primeval Titan, a six drop that said whenever Primeval Titan enter the battle fiend or attacks, search your library for two forest cards and put them into play. Now while Sylvan Primordial only triggered when it entered the battlefield, it could have still been a problem.

Although I have never used Sylvan Primemordial in EDH, I can see where some problems might arise such as reanimation or flickering, but there are other cards with much worse effects to animate to,such as Kokusho, the Evening Star. When i read Sylvan Primordial, it was intresting to see green get some destruction, even some land destruction;it doesn't destroy creatures.  Along with that is mana ramp, which green does very very well, although since Sylvan Primordial is a seven drop, i was doubting its usefulness. 

Overall, I am very very surprised it got banned in EDH, and Honestly , i don't think it deserved it, because it doesn't destroy creatures. 

Jigoku Shoujo

A few months ago, I kind of got desperate for a new anime to watch. I felt like I had watched every anime that had caught my eye and even a few anime that hadn't. But instead of giving into peer pressure to watch Attack on Titan, someone recommended an anime called Hell Girl, or Jigoku Shoujo. Now while I was skepticalon watching this,I decided to take a look at this anime.

The premise for the anime is simple:at midnight a website opens up called Hell Link. On this website, you can enter the name of the person you want to take revenge against, and Enma Ai,otherwise known as Jigoku Shoujo, will send them down to hell at the price that when you die, you will go to hell your self. Before Jigoku Shoujo sends the people to hell, she tortures them in the most bizarre ways possible, such as showing them their worst nightmares.

At the beginning of the anime, the anime comes of as very episodic, as in one problem, one episode and almost zero continuity. However, as the series goes on, you get introduced to a couple of characters named Shibata Hajime, a reporter who wants to investigate the mystery of these mysterious deaths, and his daughter, Shibata Tsugumi, a seven year old girl who has a mysterious connection with Enma Ai and can see who she comes to that wants revenge. These characters to me add a bit continuity to the series, because, because honestly, if had kept up its episodic pace, I think I would not have enjoyed the anime as much as I did. Also along the way, Enma Ai has her own companions: Wanyuudou, a mysterious old man that becomes the doll that has the red string, Hone Onna, the mysterious woman who accompanies Enma Ai and Ichimoku Ren,a young man who has one eye covered. 

Overall, I got a kick out of this anime,mostly because I feel the pain of wanting to take revenge on a person. However, it is interesting to note while Jogoku Shoujo hands them a doll with a red string, she does not untie the string her self; she allows the person wanting revenge to untie it to enter into the contract that will send both of them to hell. I like this idea because it allows the person to rethink the decision to enact revenge.

The art stylefor this anime is dark like the theme,but it is still well drawn. The characters' expressions are sometimes a bit over done,but other than that, I was fine with the animation. Also, I do like the fact that you could tell the main cast apart, but otherwise,it felt like the characters from the episodic episodes started looking the same after a bit.

Overall, I liked this anime due to its dark air and mystery. However, it had a nice solid end, but also left some strings untied, which should be tied up in season two I hope. 

Welcome to the Howling Abyss

So it has been a while,yes? All that aside, on my time off I have picked up a game you guys might familiar with called League of Legends, but more importantly the game mode known as ARAM.

Now, incase you're not familiar with ARAM,it stands for All Random All Mid. Your champion is selected at random from the champions you own and the ones that are free for that week. If you get a champion you really don't like, ypu can switch with a team mate provided you both have the champion or you can reroll and you earn rerolls by storing up points from playing ARAM. 

The all mid part refers to the fact that the Howling Abyss, unlike Summoners Rift, only has one lane. In this lane, you have two friendly turrets and two enemy turrets along with both teams have an inhibitor near the base and two turrets defending each nexus. Also wandering the map are creatures called Poros. These creatures neither help nor harm you; they just simply exist. 

The thing I love about ARAM is the fact there is a chance you will get a champion you know very well or the chance you'll get a champion you never played before. If it a new champion, you can get the feel for their skills and possibly learn to play said champion on Rift. Also, it means because you're team is chosen at random, that means you can get out of the meta because you can have a team filled with all Attack Damage Carry(ADC) or a team of all tanks or a team of all supports.

Another reason I like ARAM is the fact that the people who usually play are relaxed. I say this usually because the champions are selected at random. Most people don't yell at you for being bad a champion because it was not your decision to play that specific champion. Very few people will get mad at you if you try to at least to make some assists.

Overall, ARAM is a very fun format. It a break from Classic and it helps with me learning a new champion. If you havent checked it out, I high recommend it.

Hataraku Maou-Sama

In the recent anime season, there was an anime circling around my social circles for it's opening, plot, and overall goodness. Although I saw it on the airing list at the beginning of the season,I thought it was going ot be some dumb slice of life show,but how I was wrong. When me and my friend started watching this show,we had a ball watching it.

The story follows the Dark Lord Satan and his subordinate Alsiel going to the human world fleeing from the Hero Emilia. The Hero Emilia, follows them to the human world they try and make a living as normal people. The Dark Lord Satan, who goes by the name Maou Sadou works at McDonalds equivalent and his partner,Alsiel, who goes by Ashiya Shirou is a stay home person. Emilia, who goes by Yusa Emi works at a call center. Although they try and lead normal lives, Emilia tries and eliminate the Dark Lord Satan. However, things are not as black and white such as evil vs good or hero vs villain.

I will admit when I first read the synopsis I wasn't that impressed. The set up was just Satan gets a part time job while trying to get back home. What finally got me on board was people talking about this anime and I realized that it was a clever comedy. Yes, the story centers around him mainly trying to get back home,but what made it worth while was the comedy wrapped up in it.

The characters them selves were stereotypes, but they were well done. Sadao is your typical main character and Ashiya is your typical side kick(sometimes wife-y as my friend calls him). Emi falls into the the tsundere roll.  And last,and probably my least favorite, Chiho is the typical flat character but big boobed to try and crush on Sadao. The characters were lovable but sometimes they seemed kinda flat.

The art for the series is good, but not stellar. It is fluid, the characters well drawn except I did not like the design of Chiho. I know that she supposed to be the big boobed character but her design could have been better. The fight scenes were animated decently as well as the slice of life scenes.

Overall, I love this series. Only thing that makes me sad is that I actually can't make a drinking game of it. It's a great slice of life with a hand medling in super natural as well. I would recommend this to anyone that looking for a good anime to watch or to kill time.