Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Review

It’s been about 2 weeks since school started and just as long since I started playing the game. I borrowed it from Khai on the first day of the new term and since then I have cleared all the songs in the game. Here are my thoughts on the game.

Gameplay:

The gameplay is basically just like guitar hero except that you have to use the four buttons on the right to play. You usually press X or O to hit the notes at the right moment. The other two buttons rarely come into play during EASY or NORMAL mode but all four are used throughout the entire ‘Packaged’ song on HARD difficulty setting. While you try and hit the notes however, Miku is there to dance to the song in flashy videos that are VERY distracting for many reasons. Even the slideshow songs are distracting to watch.

Based on how well you time it you can get a COOL, FINE, SAFE, SAD or WORST rating for that note. Only the first two will count towards a combo though despite the third being SAFE. Every ten combo adds 50 additional points for each successive hit up till 50 combos where every successive combo will get 250 points after that. That’s half of what you get for scoring a COOL and 50 less than a FINE. The combo stops whenever you slip up. You still get points though, half if you hit the wrong button.

There’s also a portion of the song called CHANCE TIME where you have to hit notes in a streak of successful hits that adds 100 more points for a hit, 200 for the second hit and so on until you reach the maximum 5000 points per hit. Getting a perfect CHANCE TIME session is the difference between a STANDARD and a GREAT and sometimes even a STANDARD and a CHEAP. Based on how well you do you can get a MISSXTAKE, CHEAP, STANDARD, GREAT or PERFECT. You fail if you get the first two but they’re a lot easier to get than you think they are. You get a MISSXTAKE if you fall below a certain rhythm level in a gauge at the bottom left corner of the screen that does nothing but tell you if you’re about to fail.

Basically each level, even on EASY has at least 100 notes to hit and unless you have a “god mode” ability for games like Katsuragi Keima has then you won’t be scoring a GREAT. You’ll be lucky just to get a STANDARD on your first time. After that you start getting used to the game, you’ll easily be able to score STANDARD on the EASY levels, GREAT if you’re good. Also don’t be fooled by those EASY and NORMAL ranks, they should be renamed NORMAL, HARD and INSANE instead. That’s not just because the notes are going to fast or too confusingly, it’s also because SEGA and Miku herself are true sadists! Never mind what they say about Luka, Miku is an absolute sadist for whining that you should work harder, cutely I might add, because 140,000 points isn’t enough to clear the level. I had to score 296,000 points just to get a GREAT rank on Packaged on NORMAL!! Which reminds me, you need to score a GREAT on NORMAL just to be able to play HARD for a song.

Getting a GREAT on any level will let you watch the video without having to play it no matter what difficulty you get it on. Like I said, Project Diva proves to be tricky for even the best of gamers. I even had to use my “blank mode” just to get GREATs on NORMAL and I’ve never actually used it while gaming but that's probably because I preferred RPG's, strategies and action.

After getting used to it though, the difficulties start matching their their titles. I can even score standard easily on all the songs now and GREAT on some. HARD isn't all that much different from NORMAL, it just has a different note sequence and pacing. Since most of them are fast on HARD mode, it's actually easier for me to do.

This game is perfect for killing some time since there's a lot of stuff to unlock. It's also pretty addictive and the level of challenge will have you think "Dammit! One more time! I'll try one more time and if I don't get a great I will..." several times before you actually stop.

Music:
Miku sings more than fifty songs made by different composers that were chosen out of the thousands out there so it's impossible for it not be good. If you've been wanting to get good Miku songs then all you have to do is look for every song in this game. I do recommend the game's versions as well for some of them since they were modified to fit gameplay better. I really like the game's version of Hato and Melt myself. The BGM provided for the menu is also nice too.

Graphics:
For a PSP game, the graphics are actually pretty good. They managed to fit in roughly 50 unique dance sequences using 50+ character models for playing and still had enough space left to fit in a mode where you can them yourself. Like I said before, having Miku dance is very distracting while playing. They put in a lot of love to make sure of that. They even hired a 13 year old Loli idol to choreograph the moves using motion capturing techniques.

Extras:
There's a lot to unlock in this game. You have songs, videos, costumes, characters, pictures and room items to unlock here. There are nearly 50 costumes for Miku to wear, lots of them being very appealing, and also the rest of the vocaloids and their swimwear to be used as the character models. Don't expect an easy time unlocking them all, most of the requirements for the best stuff are ridiculously hard to do. To get swimwear for any of the vocaloids, you have to play all the songs using them on hard mode with a STANDARD score five times each.

The dance creation mode isn't something I've tried before but I have seen some made by other fans that were just as good the ones in the game. Other than the song, you also get to choose what moves, facial expressions, camera angles and background to use for every second of the level. You also get to choose the timing of the notes to be hit and what sound they make when you hit them. Once you're done, you can upload those songs to the internet to share among other users. You still need the song you're making the dance for in your music folder when you play the level though.

There's a lot pictures to unlock. You get them by clearing levels on different difficulties and scores. I've got 93% unlocked so far and quite a lot of them are nice to see on the PSP. In addition to that, you can add more pictures to your pictures folders by taking screenshots during the video playback of the levels by pressing the R button. Unfortunately for reasons unknown, I can't seem to get that to work even though the "Screenshot Taken" message appears when I click the button. If it worked though, I would have gotten a lot of pictures to spread out here.

Finally there's Miku's room mode. In this mode, Miku does random stuff wearing whatever costume you want her to with whatever items you unlocked from the game. You can even choose what color scheme the room is. Just set up the items, pick miku's costume and the song to play and you can just watch Miku like a gold fish. You can also use the analog stick to change the camera angle to see various aspects of Miku. In this mode, you can even have it double as an mp3 player since the song just keeps on looping after it's done.

Also I need to mention the credits. After clearing all the levels, you get the end credits where you can control Hachune Miku until the end of the roughly 5 minute long credit sequence. You can even interfere with the names flying by triple jumping into the air and bump into the name.

Thoughts:
This is a game that's absolutely worth buying regardless of the whether or not you are a fan of Miku's. If you aren't a fan of Miku's then you'll probably become one by playing this game. You can probably expect an english patch too since the only things that really need changing are the menus for the dance creation mode. With the gameplay being addictive and all those things to unlock, you can pretty much play this for hours and hours even after you finish unlocking everything. I am hoping that they're working on a sequel since my own library of good vocaloid songs easily exceed the game's count. My source is the Nico Nico charts from Sankaku Complex as you get an average of 5 new Miku songs on those charts everyday, and those are the good ones.

First time I have a glossary for a post, usually I just link to other sites:

Blank Mode – My personal version of Gundam Seed’s “Seed Mode” where my mind goes blank and I do things on instinct and without hesitation. Basically all my stats go up by at least 50% and my multitasking ability goes through the roof that I don’t even have to look at something to know where it is. Most people get boosts by focusing on one thing, I do it by unfocusing. Usually triggered by me being incredibly bored or annoyed. It ends when I realize what I just did. If I don’t realize it in time while exercising or playing sports then I’ll have done so much damage to my body that it’ll be overheating and in a lot of pain the next day. It's happened twice before. I can force a very short Blank Mode intentionally but that quickly goes away. Not long enough to get a perfect CHANCE TIME session on long ones -_-.

That's it for my review, I'll leave you a with a few images related to the game as compensation for not being able to take screenshots.

Miku's Galaxy Costume




Chibi Miku Strips by Minami




Heart Hunter Costume


Nyanko Costume


Joker Costume


Gothic Costume






Several screenshots of Miku in her room from some site




PV screenshots

Summer 2009 Anime Season *UPDATED*

This is what I think of the shows for the new Summer 2009 anime season. I’ll be using the explanation below in what I look for in anime as part of the template for every season end or start I post about. The shows are in order of what I liked the most first and the least last regardless of what I score they got. How brilliantly done a show is and how much I like it are two different things.

1) Staff – I like to see new works of good directors and studios. If it’s an unknown, it gives me a good reason to see how well they do. I will also take a look just based on what seiyuu are working in the cast. My reason for watching Hayate no Gotoku, decent but not quite GOOD, and Tayutama, either iffy or good based on the episodes, is because Norio Wakamoto is on with them.
2) Story – Without an interesting premise, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy myself. Spice and Wolf had a mundane concept but was quite good in other aspects.
3) Direction – The series has to have it’s own style and not just copypasta from similar works.
4) Music – This is pretty important since it can make or break the direction of a scene. I’ve actually decided to finally watch Higurashi no Naku ni because of the beautiful song ‘Dear You’.
5) Characters – I want to watch memorable characters that can make me chuckle and make me go “Yeah!”.
6) Meaning – I watch slice of life for fun and serious shows for story. I couldn’t care less if it was supposed to symbolize hypocrisy of people and how religion would save us all by dishing justice to non-believers. I don’t believe in justice anyway. Power dictates who’s right and who’s wrong.


Bakemonogatari by SHAFT
AWESOME
This was by far the most impressive first episode of an anime that I’ve seen in a long while. From start to finish the show just pulls you in with SHAFT’s original stylings. I’ve always enjoyed fight scenes animated by SHAFT since their fight sequences are always dynamic – when they don’t run out of budget that is. The first few episodes of Negima?! were pretty good and Setsuna’s fight in episode 6 was half a minute of pure ownage. The lines for this show are pretty good and so are the character interactions. I’m a little bit disappointed that I heard that Hitagi isn’t a main character but is just a recurring character since she was just so interesting. Hopefully we’ll still get to see more weaponized stationery when she comes back around. My expectations for this series are pretty high since SHAFT’s visual styles will really boost up the horror in this series. I still remember those “Why?” and “Yuuko’s Scars” scenes from Ef Melodies and they got their point across really well. They really shouldn’t have been broadcasted back to back though. Basically I’m expecting this to be a downgraded version of Kara no Kyoukai but that doesn’t mean it won’t be impressive. I also noticed that a few of the animebloggers criticized about this lacking depth but I think the main point of a TV series is not to make people think or feel superior but simply to entertain the viewers. Besides it’s only the beginning, there’s still time for development later.

Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou by NOMAD
GOOD
I actually had pretty low expectations for this show when I first saw this on the list of shows but I was proven wrong when I saw episode 0. The characters are quite likable and the jokes are actually funny and go with the flow. I already like Yumiko’s character a lot but that’s to be expected considering how much fun she was in that episode. I’ve also watched the official first episode and was pleasantly surprised to see them start off with a time travel episode to six years in the past where we see Yumiko as an elementary school student. The fight scenes were decently done and actually involved more than just blasting and getting hit. The music for this show is pretty good too, I already counted two different BGM’s involving incomprehensible latin chanting. Also despite how she looks in the present, Yumiko’s most likely very close to Koyomi’s age. Apparently as proven by the Nanoha series, being a magical girl gives you a killer figure during your teenage years; Vivio even got hers early. Yeah, I think I’ve taken a liking to magical girl shows, they just keep on surprising me. Still haven’t watched the Precure series but it’s not like I want to watch every magical girl show out there. Plot direction needs a bit more work but hopefully they can come up with a good balance of story and humor for the rest of the series.

GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class by AIC PLUS+
GREAT
Finally got to watch this series and it's very interesting. The characters aren't just good their chemistry is just perfect for a slice of life comedy series. They all get the chance to show their individual takes on a subject in the jokes and add a new layer to it. The pacing is fast and we get 30 minutes worth of jokes crammed into 20 minutes here. It actually got a couple of LOL's out of me while I was watching. It's also oddly educational about how artists work. I haven't done any artwork since my last art class WAY back in primary 6 so I really have no clue what my friends did during their classes once we started secondary school. Also, I am motivated to make some ridiculous pictionaries for fun. Just hope there's a program out there to make them easily.

Aoi Hana by J.C. Staff
GREAT
I’ve read some of the manga and like the first time I tried reading Hourou Musuko, I was completely lost at how the events were progressing. Unlike the managaka’s current work, which is long but quite interesting, Aoi Hana is of a genre that I have read a lot of, enough to know which tropes will play a part in the story. Incidentally I am also at the level of genre savvy where I can identify a trap straight from the character introduction. I have yet to see how things progress after the first volume but I think I’ll just stick with the anime since the first episode was pretty good. The director also worked on Honey Clover and the first season of Nodame Cantabile so I’m expecting very good things from this show. It helps that I’m fan of yuri so it’s almost guaranteed that I’ll stick with this all the way through.

Spice & Wolf II by Brains Base
GREAT
I watched the first season just two months ago so seeing the sequel so soon let me have a good look at what’s gotten better in the second season. It’s quite amazing at how much the main characters can make such an entertaining show just by talking to each other. It reminds me of the times where I talked to this one guy who remarked that our little chats always sounded like a pair radio hosts. The people around us who were listening to us had no choice but to agree since they chuckled a lot while we talked. Funnily enough I’m actually learning about economics here so I can actually say “I’m watching it for the economics”. The art’s improved a whole lot and so has the direction. I’m looking forward to what they have in store for us this time.

Umineko no Naku ni by Studio DEEN
GOOD
This comes from the same guy who made Higurashi no Naku ni so this is going to be good. The anime is considerably tame compared to the manga but at least I’ll get to see how the story will unfold faster. The game is supposed to be a fantasy rather than a mystery but that doesn’t stop it from having some really good ones. The direction was decent but I wished they put in all the details that the manga had.

CANAAN by P.A. Works
AWESOME
This is supposed to be an adaptation of the game made by Type Moon’s Nasu so I will expect more of the excellent action scenes from the first episode. I am also expecting a few good GAR-filled scenes since this is the same guy who came up with Fate/Stay Night. I have to remind myself to get around to finishing off Heaven’s Feel route sometime in the future. The characters have a lot of potential here and I do like the idea of using synesthesia as an ability in this show. Speaking of which, do you guys see flashes of light when you hear things with your eyes closed? I see them every time I hear something like a door closing when I try to go to sleep. Is that a normal thing? Anyways I have high hopes for this show since things will be moving fast four this one season length show.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 by BONES
GOOD
This was a little disappointing actually. I thought it’d have something epic like people running around screaming like they were about to get hit by the apocalypse. It’s got an interesting premise behind it but it’s lacking showmanship. It’s supposed to show us how Tokyo would react to a 8.0 magnitude earthquake and so far it’s been solid as usual for a BONES show. I just wish they wouldn’t take so long to develop their shows and just get right into the action. Darker than Black was good but they never really took it as high as it could have been during its run.

Hetalia Axis Powers 2 by Studio DEEN
GOOD
Technically a second season but it’s more like the second half of the series that just got renewed for another season. I’ve read the comics and also seen half of the first season so I have no reason not to watch this. I haven’t actually seen any of the second season yet but I know what to expect. The comics themselves have very interesting stories and this is also educational in some ways. For example, I now know how to identify Germans from their eating habits. I could get along with those guys quite well seeing as I’ve always wanted to try throwing my cup down onto the floor after chugging it all down. I’m hoping that we’ll get to see Cuba and Canada along with the time England goes to stay over at Japan’s house animated.

Umi Monogatari by ZEXCS
GOOD
Surprisingly ZEXCS did a good job for the first episode but completely lost focus in the second. From what I’ve seen from ZEXCS, they always make shows that are decent enough to watch with potentially good characters but like BONES they never really take it any higher. BONES usually has good writers to deliver shows with a solid plothole-less story but ZEXCS doesn’t have that. Here is a show that is a good example of a certain rule about anime; if a show has a great first episode followed by declining production ratings in the second and third episode, then the show doesn’t have the budget to maintain a high quality series and therefore will not turn out to be great. I’m sure there’s a better way to phrase that but can’t think of it at the moment. Sankaku Complex has a way of saying it but people who are new to the “Internet Hate Machines” won’t understand what it means. I’ll give it one more episode but if they still make a messy episode then I drop this thing.

NEEDLESS by Madhouse
GOOD
It was interesting and it did have a lot spirit but it really, really, really felt kiddish. I’m not against watching kid shows but this really felt like I was watching Beyblade again. It didn’t help that the green haired kid is wearing a jacket straight out of Yu-gi-oh GX. I’ll leave this alone for a few episodes before I get back to it since this could turn out to be a ridiculously cheesy action show for kids or one of those once in a blue moon hotblooded shows that I never fail to enjoy. GET YOUR GUNS ON!!

Taishou Yakyuu Musume by J.C. Staff
MEDIOCRE
I was hoping for this to be a show where we see the antics of girls who are complete n00bs to baseball but so far it hasn’t been all that funny. I’m not even sure if it’s meant to be funny but with such a set-up it’d be a waste not to make it funny. I’ll probably watch it for one more episode but if it’s as dull as the first episode was then it goes away.

Kanamemo by Feel
GOOD
Hmm… I’m not exactly what to feel about this one. Feel CAN make good episodes but there’s usually an almost equal ratio of good and bad episodes when Feel does a show. Nagasarete Airantou was decent and ended surprisingly well. Shikabane Hime Kuro had a run of dull episodes followed by ones just short of pure ownage but the ending completely pissed me off. It makes me feel RAGE just thinking about it. They better release a bonus episode for the ending -_-. Anyway, the jokes for this show do hit their mark but Feel tends to re-use the same joke over and over again in the same episode no matter what series they do. Like the characters of Shangri-la, the characters here annoy me. They’re all types I’ve seen before and so I have nothing new to look forward to. We have a good cast of seiyuu that include Horie Yui, Mamiko Noto and Toyasaki Aki but the characters they’re voicing just aren’t good. Comedies and slice of life shows are completely dependent on the characters, the director and the writers and none look very promising for this series. There’s still the redhead in OP so whether or not I keep up with this show completely depends on whether she can bring something new to the table. I do like the ED song though but it’s not the kind I would like to hear over and over again. If the full version was a bit better then maybe I would.

Sora no Manimani by Comet
GOOD
I’ve also read the manga for this and despite how solid the episode was, I just can’t help but feel that the plot is very uninspired. You have a guy who moves back to his old town and meets up with his childhood friend and has to join a club to save it from being dissolved. Then love interests spring up in the form of new characters and through character developments and the guy has to angst about how undecisive he is about his lovelife and his future. In the meantime the people around him will have character dedicated arcs to explain a particular trait and will move on with their lives. I’m not saying there isn’t potential for it but when you’ve seen and read as much as I have, this just doesn’t look very interesting. I could say it’s a bit of a cross between Nodame Cantabile and Toradora in terms of characters and development only without any interesting or original characters. A show like this can only depend on its director for success but looks like there won’t be any epically awesome things coming out of this one based on the first episode.

Seitokai no Ichizon by Studio DEEN
PENDING

That’s it for my thoughts on the new anime season. I’ll update it when I get the chance to watch the last two. I’ve heard good things about the slice of life show GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class so I’ll probably like it a lot. As you can see there are a LOT of good shows this season so it’ll be hard for me to give up any of them. Even if I drop everything below Umi Monogatari, I’ll still have 9 new shows not counting GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class. Add that to the 4 shows from the last season and I have at least 13 to keep up with. Woe is the life of an anime lover, gone are the days where you only had a handful of shows that you liked and could easily keep up with along with the amount of disk space left in your hard drive. Incidentally there is a difference between an Otaku and an Anime Lover – the former collects anime merchandise and while the latter collects merchandise on a small scale or not at all. I am the former and I said anime lover because Otaku are a subset within the Anime Lover set. Also for Inuyasha fans, the new season of the Inuyasha anime will start this fall and it'll animate every chapter after where they left off at the end of the first season so I'll have some good moments to look forward to.

Next time I’ll either have a review on the Hatsune Miku: Project Diva PSP game or the Konata Winter Uniform Version Figma I ordered, depending on when I get the latter. Annoyingly enough I just found out yesterday that they’re releasing a Summer version of her that comes with her cousin’s head so August has become another expensive month for me. Luckily enough, her being a reserved item means I can wait till the end of August to get her due to the other stuff me and my friends ordered.

Damn it... R.I.P. Wallet... Kidding! I always find ways to revive it fast.

UPDATED - Added GA series impressions. Still no sight of Seitokai Ichizon though

End of Spring 2009 Anime Season!

Zetsuboushita! The new anime season has left me in despair! It has left me in absolute despair! Why? There are WAY TOO MANY good shows this season and I haven’t even watched five of the shows that I was looking forward to either! (Ironically though, Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei isn’t on my watchlist) Then there’s the fact that I still have the second halves of the six 2-cours shows to keep up with from the last season! In total I have 14 new shows I’m interested in and the six left from the last season! That’s almost 20 shows to keep up with this season and I’m going to run out of free time and disk space just to be able to watch them all. As such I will have to drop a few shows to get the really good ones. I’ll post up my thoughts on each of the new series I’m interested in a few days from now. I’m still waiting for subs for some of the series.

Here’s what I look for in any good anime in order of importance:

1) Staff – I like to see new works of good directors and studios. If it’s an unknown, it gives me a good reason to see how well they do. I will also take a look just based on what seiyuu are working in the cast. My reason for watching Hayate no Gotoku, decent but not quite GOOD, and Tayutama, either iffy or good based on the episodes, is because Norio Wakamoto is on with them.
2) Story – Without an interesting premise, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy myself. Spice and Wolf had a mundane concept but was quite good in other aspects.
3) Direction – The series has to have it’s own style and not just copypasta from similar works.
4) Music – This is pretty important since it can make or break the direction of a scene. I actually decided to finally watch Higurashi no Naku ni because of the beautiful song ‘Dear You’.
5) Characters – I want to watch memorable characters that can make me chuckle and make me go “Yeah!”.
6) Meaning – I watch slice of life for fun and serious shows for story. I couldn’t care less if it was supposed to symbolize hypocrisy of people and how religion would save us all by dishing justice to non-believers. I don’t believe in justice anyway. Power dictates who’s right and who’s wrong.

Sengoku Basara by Production I.G.
GREAT
I really enjoyed this show. It wasn’t as GAR as Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann was but it’s still a lot of fun to watch. I absolutely loved the “OYAKATA-SAMA! YUKIMURA!” bits by Yukimura Sanada and Shingen Takeda. I am waiting for someone to parody that using Lee and Gai from Naruto. I also happened to be watching Higurashi no Naku ni Kai while this was running so I was pretty amused when I realized that Yukimura’s voice actor also voiced Maebara Keichi of Higurashi. While the writing isn’t anything special, the characters are quite interesting. By the end of the season, Kojuuro was easily the most GAR of all the characters and also my favorite for having done so much for his allies and keeping up his badass demeanor all the way. He’s even beaten Date Masamune and Oda Nobunaga, who’s voiced by my favourite seiyuu Emperor Wakamoto, by a huge margin even though they were the stars of the show. I’ll be looking towards the second season that’s coming where they’ll be facing off with Hideoyoshi and his gang next year. Oh! The music was awesome too. I plan on using ‘The 6th Heavenly Demon King’ as my ringtone as soon as I figure out how to fix my converter because it’s just that awesome.

The 6th Heavenly Demon King

Eden of the East by Production I.G.
GREAT
This had the most interesting premise for the previous season. While it was unsatisfyingly short with only 11 episodes for the series, the characters and the writing just pulled you right in with every episode. Unfortunately, with the exceptions of the first few and the last few episodes, the episodes were just like the Dark Knight; awesome the first time you watch it but a whole lot less the second time. That’s basically it depends on the suspense and mystery you feel after each new episode and rarely on crowning moments. However, when they did have the crowning moments, they were absolutely awesome! That last one where Akira shot down the missiles using his phone was pure genius! The timing, the relevance and the music were at the level of perfection! I am looking forward to see the movie where it’ll continue the story six months after the ending. Hopefully they’ll give us more Johhny’s then.

Tayutama ~ Kiss on my Heart by Acchin
GOOD
It’s a bit better than your standard harem show since. The plot doesn’t really stand out above the rest though and there were story elements that I found to be a bit iffy. The direction was also just average but there scenes were done quite well in my opinion. You could enjoy one episode but not the other based on how well the jokes and lines were done so the quality wasn’t consistent throughout the series. What I liked about this show was the music and the character interactions. I’ve liked every Miyazaki Ui songs that I’ve heard so far and the Kizuna no Uta ED album was pretty good. As for the character interactions I’d have to say any scene where Mashiro was finding new things about the modern world hit home where the funny was especially when Yuuri’s dad and Nue were involved. The characters themselves can be both annoying and funny at times but usually it was funny for me. It’s mostly a silly show that any love comedy fan should be able to enjoy and the creativity this show has can be surprisingly impressive at times. I wasn’t really expecting the show to end the way it did but I’ve always been a sucker for bittersweet endings. By that point the show was already safely within the good zone and almost would have made it into the great zone if a third of the episodes hadn’t been dull for me.

Kizuna no Uta

K-On! by Kyoto Animation
GOOD
Honestly, I really didn’t like the direction this series was taken in the anime. I still prefer the manga over the anime because the direction really messed up the timing of some of the jokes which were a lot funnier and cuter in the manga. I’m particularly wary of fanservice anime and this was just pure fanservice and filler from beginning to end. If it weren’t for the great music and the fact that the director had the sense to use the extra filler material time to build up the characters I’d have probably dropped it mid-way no matter how much I liked the manga. The music was really a treat here in this series with the great upbeat insert songs and the soundtracks that not only managed to be fitting but also managed to sound like RPG tracks and also of very different genres when you take them out of context. By the end of this series, my favorite character went from Mio to Mugi mainly because of how much fun watching her character was. Mio’s cute and shined brighter than everyone else in term of moe appeal but Mugi won me over with her Yuri-fangirlism, childishness and earnestness. Yui’s seiyuu, Toyosaki Aki, is pretty damn talented. She’s already on my favorite seiyuu list with the great work she did as Yui. I also loved her character album, more so than Mio’s seiyuu’s, Hisaka Youko, character album even though she sang the awesome songs “Don’t Say Lazy”, “Tsubasa wo Kudasai” and “Fuwa Fuwa Time”. I will look forward to the OVA that is sure to come out and is based off the Valentine’s Day and Mio’s Stalkers chapters.

Fuwa Fuwa Time


Don't Say Lazy


Tsubasa Wo Kudasai

Hatsukoi Limited by J.C. Staff
GOOD (So Far)
I’ve actually put this on hold to watch at later date; along with Zero no Tsukaima III’s last episodes and a whole bunch of other stuff. For the first 6 episodes, it was fun to watch but not enough to keep me watching with other good shows out there. It was basically To-Love-Ru with a lot less echhi and more funny. I really give the Japanese too much credit in their tastes if a series like To-Love-Ru outlasted the awesomeness of the abruptly and frustratingly cancelled Mx0. I have to give XEBEC a thumbs up for the OVA though, I found it way better than any of the 155 chapters I’ve read so far. Incidentally I’ve also read every scanlated chapter of Hayate no Gotoku so far but I still can’t figure out why so many people like it or how they even manage to find Hayate moe even when he’s being a trap. I’ve seen traps that were completely unexpected and they’re way better even if their manga are mediocre.

Asura Cryin’ by Seven Arcs
MEDIOCRE - DROPPED
I gave up on this at episode 5. I didn’t even hesitate when I deleted it for disk space. It was just trying too hard to be cool and still failed on most accounts. That’s probably the director’s fault since I have heard that the novels are lot better.

Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo by Sunrise
GREAT
Staff? The always epic Sunrise! Story? Evolves with new characters. Several unused red herrings like Akiha’s mecha’s final form and Kagura’s note; also a bit too dependent on new characters though. Prince of Darkness showing up in the last three episodes as the Big Bad and Nerval’s newfound understanding was what made the conclusion not all it could have been. So MANY good ideas though. Direction? The priority was put on fun and fanservice in many different ways; it worked quite well. Quite a lot of scenes that were awesome and epic, I’ve rewatched a couple of episodes over and over again because how ridiculous or epic they were. They even had one loltastic and completely in character scene of how willing Leopard was to shoot Nerval even when Nerval nobly asked him to do it to kill Prince of Darkness. Music? The 2nd ED “Espacio” was very nice and a couple of BGM’s from the soundtrack were catchy. Characters? Lelouch Mk. II as Leopard was WAY too good to pass up. And then there was Sakura, ASIMO and Ul to back him up as an awesome group. Meaning? Surprisingly enough, there was a lot of subtext about society and the option of being part of it or choosing to isolate yourself as a being known as a “Hikikomori” to those who are familiar with Japanese terms but not much with English terms and “Shut-in” for those of you who are the opposite. It was actually executed so well that I’m both impressed and surprised that they tied it into the story. Basically, it’s 50 episodes worth of fun compacted in 26 episodes.

Espacio

Now on to the ongoing shows:

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu 2009 by Kyoto Animation
GREAT - CONTINUED
Haruhi’s return was a nice present from Kyo-Ani since I found the novels to be quirky, fun, full of great moments and characters and they really grab the reader. The episodes so far have been quite charming even with the looping Endless Eight episodes being almost exactly the same thing over and over again. I’ve been hyped up ever since the promo for the Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi came up last year. There’s this one scene at the end of that volume that I WILL NEVER FORGIVE Kyo-Ani for if it’s anything short of perfection. It’s the best part Kyon’s had in all of the 9 volumes I’ve read. I’m pretty sure other readers are looking forward to that scene since it was incredibly powerful even in written form. I’ve only read a few things that were powerful enough to move me and none of them were by any famous western authors. Keep on trolling Kyo-Ani! (Expect a death threat if that rumor of Disappearance not being animated this time turn out to be true. Endless Eight is foreshadowing that Arc so it’d make no sense to broadcast Sighs instead of Disappearance)

Phantom ~ Requiem for the Phantom by Bee Train
AWESOME - CONTINUED
I grudgingly concede this as the best of the previous season because of the action and character development. I really like how Zwei turned from a silent ghost in doubt to a pimp’d out badass assassin for hire. Cal’s addition to the show was more than welcomed since it really added a new element to the story that had the potential to turn to be interesting. I am quite surprised at how charmingly cute this new character is due to the first half of the show being something only sadists could find funny. Don’t ask if I laughed, the answer may surprise you. That blonde pigtailed little assassin to be is just so sweet and innocent that I am sure that Rule 34 came into effect the moment the promotional Megami poster got uploaded to the internet. The fact that the show is based off an Eroge doesn’t help her situation either. In any case I’m looking forward to how this show will turn out with her addition though I am certain that she raised a death flag just by popping up in the show.

Valkyria Chronicles by A-1 Pictures
MEDIOCRE - CONTINUED
To be honest, Valkyria is just plain generic. The only part where it shines are the characters and their interactions with each other. I still like it though so I’m sticking with it. I want to see more orz’s and great expressions from Alicia.

Pandora Hearts by XEBEC
GREAT – ON HIATUS
This series is really a quandary for me. On hand it’s got great moments and character development, on the other hand it feels downright self-indulgent of the author. You know how much distaste I hold for the Twilight novels because they’re just a long drawn out sexual fantasy? Well rather than Pandora Hearts being a long drawn out sexual fantasy, it just has way too much unnecessary character development to the point where it feels like someone’s whining to you all about their troubles. It’s gotten to the point where it’s getting in the way of plot progression. I’m basing this off the manga though and it’s not quite as bad as Spiral was during the Kanone Hilbert arc(Ugh! 4 monthly chapters of doing absolutely nothing but talk about how kind someone was!). As for the anime itself, while the moments that came off cheesy in the manga; those character centric moments were actually quite powerful animated. The only serious scenes so far where the manga excelled over the anime was when Gil bowed down to Oz at the grave and when Oz rejected the Will of the Abyss. Unfortunately, the manga is going too slowly since the author just loves Break and Oz. We haven’t even reached the midpoint of the story even after 31 chapters. And because the manga is moving slowly, the anime is moving even slower at a rate of 1 chapter per episode. I have to give props to the director for his excellence with serious scenes since XEBEC usually has lousy directors on their staff but he really needs to work on his humor a bit more. I’ll have to put this on hold though. Knowing XEBEC, they’ll give it an anime original ending since it’s not like them to make sequels so I’ll keep them stockpiled until then for a marathon run at the end of the season. A good tip to enjoying this series is NOT to read the manga beforehand.

Shangri-la by GONZO
GREAT - CONTINUED
This is a really mixed bag kind of show. On one hand it has interesting ideas and pulls them off in spectacular ways, on the other hand I pretty much can’t stand most of the cast. The only ones I actually like are Hikikomori Karin, Soldier Boy Kunihito and Pink Menace Kuniko. Even then my opinion of Kuniko is really on the fence at the moment. Like almost the rest of the cast, her interactions are terribly inconsistent with her character. I can’t even understand what her reasons for some of her decisions are and why is it a group of rebels are so willing to have a little girl lead them to war. She’s won some points from me in episode 13 where that aerial battle scene was downright excellent and also for embarrassing Karin in her teddy bear costume though. I am also really puzzled at how it’s been 14 episodes so far and I have YET to see a single panty shot even though GONZO is famous for gratuitously fitting in stuff like that at least once per episode. They still make jokes about Kuniko’s underwear and them stating that they’re always seeing it and I have been watching out for it. I know that sounds weird but it’s just like having Rick Astley show up in front of you WITHOUT singing his signature Rick Roll song as demonstrated by this xkcd comic. It’s really driving me up the wall that GONZO is being completely unGONZO-like in this series and despite that being a good thing, it’s still very odd to see. It’s bothering me even more than Haruhi’s trolling. Anyway, the brilliance of this series lies in their ideas. When they introduced the camouflage armor thing, I thought all it could be used was as camouflage; it was used as camouflage – to disguise an aircraft carrier as a tanker and a remote controlled killer gyro plane thing as a cloud. They even had the A.I. MEDUSA fire a satellite weapon on said ship. I wished they devoted an actual scene rather than a simple flashback for that part though. GONZO seems to know that too but I just wish they’d ease up on the characters OOC moments. It’s not Code Geass, they just can’t pull it off like Sunrise can.

Saki by GONZO
MEDIOCRE –ON HIATUS
I liked the idea of a bunch of girls playing Mahjong in what I thought would be a slice of life thing. I even learned how to play real Mahjong from a book in the school library. Unfortunately it turns itself into a typical fanservice ridden GONZO show quite quickly and the rivals seem to be quite over the top as much as Yakitate Japan and Super Yo-Yo’s were. Incidentally to the Bruneians reading this, I was the guy who brought his yo-yo around when he went somewhere to pass the time. I miss my Yo-Yo’s. I was pretty good at doing tricks too but I just can’t remember where I put them. I even managed to do decent double loop tricks last time I used them. At the moment I can’t muster up the desire to watch the rest of the episodes so I’ll just save them when I finally feel like it. It’s currently on hibernation with the finale of Zero no Tsukaima 3’s final episodes and Chaos Head.

That’s it for the shows from the previous season, here’s the list of the new shows that are relevant to my interests. The ones closer to the top are ones that I’ve watched and are in other of how likely I’ll stick with them. The ones I’ve watched have been highlighted in orange. Please look forward to my thoughts on them all a few days from now.

Bakemonogatari by SHAFT
Aoi Hana by J.C. Staff
Spice & Wolf II by Brains Base
Umineko no Naku ni by Studio DEEN
Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou by NOMAD
CANAAN by P.A. Works
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 by BONES
Hetalia Axis Powers 2 by Studio DEEN
Umi Monogatari by ZEXCS
Taishou Yakyuu Musume by J.C. Staff
NEEDLESS by Madhouse
GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class by AIC PLUS+
Kanamemo by Feel
Sora no Manimani by Comet
Seitokai no Ichizon by Studio DEEN

P.s. Have any of you walked by those metal shop shutters used to close down stores at shophouse complexes? I seem to leave a really big vacuum of air when I walk by and it really rattled those things yesterday. My brother walked past them and they didn't shake but when I walk by it's like they're cowering in fear or something. Anyone else have the same experience?