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Monday 29 November 2010

Video: Hoshi no Samidare MAD OP + The Pillows

Came across this fanmade MAD OP of Hoshi no Samidare a.k.a. The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer and while it's not quite exactly a fitting OP for an animated version of the manga it's still pretty well-done and captures the awesomeness of the story quite nicely. It'd make a great trailer but I'm a little bit put off by the fact that I only found this just now. It's also making me want an anime adaptation even more but sadly I can only hope that GAINAX picks this up sometime soon. The series was practically tailored for their animation style so it really just has to go to them if they ever get it green-lighted. In any case enjoy the video down here along with a couple of the music videos by The Pillows as well as the other two Biscuit Hammer MADs. I'm not putting them all up cause these guys really made a lot of them.


The MAD in question


The song used in the video, Babylon Tenshi no Uta.


Rush


Terminal Heaven's Rock


I Think I Can


Ride on Shooting Star


Tiny Boat


Another Hoshi no Samidare MAD. Huge Spoilers if you haven't finished reading it all.


One more MAD I thought was worth sharing. Even more spoilerish.

Sunday 28 November 2010

Manga Review: Arisa

I wish I had a mystery like this to solve during my high school days…

Title: Arisa
Author: Andou Nasumi
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Shoujo, Mystery, Romance
Art: A
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is about a pair of twin sisters, Tsubasa and Arisa, who have been living separately after their parents divorced and the mystery that surrounds the eponymous character and the strange game that her class plays. Shortly after reuniting with each other, Tsubasa impersonates Arisa at her school for a day and discover just how envious her school life seems compared to her own. However, a dark secret lies beneath the bright happy exterior of Arisa’s class as she apologizes her to her sister and lets herself fall out of her own window right after Tsubasa shows her a letter that was left for her in her shoe box. Wanting to know the reason behind her sister’s actions, Tsubasa starts impersonating Arisa at her school only to find that her class has been engaging in a secret game of chance called the King’s Game that rewards the winner by granting whatever wish they desire. A pretty interesting shoujo series this one. The manga starts off very strong with a mystery premise that just pulls you right in and keeps you guessing as to who the King really is. I lament the fact that this isn’t a dedicated mystery with the clues quickly being unraveled after their reveal. Though the shoujo style does add to the reading experience I would have liked a slow build up of clues to instead of using the reveals to flesh out the characters. Definitely a series worth checking out but mystery buffs might be annoyed with how the author handles their main point of interest.

Manga Reviews Index

Thursday 25 November 2010

Video: Hatsune Miku - むかしむかしのきょうのぼく by DECO*27

Just found DECO*27's latest vocaloid song at the top of today's Nico Nico Douga rankings called むかしむかしのきょうのぼく which would translates to "Today's Me From Once Upon A Time". The song's about someone, in this video's case Miku, who's basically asking some anon to listen to the troubles she's been having and how it's got her feeling down since there's nobody else for her to confide in. The songs got three parts to it, the first being Miku having just asked the person to listen to her, the second about how she's trying her best despite the adversity thanks to the anon's encouragement and the third where she's looking back on those hard days and tells them that it's her turn to return the favor and thank her fans. Kudos to poeyama for making such a great video to accompany the song and throwing in all those references to Miku's journey from obscurity to fame in the real world. I wonder how long this one's going to stay on the charts.


Hatsune Miku - Today's Me From Once Upon A Time

Wednesday 24 November 2010

Video: Mind-blowing Guitar Duet

Found this little gem while I was browsing today's Nico-Nico Douga rankings and though I have absolutely no musical knowledge concerning guitars or otherwise, the duo in this video just blew me away with their unbelievable strumming. No idea if the two came together to make this video or someone just decided to mix together their own respective takes on wowaka's "Ura Omote Lovers" but damn if they didn't do an amazing job here. Click down on that video down there and prepare to have an eargasm!


And yes, that is a guy cosplaying in a high school girl's uniform.

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Manga Review: Rave

Sigh~ Start-Great, Middle-Crap, End-Great


Title: Rave
Author: Hiro Mashima
Release: Weekly
Status: Complete
Genre: Shonen, Fantasy, Comedy, Adventure, Romance
Art: C
Originality: A
Story: B
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: Hiro Mashima’s previous long-running series had anime adaptation I truly enjoyed. I thought it pretty well-paced, had a great story and loads and loads of creativity thrown into it. And though I was disappointed that it had to be cut short at what I thought was the halfway point of the series I still thought it was an amazing series. Unfortunately, I was wrong about it being the halfway point and was thoroughly disappointed with the arcs that followed after the point where the anime stopped. Apparently the author decided to stretch things out as much as possible with subplots that really didn’t need to be there and recycle the same old set of clichés for EVERY SINGLE GODDAMN battle that I just couldn’t believe how bad the series got after that. Power levels didn’t make sense anymore, character focus was all over the place and the lacking art style didn’t help. Somehow it did all get better once the art style improved and the story shifted its focus back on the Raves and how the characters tie into the whole scheme of the universe but not after spending half of its publication on pointless subplots and characters. I would have given the story an A rating if the middle chapters were condensed and handled better but there was too much crap in between the great starting and ending arcs. Seriously, Rave would have made an overall amazing shonen series had it not been for the middle. Good thing he’s gotten better with tying plotlines together in Fairy Tail.

Manga Reviews Index

Saturday 20 November 2010

Manga Review: Love Allergen

Love CAN be harmful to your health


Title: Love Allergen
Author: Akahori Satoru, Katsura Yukimaru
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Romance, Supernatural, Comedy
Art: A
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: A
Action: B

Impression: This is the story of a boy and a girl who have allergies they want to rid themselves off and the task they must complete to make that a reality. Together they meet this personification of this mystical sentient blue Sakura tree who wishes to learn the meaning of love so that she can teach the human baby it will give birth to and with that goal in mind the pair are to find that answer she seeks in exchange for doing away of their allergies. Brought to you by the creators of Kashimashi~ Girl meets Girl, this series has a pretty good cast of characters. The boy is a kid who just moved into the village this story takes place in and hates his looks because of how much trouble his beauty brings him. It caused him to even renounce the very notion of love which is obviously going to change given how the manga starts off. The girl on the other hand is basically the idol of the village with reputation for having the irreproachable manners but in actually the most hyperactive and bubbly person in the manga. Unlike the boy’s mundane pollen allergy, her allergy is love itself. Anytime she feels anything close to that emotion, she breaks out in hives and her condition gets worse the more she’s exposed to it. The chemistry between these two characters alone is the source of maybe 70% of the humor and the jokes in this series rarely miss their marks. A great series with lots of good material and a lot to look forward to. Shame that no one’s gotten around to pick up the rest of the chapters since the original scanlator seems to have gone awol.

Manga Reviews Index

Wednesday 17 November 2010

Manga Review: River’s Edge

What a screwed up bunch


Title: River’s Edge
Author: Okazaki Kyoko
Release: Monthly
Status: Complete
Genre: Josei, Slice of Life
Art: F
Originality: B
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is the story of a bunch of screwed up teenagers at a school in some random town that a river runs through. The story focuses mostly on the friendship between a girl in a dysfunctional relationship with an insecure jackass and the gay boy ostracized by said jackass’s gang along with several other members of their peers. A friend recommended this to me a while back so I should tell that if it weren’t for her recommendation, I wouldn’t even be going near this series on account of the horrible artwork and the angst filled premise. A little angst goes a long way in terms of characterization but nobody actually wants to see a bunch of teenagers feeling sorry for themselves doing stupid self destructive things. Thankfully though, the angst is played off quite well here. The setting and society shown in the story certainly justifies it since the bleakness of their lives is just absolutely depressing. Nobody seems to be anywhere near the well-adjusted mark in this series so it’s a little hard for me to take this story seriously. The author probably didn’t mean for the teens’ antics to be humorous but I found myself more amused at how silly they were rather than appalled at their behavior. Things do make sense and the themes of the story are done quite nicely but I honestly just cannot take this story seriously. Still, I enjoyed reading it so maybe you will too.

Manga Reviews Index

Friday 12 November 2010

Manga Review: My Girl

Adorably Heartwarming


Title: My Girl
Author: Sahara Mizu
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Seinen, Slice of Life
Art: S
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: S+
Humor: A
Action: B

Impression: This story revolves around the lives of a barely out of college 23 year old office worker and his newfound five year old daughter and their days together as father and daughter. Having turned up at the funeral wake of his former girlfriend who’s been out of touch with him since she went abroad to study he learns that she been keeping a huge secret from him all these years. For the past five years she’s been raising their child all on her own without his knowledge and now their daughter comes to him to fill the void in their lives. A lovely little series that’s sure to melt the hearts of even the most hardened war veteran with its charming characters, delightful plots and adorable art style. Speaking of which, the art style on the covers and in the manga are of two completely different flavors for some reason though I do find both to be illustrations worthy of praise. Also, I’m completely aware just how corny this sounds but this manga is chock full of love. It’s basically “Clannad: After Story” under a different name sans the wretched tearjerking moments it’s famous for – so far that is and hopefully it’ll stay that way. This definitely belongs in the TvTropes under the sweet dreams fuel section and hopefully someone will get around to creating a page for this series there. A wonderful title all around and most definitely worth a thorough read.

Manga Reviews Index

Thursday 11 November 2010

Manga Review: Yozakura Quartet

Tsun Tsun Tsun Dere Tsun~


Title: Yozakura Quartet
Author: Suzuhito Yasuda
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Shonen, Supernatural, Slice of Life
Art: A
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: S
Humor: A
Action: A

Impression: This story takes place in a town surrounded by seven gigantic Sakura where humans and youkai live together in peace. This peace is upheld by a foursome who run an office purposed with taking care of youkai-related issues including rampaging youkai, rampaging half-youkai as well as babysitting kindergarteners. This office officially consists of a telepathic fox youkai, a kotodama user, the town’s 16 year old mayor and an ordinary human. Quite a solid series this one. There’s quite a nice assortment of colorful characters in this series with uniquely memorable quirks and they’re all given appropriate amounts of screen time. This does hamper with the plot’s progression a little bit since the author seems to prioritize them over the overarching plot. On the other hand, it does make for excellent story arcs but the series itself hasn’t shown us anything that looks like a halfway point for the story even after forty chapters. Now that I think about it, I honestly can’t predict what might come up in future arcs thanks since it still feels like it’s missing more key characters or plot devices that would determine the ending. As of the latest chapter I’ve read, we have the heroes, the things at stake, the key villain, the imminent and eventual threats but not anything that really ties them together or any urgency to take care of things. As good as I find this to be, I still feel it’s a little too early to expect this to end brilliantly but I’m certainly going to stick with this the rest of the way.

Manga Reviews Index

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Movie Review: Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

Glad I could finally watch Edgar Wright’s latest work since it sadly never got around to premiering in theatres in Brunei for some reason even though the trailers did screen here a couple months ago. Hot Fuzz and Shawn of the Dead are up there on my list of favourite movies along with V for Vendetta, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile so I figured I might as well get another one of the guy’s movies up there. Unfortunately, it’s not going up there. Can’t even say it was anywhere near the entrance but I’m quite certain it’ll make it into someone else’s list.

The movie is about this NEET in a band who goes by the name of Scott Pilgrim and has an in-movie rating of awesome. One day he sees this punk rocker-ish chick in the library and falls for her the instant he does and decides to do whatever he can to make her his girlfriend. He tries and after some pretty pathetic tries he sees some degree of success only to have one of her exs come in on one of his band’s performances with the intention of pummeling him into oblivion with his superpowers. Now getting and understanding this declaration of war, Scott now has to fight and defeat all seven evil exs of his new love interest. What follows after is a flurry awesome, flashy, loud and funny – everything a block buster should be and more.

Now let me address the strongest point of the movie – the writing. Edgar Wright is one of those sadly too few writers who’s capable of turning a convention on its head and show us a side that we would not expect and love it for that. Scott pilgrim’s script references so, so, so many different tropes and combines, inverts, subverts, averts and plays with them at such breakneck speeds that they almost flew over my head. I can’t imagine how confounding it must have been for those not equipped with the knowledge that comes with wasting time on TvTropes but I do know anyone would feel overwhelmed during this movie no matter what. The transitions between scenes does get disorientating from time to time and that does detract from the experience no matter how inventive it may be but I found the pacing to be quite well done in terms of cramming the fights and character establishing scenes.

I would say some star power from Simon Pegg probably could’ve pushed this movie right into my favourites list but that would be a lie. The actors played their parts brilliantly so I doubt his inclusion would have made much of a difference. It’s actually the romance that my most of my displeasure with the movie stems from which is an incredibly unusual thing for me to complain about. As marvelously fluid and tight the writing and directing was, the budding romance between Scott and Ramona just felt horribly forced. Love at first sight? Fine. Love makes you blind? Also fine. Going for the girl who’s still lukewarm towards you after having put you into one near death experience after another when it’s much easier to feel pity towards her rather than anything remotely close to affection while the girl who’s developed a stalker-level crush on you urges to go after her? Scott, not only did she blind you but her presence seems to have altered personalities in this movie including but not limited to your own. From a certain point of view that’s also a perfect demonstration of some brand of the Mary Sue trope which is a worth yet another kudos for Edgar Wright’s talent but I can’t say it justifies the bad romance here.

To sum things up, the film was flashy, action-packed and hilarious but all too easy to lose track of. Absolutely worth watching and I regret that I was not able to watch it on the silver screen but I just can’t bring myself to put it up as one of my favourites with my dissatisfactions towards the movie. Here’s hoping we’ll see the third of Edgar Wright’s, Simon Pegg’s and Nick Frost’s Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy sometime soon.

Monday 8 November 2010

Manga Review: Little Little

Silence Will Fall


Title: Little Little
Author: Rokuko
Release: Monhtly
Status: Complete
Genre: Slice of Life
Art: S
Originality: A
Story: B
Characters: B
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is a series done almost entirely done without dialogue and focuses on the day to day lives of a frail young girl and the little fox girl that stumbles into her garden one day. The fox girl quickly becomes attached to her and quickly becomes a resident of the girl’s household. Quite remarkably well done really. Here’s a series without a plot and only one instance of dialogue(used brilliantly by the way) that manages to tell a story that’s both endearing and enjoyable despite all of its restrictions. I was hoping it was yuri series when I first found it but as far as I can tell it’s just got fluff that comes with yuri manga and none of the actual romance. Not complaining though, I loved the tranquil ambience of the series and the innocence portrayed here so I’ll have to say it’s worth checking out.

Manga Reviews Index

Thursday 4 November 2010

Manga Review: The Phantom King

Standard Im Dal Young Story: Evil Shadows version


Title: The Phantom King
Author: Im Dal Young, Yoon Jae Ho
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Shonen, Supernatural
Art: B
Originality: D
Story: C
Characters: B
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: If it were any other author I’d have to give this at least a C in terms of originality but Im Dal Young has rehashed the same old plot so, so, so many times now that I can’t understand why exactly he writes so many different stories simultaneously. It’s your run of the mill supernatural shonen manga set in a village where an incident involving shadowy monsters called evil took place years ago and centers around a bunch of survivors from then who came out of it with no memories of their past selves. Trouble has been starting up recently with the evil sealed up secretly in the huge rock formations just outside the village coming up one by one, possessing and killing people with significant levels of negative emotions. I found this to be the most lacking of all their works so far with the half-assed premise and storytelling so I wouldn’t be too keen on spending any time reading this if I were you. I really liked Aflame Inferno by these guys with the great characters and its atypical focus on them but I can’t see this turning out anywhere near as good as Aflame Inferno. Far too typical and shallow to even compare to it.

Manga Reviews Index

Tuesday 2 November 2010

Video: Unbelievable Victory!! Level 1 Pokemon vs Sinnoh Champion Cynthia!!!

This is just plain ridiculous. I know there are some really, really, really serious people about pokemon and the whole meta-battling stuff out there but I never thought I'd see a team of level ONE pokemon take out a champion's team, one whose average levels are 75! How he got level one pokemon in Black and White so quickly doesn't really matter, it's the fact that this guy used said pokemon to take down a champion with some of the most brilliant strategies I've ever seen. Seriously! You just have to see this for yourself!

Monday 1 November 2010

Manga Review: Mushibugyo

Giant Bugs & Samurai Exterminators


Title: Mushibugyo
Author: Fukuda Hiroshi
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Shonen, Supernatural, Historical
Art: A
Originality: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This series features a main character happens to be a guy with a whole lot of spirit and the brute strength to back it up and he aspires to make it big as a warrior in Edo. One day, this guy from said city comes to scout him as a protector of the capital. He eagerly accepts and soon finds himself in said city but not quite for the reasons he believed. He’s there to protect the city alright but not from soldiers from another province, robbers from some band of ruffians or even fierce, ferocious, fearsome bears – he was brought as pest control. He is the latest in a long line of new recruits for the Mushibugyo monster bug elimination squad because of his talents in combat. Pretty mediocre really. The only thing I actually like about it is the art style. Everything else is substandard, especially the main character himself who’s only proved himself to be a one trick pony. Can’t see any reason to recommend this one.

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