Antz' Anime Reviews

Moribito Part 1 and 2 review

2010-10-17T20:33:00.000-03:00

New review up on Janaiblog, the first two parts of Moribito. It's the first 13 episodes because for some reason it was released in 4 parts.

Fall 2010 Preview

2010-10-11T20:52:00.002-03:00

My preview for the Fall 2010 season is up on Janaiblog. You should read it.

The K-ON! movie is also a thing that exists

2010-09-28T22:51:00.002-03:00

You know, if you're into that sort of thing.

Here's a commercial for the new Berserk anime

2010-09-28T21:51:00.000-03:00

It's a thing that exists and you should be excited about it.

So I write for Janaiblog now...

2010-09-25T22:55:00.001-03:00

Actually I've been a writer there about two weeks now. I was just really slow posting anything about it. Anyways, my new reviews (like my review of Romeo X Juliet Part 1) will be posted there from now on, and I'll add links to them in the Review Index here. That's about all I have to say really.

Trailers are fun and stuff

2010-09-17T18:59:00.000-03:00

Trailers for anime series seem somewhat moot these days. When most of the people who would be interested in buying a series have likely already seen the entire show it's hardly necessary to make a trailer trying to convince them that the show is good. That doesn't stop companies from making them though, and to a certain extent they can help drum up some excitement for a series, especially if it happens to be a really amazing trailer. That's what this post is about: trailers that I personally like, plus one or two that I don't really like. For the record, my definition of a good trailer is one that makes me excited about watching a series. A really great trailer would make me excited about watching a series I hate, but I haven't found any trailers like that.

So let's start with some not so great ones. First up is Bandai's trailer for the AKIRA Blu-Ray release.

This trailer doesn't really make me excited to watch AKIRA in glorious HD. Which is pretty amazing in its own right, because I love AKIRA and watching it in HD was probably the best two hours of my life. It's also a little odd that this trailer only has resolution settings of 360p and 480p. Since this is supposed to be a trailer for the Blu-Ray you would expect a 1080p setting, or at least 720p. Neither one is there though.

Next up is FUNimation's trailer for Samurai 7, another underwhelming trailer for a series I like.

Samurai 7 is based off of the well known Akira Kurosawa film Seven Samurai, in which a group of samurai are hired to protect a village from bandits. Except in Samurai 7 the bandits are giant mechs. That means this series has normal little human samurai slicing giant mechs in half. Apparently that wasn't worth putting in the trailer.

Let's move onto some good trailers. First up is a trailer for an older series, Berserk from Media Blasters/Anime Works. This trailer contains some spoiler-ish shots, but without context you can't fully understand what's going on so it should be fine.

I don't have much else to say about this one. It's just a really great trailer.

Next we have FUNimation's trailer for Soul Eater.

For a series that is overflowing with amazing fight scenes, a trailer that contains almost nothing but clips of those fights is a perfect match. This was my first exposure to Soul Eater, and if the series hadn't already been recommended to me this would have been enough to make me watch it.

These next two trailers are a little different. Once upon time ADV had the license for Gurren Lagann but never managed to release it. It was instead picked up by Bandai, who eventually put it out. ADV did, however, make a trailer for Gurren Lagann. I though the trailer had just vanished into the ether. My searches always brought me to blog posts with an embedded video that had been taken down. I did manage to learn a few things about what was in the trailer though. One day when making another attempt to find it I did a YouTube search for “tengen toppa gurren lagann trailer”. It was right there, on the first god damn page. I could never find it because I always included ADV in my searches and the video didn't have ADV in the title. So here it is, ADV's trailer for Gurren Lagann.

From what I gather people didn't really like the trailer because it didn't really give a good idea of what Gurren Lagann was. Let's compare it to Bandai's trailer.

ADV's may not have been shown what Gurren Lagann was really about, but at least it wasn't as subdued as Bandai's trailer. Gurren Lagann is a show that has a reputation for being over the top and completely ludicrous. This trailer doesn't express that at all, but I'll give it points for including, “Just who the hell do you think I am?!” ADV's at least managed to somewhat capture the crazy, over-the-top nature of the series. If nothing else we can see how different companies can approach the same material in completely different ways.

Regardless of their usefulness trailers are a nice thing to have. They can get us excited for a new series, remind us how great a series we love is, or even trick us into thinking a terrible series is good. I personally like them, so I hope they never go away and that companies can continue making trailers as awesome as that old Berserk one.

Manga Review - Fruits Basket Vol. 2 by Natsuki Takaya

2010-09-11T15:52:00.001-03:00

Ever since Tohru Honda discovered the Zodiac secret of the Sohma clan, her eyes have been opened to the world of magic and wonder. But with such a great secret comes great responsibility. When her best friends Hana and Uo come to the Sohma house for a sleepover, Tohru has her work cut out for her keeping the cat in the bag and the dog on a leash.

Tohru's friends are naturally a little suspicious about her living with three men, and so they decide to check the place out and stay the night. Naturally this leads to many silly hi-jinks involving the Sohma's being accidentally transformed into their Zodiac animal forms. But more importantly it gives a chance for character development to Uo and Hana, as well as giving insight into the relationship between the three girls. Tohru was both girls' first friend, so they're very protective of her, especially now since her mother died. So when they heard that she had previously been living in a tent alone in the woods, and now living with Yuki and Kyo, they were of course deeply concerned since she had neglected to tell them. It's obvious that her friends care about Tohru more than she realizes.

Tohru has a chance to meet two more members of the Sohma family during the school culture festival. Momiji, a young half-German half-Japanese boy, and Hatori an older man and the family doctor of the Sohmas. Hatori takes a special interest in Tohru and her involvement with the family, and warns her that it would be best if she stopped being involved with them. His reason for this is because in the past, he was forced to erase his fiance's memories when the head of the family, Akito, didn't want them to get married. He knows that Akito is using Tohru for something and doesn't want to see her get hurt. Hatori's story is the first glimpse we get into what it's like to carry the Sohma curse and how it can hurt the people around them.

The second volume of Fruits Basket carries on much like the first. There's an overwhelming amount of humour found it in with Yuki being forced to crossdress during the culture festival, and Tohru accidentally finding out Hatori's strange animal form. The introduction of Hatori and his warning to Tohru give the first impression that there might be some underlying plot to the events going on, though what that is isn't entirely clear at this point. There's also a fairly touching moment when Yuki and Kyo decide to defy family orders and spend New Years with Tohru instead of leaving her alone to go to the Sohma family celebration.

Just like in the first volume, the word onigiri remains untranslated whenever it's used. I still don't see how this serves any purpose or why they can't just put rice-ball. Another problem is that sound effects are not translated on the actual pages. Normally sound effects will have a translation written under them, or in the margin if need be. But for Fruits Basket TOKYOPOP instead chose to just have translations for every sound effect compiled on a couple pages in the back of the book. These pages don't really help though, because you would need to constantly flip back and forth to get any use out of them. I've also never really liked the use of honorifics in a translation, but that's become so common that I barely care at this point.

Fruits Basket continues to be a fun series with plenty of humour and interesting characters. Hatori's backstory alone makes this volume a good read, and his warning to Tohru leaves one wondering how the plot is going to develop. I definitely recommend reading it.

Final Fantasy IX, Completely Immature Playthrough Part 2

2010-09-03T22:19:00.002-03:00

Let's just get this started.

You can't hear it, but they're playing that song from FFVII that plays during Rufus' parade at Juno. I always thought that was neat.

I wish I could make a horrible tentacle rape joke but there wasn't anything good enough from this scene to do it with.

Speaking of horrible tentacle rape, you should run faster Zidane. Those are pretty big tentacles, and they've got thorns too.

The forest turned to stone somehow. This always reminded me of that one episode of Reboot where all of Mainframe gets turned to stone by the Medusa Virus.

See Blank? This is what you get for being an ass and calling everyone douche all the time. You get petrified.

Oh, well, that makes perfect sense.

No I do not want to waste time reading tutorials. This game isn't that complex, unless you're like ten or something.

So we're in an icy cavern place called the Ice Cave or Cavern or something. Conviently the only spell Vivi knows right now is Fire.

Zidane seems prone to random outbursts of anger.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

No, I don't want to learn how to play your shitty card game.

That's where we'll leave off for today. These seem short I know, but I assure you that it isn't because I hate this game and don't want to play for extended periods of time. I heart this game. I heart this game so hard.

Final Fantasy IX, Completely Immature Playthrough Part 1

2010-09-01T20:39:00.001-03:00

As mentioned in my post about games I haven't finished, I'm currently doing a playthrough of Final Fantasy IX in which I give the characters silly, immature names in an attempt to get some actual entertainment out of this game. As opposed to spamming Twitter with pictures, as I did in the past, I'll just put them here. While I usually don't swear in my reviews and whatnot, I do happen to enjoy it from time to time. So you may see some dirty language in some of these pictures or in my comments. They're going to be pictures of my TV by the way, because I'm playing it on my PS3 and can't take actual screenshots. So if that bothers you, you may want to leave. Let's get started.

To start with, I've given Zidane a name I feel fits him more. I decided to use a small "d" instead because it would fit in with the dialogue better.

There's going to be a lot of stuff like this throughout the game. I'm sure it won't get old at all.

I kind of wish there was enough space to separate the words but there's nothing I can do about that. This didn't yield any interesting dialogue until a little later on.

I'd go to more plays if people called each other douche more. "Et tu, douche?"

Blank's kind of a dick.

Seven letters is really restrictive. I may run out of names soon.

FFIX continues the tradition started in FFVIII where you get 0 experience for boss fights. Which is just fantastic really. I mean who wants to be rewarded for winning difficult fights anyway?

Steiner is kind of a creepy fuck.

I think Zidane maybe enjoys being called douche. Vivi is happy to oblige this odd fetish.

Maybe if I don't look for Garnet the game will end here and I won't have to play it anymore.(It totally won't)

Well Mario's been following that philosophy for decades and look where it's gotten him. Go for it Zidane!

Okay, seriously Blank. You and I are going to have words.

I don't know what Vivi said to make Zidane so angry but clearly he's had enough of his shit.

That's all for today. Next time, the gang sets out to save Garnet from the horrible tentacle monsters. I'm totally not going to make any tentacle rape jokes, I promise.

Something I liked about Digital Devil Saga 2

2010-09-01T18:56:00.000-03:00

While I would like to do a review of Digital Devil Saga 2, that would be kind of pointless. The gameplay is pretty much identical to the first with the minor changes that were made not really having any effect on it. This isn't a bad thing, as the gameplay from the first one is fine the way it is. It uses all the same mechanics, and you're still going to get horribly screwed over when an enemy ends up getting the first turn. Everything in that regard is the same as the first game.

I can't really talk about the story either. Even a simple plot synopsis would give away everything about the first game, and like the first game it's hard to talk about it without giving away spoilers since almost every scene in the game reveals something important. So rather than do an actual review of the game I'm just going to explain one thing in particular that really makes it feel different than most JRPGs I've played, and that is the atmosphere.

If you're familiar with JRPGs, you've likely noticed that in most there's always a point where you get the entire party together, and just sort of going adventuring with no real goal. Things feel comfortable, there's no immediate threat to deal with, you're just going through the game waiting for the next plot point or threat to show up. You can be fairly confident that once all of your party members have joined they're going to be there permanently, and even if one leaves he or she will be back shortly afterwards. In the course of any 50 hour JRPG, there will only be a few times when you really feel on edge about whatever is going on, and the rest of the time you'll just be sitting back and enjoying the ride.

This doesn't really happen in Digital Devil Saga 2. You get all your party members fairly early on, but they're anything but permanent. Starting at about a 1/3 of the way through the game you start losing party members, never getting the full five member team together again until the final dungeon. They're are also no real moments to relax, because the entire game is basically dungeon exploration. If you aren't exploring a dungeon then you're either watching a cutscene or gone back to the shop to get supplies. It's hard to feel comfortable when you're constantly going from one dungeon to the next and always fighting battles.

Another thing that tends to make most JRPGs have a more comfortable atmosphere is the various cities spread throughout the world. At any time you can go visit them, and generally feel safe since you aren't at risk of being jumped by monsters while you're there. There are no cities in Digital Devil Saga 2, or the first one for that matter. There's maybe one area that counts as a city, but all that's there is a save point, a healing point, and a shop. There aren't many NPCs to talk to, as it's a fairly desolate world. There's always a sense of doom and gloom hanging in the air, even when you're in a relatively safe place. Any other people you do run into usually end up being your enemies, or just strongly dislike you, so there's a real feeling of isolation.

Digital Devil Saga 2 doesn't screw around with death either. People die. A lot of people die. When characters decide to sacrifice themselves, they don't show up in the next scene having miraculously survived being inside an exploding building. They die. It gets rather difficult to choose a team when you really no idea whose still going to be alive in a few hours. Though this isn't really unique to the game, as characters dying in JRPGs isn't exactly new. I don't really think I've seen one that's killed them off quite as frequently as this one though.

A lot of what makes Digital Devil Saga 2's atmosphere feel different probably comes from it being a rather condensed game. It doesn't try to stretch playtime by having you running around a massive world map and constantly going through pointless extra dungeons. If you took any JRPG and cut out any parts that weren't vitally important to the plot, it would probably end up about the same length as Digital Devil Saga 2, and they'd probably have that same feeling of urgency throughout.

Digital Devil Saga 2 never really had a moment where I thought, “Okay, gang's all here. Let's go adventurin'.” By the time the gang is all there you're at the final dungeon, and you can't go adventuring then because you can't leave the dungeon, not that there's anywhere to go adventuring anyways. It did have a moment where I thought, “Okay, please stop killing characters. I need them to fight things,” though. So if you're looking for a game with a tense atmosphere, go play the first Digital Devil Saga so you can play this one.

I probably just have a really short attention span

2010-08-30T21:30:00.000-03:00

Just for fun I've decided to make a list of a few games I can think of that I've started playing, and for one reason or another couldn't be bothered to finish. I'll list the games, give the reason I stopped playing, and gauge whether or not I'll ever bother trying to finish it again. Since I'm mostly doing this from memory it probably won't be a very long list, and certainly not a complete one.

Final Fantasy II, IV, V, VI, IX, XII

Why I stopped: The biggest reason I end up quitting these games is because I don't really like the ATB system, which really hinders my willingness to play through them. Generally what happens is I'll get to a point where I'm under-levelled and need to grind if I want to continue. Instead of spending an hour or so doing nothing but using a battle system I can't stand, I just quit. The stories and characters have never really grabbed me enough to make me want to put the effort into finishing them. I've attempted to play through some of these games a few times, namely IV, VI, and IX. But every time I usually hit a point where I need to level up, or in IX's case I just lose interest completely, and stop playing.

Chance of finishing: I don't have II, IV, V, VI, or XII anymore so I couldn't finish them even if I wanted to. I've tried at least four times to finish IX but usually quit after 20 hours. For my most recent attempt I've given my characters silly, immature names. Maybe everyone calling Zidane a douche will help me stick this one out.

3D Dot Game Heroes

Why I stopped: Not liking 3D Dot Game Heroes is entirely my fault, I'll admit. I didn't own a NES, and I didn't play the original Legend of Zelda until I was 17 years old back in 2007. So despite how hard it tries, 3D Dot Game Heroes doesn't make me vomit nostalgia rainbows. And if you aren't there for the nostalgia effect, then it's just a standard action-adventure game with admittedly interesting visuals. It just wasn't enough to hold my attention when I had other things I wanted to play at the time.

Chance of finishing: I may actually go back to this one. I stopped playing it because at the time I was playing through Persona 4 again. Then I was playing Persona 3 Portable. Then I decided to finally finish the Digital Devil Saga games, and I still haven't finished Digital Devil Saga 2 so it's been taking up a fair amount of my time. Then after that I kind of want to play Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, so that will be occupying my time for a bit. And then there's Valkyria Chronicles 2 which I need to get. I may not actually get back to 3D Dot Game Heroes after all.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

Why I stopped: I'm actually kind of bothered by this one. The first Persona game I played was 3, followed shortly by 4. So when I heard this was coming out I had to get it. Unfortunately I wasn't prepared for just how tedious it can be. The main problem comes from getting new Personae, which is a giant chore. First you have to convince demons to give you a spell card, which is basically a guessing game, and then you can fuse the cards into a new Persona. I did that once, and then decided I didn't really feel like doing it over and over to keep getting new Personae. Dungeon exploration isn't exactly a picnic either.

Chance of finishing: I'm probably doomed to keep constantly trying this one over and over until the day I die. I just feel obligated to since I like Persona 3 and 4 so much. If they ever make a version of this game where getting new Personae is as easy as it is in 3 and 4 then I might actually be able to get through it. Otherwise I really don't want to put the effort in required to get new Personae over and over again.

Tales of Phantasia

Why I stopped: The main problem here is that I can only play the GBA port of the game. The horribly broken GBA port of the game. If you're familiar with the Tales series you'll probably know that the battle system tends to make fights very fast paced with an emphasis on combos. Unfortunately the GBA can't handle this type of battle system, as there is an unbearable amount of slowdown during fights.

Chance of finishing: This is another case where I'm a fan of later games in the series. In all likelihood I may come back to this one some day. The only problem with it is the slowdown during fights, so if I can manage to get used to that I could easily play through the game. But that's kind of asking a lot.

Eternal Sonata

Why I stopped: This game pretty much put me to sleep. It's just really dull, and slow, and boring. Every single cutscene is filled with characters who have plenty to say, and are in absolutely no hurry to say it. Most of the time it barely has anything to do with the plot, they're just droning on and on about... stuff. At one point there's a character who gets fatally wounded and then proceeds to monologue for seven minutes, while apparently bleeding to death, and flashbacking to a conversation she had 2 minutes before. The only redeeming quality was the battle system, but even that gets boring once you realize that in every dungeon you fight the same three encounters over and over.

Chance of finishing: Ugh. I've stopped and started this game at least 4 times. I didn't even start over every time either. I don't think it's even a long game. I'm at what I believe is the final chapter, and I've played it for maybe 25 hours. It just bored me to the point where I couldn't be bothered to finish it when I was that close. I don't imagine I'll ever bother finishing it.

That's all for now. If I happen to come across another batch of games that I lose interest in I'll probably do another.

Manga Review - Fruits Basket Vol. 1 by Natsuki Takaya

2010-08-27T13:21:00.001-03:00

A family with an ancient curse, and the girl who will change their lives forever. Thoru Honda was an orphan with no place to go until the mysterious Sohma family offered her a place to call home. Now her ordinary high school life is turned upside down as she's introduced to the Sohma's worlds of magical curses and family secrets.

At first glance Fruits Basket would seem like a reverse harem series. A young girl, Tohru Honda, suddenly finds herself surrounded by a group of pretty-boys, the Sohma family, and starts getting closer to them. Fortunately, that isn't what it really is, as there isn't any real romance to be found in this volume. None of the members of the Sohma family make any attempts to get romantically involved with Tohru. Instead, she just becomes really good friends with them, and since she is sickeningly nice she helps them deal with and overcome their problems.

And when I say sickeningly nice, I really mean it. Tohru's mother passed away shortly before the beginning of the series, and as a result she had nowhere to live. Instead of asking one of her friends, who are also nice caring people, if she could stay with them she decides to live in a tent alone in the middle of the woods. This is until she stumbled upon the house of the Sohma family, whose property she had been unknowingly living on. After a series of events leaves her tent unusable she starts living with them, and in return does all of the cleaning and cooking. She eventually discovers the Sohma family secret, they turn into animals from the Chinese Zodiac when hugged by someone of the opposite gender, and has to keep the secret to herself or face having her memory erased.

Yuki, one of the first Sohmas Tohru meets, is an extremely popular boy at her school. Due to the Sohma family curse he tends to keep to himself, which makes him seem aloof and mysterious and makes all the girls fall for him which, again, due to the curse is a problem. He really does want to get close to people and make friends, but he's afraid that if anyone found out about him they'd think he was weird and wouldn't want to be around him. Kyo, another Sohma Tohru meets early on, suffers from a similar problem. Except in his case instead of just simply distancing himself from people he acts like a jerk to them. Kyo is also considered an outcast of the Sohma family because the animal he changes into is a cat, and if you're familiar with the Chinese Zodiac you'll know that the cat isn't actually one of them.

Tohru has no problem getting close to either of them. She doesn't actively try to be nice to them, or help them with their problems, that's just the way she is. She's not bothered by their turning into animals Besides being shocked the first time it happens, it never really phases her at all. And specifically in Kyo's case, his constantly being mean to her doesn't drive her away. This goes back to her being sickeningly nice. Whenever he says anything to her she'll be the one to apologize for bothering him. If you ran her over she'd probably apologize for getting in the way of your car. She also sympathizes with Kyo being an outcast, as she knows the story about why the cat isn't a member of the Zodiac and always felt sorry for it. This makes her want to get to know him better, and makes Kyo seem like the most likely candidate for an eventual relationship with Tohru.

Fruits Basket has surprisingly little drama, though this is really only surprising due to my own preconceptions about shoujo. Most of the volume is spent watching Tohru interact with the few Sohmas she's met, and the various silly things that happen due to their situation. It ranges from her accidentally changing them into animals in public, to Shigure, an older member of the Sohma family, attempting to explain that sex is difficult for them before being shut up by Yuki. There's plenty to laugh at in the volume, and the only mildly dramatic thing that happens is when Tohru goes back to live with her grandfather and other family members. But even then it's just a chapter of her reminiscing about how much fun living with the Sohmas is before the problem is promptly resolved. Even the author herself notes that the series seems like it's becoming a sitcom in one of the many notes written by her at the beginning of every chapter.* This volume never really gets into the plot of the series, instead it serves to introduce the main characters and get use acquainted with them.

One small problem I have is with the character designs. People tend to joke about all the male characters in a shoujo series looking the same, but that actually is partially the case here. It isn't all of the characters that look the same though, it's just that it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish between Kyo and Yuki. They have similar looking faces, and the same hairstyle. The only real difference between them is that Kyo's hair is shaded slightly darker, and he scowls a lot more than Yuki. It seems like the artist noticed this problem too, whenever Kyo and Yuki happen to be in the same panel Kyo's hair is shaded even darker, making it easier to tell them apart. Another minor annoyance was a translation choice made at one point in the volume. The phrase onigiri is used with a translation note in the margin explaining that it means rice ball. Since it translates to something as simple as rice ball I really have to wonder why they chose to leave onigiri in at all. They're minor problems, but still a little bothersome.

Fruits Basket gets off to a solid start with this volume, quickly introducing us to the the main characters of the series. It doesn't really feel like it gets into the plot, instead displaying largely unrelated moments of comedy with only a few brief moments of actual drama. Definitely a great read if you're interested in getting into shoujo, or just want to get a good laugh.

Score:

*There are also notes written in the middle of chapters where she usually talks about video games. At one point she mentions an old Shin Megami Tensei game for the Sega Saturn called Soul Hackers. This isn't relevant to anything, I just felt like mentioning it.

Anime Review - Spice and Wolf, Complete First Season

2010-08-22T13:35:00.005-03:00

Lawrence, a travelling merchant searching for profit, finds a naked girl with the ears and tail of a wolf asleep in his cart. Her name is Holo – a harvest goddess with an untamed beast lurking inside who longs to return to her beloved northern home. Armed with his street smarts and her animal instincts, a simple peddler and a forgotten deity begin a journey through the wild countryside. Along their path, the riches of happiness shall be reaped, even as the bankruptcy which dwells in the human heart is exposed.

Spice and Wolf can seem a little daunting at first if you don't really know what you're getting into. I doubt anyone going into the series with no prior knowledge of it is really ready for what is basically 24 consecutive minutes of people talking. People talking about economics. Medieval economics at that. Sounds boring, yes? Well, surprisingly, it isn't.

This is due entirely to how fascinating the characters and their relationships with each other are. Lawrence, being a merchant, always looks at things in terms of money. Either making it, spending it, or keeping track of the debt Holo has racked up. He always keeps somewhat detached from things, never really showing much emotion no matter what's going on around him. That is until it seems like Holo may be in actual danger, during which time he is genuinely panicked and gets irritated when the people he tries to seek help from don't act quickly enough. Over time it becomes clear that despite his behaviour he has started to develop genuine feelings for Holo and cares about her deeply.

Holo herself is a rather interesting character. Despite being a several hundred year old deity, she behaves more like a child. She gets excited about food, demanding Lawrence take her to another city for a chance to eat apples pickled in honey. She'll try to act the part of a deity, by talking big about herself or belittling humans, acting like she's not interested in anything they do, but this only makes her seem like a child attempting to impress someone by bragging. All this bragging and boasting serves to hide the fact that she's really just lonely, having been stuck watching over one particular wheat field for many years, and having no real contact with anyone.

Watching the two talk to each other, which you will be doing a lot, can be very interesting. Lawrence initially acts like Holo being around is a nuisance to him. If the church finds her with him he'd end up in trouble, and keeping her hidden can prove to be troublesome. He'll constantly say things to Holo, not realizing that he's hurting her by doing so. For her part, Holo will tease Lawrence whenever the chance arises, usually about his weakness to women. Both coyly avoid admitting how they really feel about each other, despite it becoming obvious over time that an affection has grown between the two. The only time they really show their true feelings is when one or the other is in danger. When Holo is at risk of being found out, Lawrence organizes a plan to rescue her despite it being entirely possible for him to leave her behind at no loss. Likewise, when Lawrence is in danger, Holo is willing to assume her great wolf form, something that would give her identity away in normal circumstances, to save him. Even if neither one outright says it, it's obvious that they care deeply about one another.

The story itself is divided into two arcs, each telling its own different story. Each arc is six episodes long, with an episode in the middle that isn't part of either story. It isn't filler though, as it gives a great deal of insight into the relationship between Lawrence and Holo as they just wander around town and talk like normal people. The actual stories themselves are a little formulaic. Lawrence will stumble upon some sort of deal that could make him a lot of money, the deal goes bad, he ends up in trouble and having to find a way out of the situation, and eventually Holo will intervene to save Lawrence.

Spice and Wolf is animated beautifully. Everything from simple fields of wheat, to the sometimes extravagant buildings that make up the towns are given great attention to detail and simply look amazing. The character designs are fairly simple in a good way. Despite this being a fantasy series, there are no strange or extravagant character designs. Everyone looks like simple townsfolk, which is all they really are. The simple designs work in a setting like this and fit it well.

Funimation produced an excellent dub for the series, with even the most insignificant of characters getting great voices. The one performance that stands out the most is Brina Palencia as Holo. She gives a somewhat different performance than Holo's Japanese voice actor, Ami Koshimizu. In Japanese, Holo sounds like a young girl, which fits because she does look like a young girl. But she's really a several hundred year old deity, and knowing that it seems somewhat odd to have her sounding as young as she does. Brina Palencia's performance gives that sense that Holo is older than she looks. She doesn't sound old exactly, “wiser” is the word I would use to describe the voice. I feel like that fits Holo a little better since she does refer to herself as a “Wise Wolf,” but either voice works for its own reasons.

There aren't any noteworthy extras in this set. Just textless versions of the series' excellent opening and strange ending themes. There are trailers as well, as you would expect.

Spice and Wolf can easily seem boring based on any description, and really, if watching characters talk forever isn't your cup of tea it's going to seem boring if you actually watch it. But if mountains of dialogue doesn't bother you, or if you perhaps like it that way, then Spice and Wolf is an excellent series to watch. Even if you're a little iffy about it, you should give it a try. I found myself a little put off by all the talking when I first started watching, but once the characters get a hold of you you'll start wondering how the episodes can seem to go by so quickly.

Score:

The Packaging

Video Game Review - Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga

2010-08-07T18:58:00.002-03:00

In the Junkyard, rival Tribes fight an endless war – vying for supremacy and the right to ascend to Nirvana. Everything begins to change when a blinding light interrupts a skirmish between two Tribes. Serph, leader of the Embryon, awakens after the flash to find that his opponents have been violently slain. In a crater left behind lies a young girl with black hair. The people of the Junkyard soon discover the effects of the mysterious light; Tribe members transform into demons, and feed an insatiable hunger by devouring their enemies. Along with this new “Atma” comes another strange power: emotion.

I found the story in Digital Devil Saga to be very intriguing. I can't say it's of any great quality, as it's still very hard to judge at this point, but something about it just grabbed me. I wanted to know what this world was, and how it ended up the way it did. I wanted to find out why people who had previously been emotionless were now awakening to actual emotions and acting differently. As time goes on characters start to remember and recognize things that they know they shouldn't and don't understand why. All the mysteries about what's going on grabbed my attention and made me want to play through the game to find out what was happening to these characters. I imagine it would have this effect on just about anyone, as the game constantly drops hints about what could be going on without revealing too much. Unfortunately, even if you actually manage to finish the game you won't know the answers to any of these mysteries, as it ends on a huge cliffhanger, so you need to play the second game to find out more(and having played some of the second game I can say that a lot of stuff about the Junkyard is explained within the first hour). The game also isn't very long for an RPG, depending on how much time you want to spend grinding and hunting down secret bosses you'll probably finish it in anywhere from 25 to 30 hours.

Digital Devil Saga uses the standard turn-based battle system found in most JRPGs with only a few minor differences. Characters themselves don't get turns, the whole team gets a turn during which you can take up to three actions. Normal attacks and skills use one action, or two or more of your party members can join forces to do a combo attack which takes up two or three actions depending on how many characters are involved in it. Hitting an enemy's weakness or getting a critical hit allows you to take another action, but in total you can only take up to six actions in one turn by doing this. Enemies will also get extra actions for taking advantage of your weaknesses. This adds quite a bit of strategy to the game, requiring you to learn how to maximize your own turns and cover your weaknesses, which you'll need to do if you have any hope of finishing the game.

The difficulty curve in this game can be steep, with some boss fights seeming downright unfair and impossible to win. Even something as minor as enemies getting the first turn in a fight can turn disastrous, especially if they use instant death spells or an element one of your characters is weak to. There's almost always the possibility of being killed without even having a chance to defend yourself. This ever-present risk of complete and utter annihilation makes skill selection crucial to the game, with certain skills able to get rid of your characters' weaknesses, or if you're willing to grind long enough a skill that nullifies almost all damage to the character. If high difficulty is something that you don't like, you're better off steering clear of the Shin Megami Tensei series altogether.

Skills aren't learned through the normal means of levelling up in this game. Characters will level up, but this only raises a characters stats. Skills are learned by assigning “Mantras,” which can be purchased at save points, and then the skills have to be set to the character after they master the mantra. The game has two different kinds of experience; the normal kind which raises a character's level, and Atma Points, or AP, which let a characters master mantras and learn skills. Normally, AP is divided up evenly between the party, including those not used in fights. But if a character uses a skill to devour an enemy they get bonus AP and learn skills faster, but other characters won't get any AP from that enemy. It's also possible for characters to get a stomach ache after devouring an enemy, and if they end the battle this way the AP goes to waste and no one gets any. It's essential to maintain a balance between which characters you want to learn skills faster, or if you want other characters to learn them at all since they cost money. It may seem overwhelming at first when you see how many different mantras there are, but it's a fairly simple system that doesn't take very long to get the hang of.

Obviously Digital Devil Saga's graphics aren't very impressive considering that it's a five year old PS2 game. Character models are jagged and blocky, they don't move around realistically during cutscenes, and there really isn't much detail put into anything. But if you're going into it expecting the graphics in a game that came out five years ago to wow you, you're kind of setting yourself up for disappointment. The game does impress in the music department though, with Shoji Meguro composing his usual rock oriented soundtrack, and it fits the various settings well. Age doesn't really come into play when judging music, and Digital Devil Saga's soundtrack holds up well to Meguro's more recent offerings in Persona 3 and 4.

Unfortunately though, the voice acting doesn't hold up quite so well. When you're first starting the game it's worth remembering that the characters are supposed to sound monotone and emotionless, the problem is when you get to the point where it isn't supposed to sound like that most of the acting is just mediocre. The best it ever achieves is above average, and the rest of the time it's just mediocre, but it never really drops below mediocre either. But again, this is a JRPG that was released here in 2005. Most JRPGs save for Final Fantasy had mediocre English voice acting back then.

Digital Devil Saga has a very intriguing story, with a fun, quick paced battle system. Anyone who likes JRPGs, or RPGs in general should give this on a try. The game isn't very “Japanese” despite being a JRPG, so there are no worries about not understanding it or having something get lost in translation. If you like RPGs or just games with great, interesting stories then this is a definitely a game you should get.

Score:

Funimation licenses Summer Wars and Evangelion 2.22

2010-07-30T21:11:00.002-03:00

At their Otakon panel earlier today, Funimation revealed that they have licensed the movies Summer Wars and Evangelion 2.22. I'm quite pleased about Evangelion 2.22 finally getting licensed. I have seen it already, but I didn't want to have to import the Blu-Ray to own it, so this is excellent news. Hopefully this one will get a theatrical run like the first as I'd really like to see it in theatres. I'm less excited about Summer Wars but I am looking forward to it. I've heard it's good but never actually got around to watching it myself so I'll be picking this up when it comes out, or going to see it in theatres should it get a theatrical run. They also announced that they've licensed season three of Hetalia as well as the movie, and they plan on releasing Strike Witches 2 on DVD in 2011, but this isn't really surprising.

To go along with the excellent news of Evangelion 2.22 getting licensed, Funimation also announced licenses for some less stellar titles. Namely, Ookami-San and Blesssing of the Campenella (the English title for Shukufuku no Campenella) both of which are series that premiered this summer. Neither one is a very good show, with Ookami-San being borderline unwatchable, so this kind of put a damper on my excitement about the other announcements. But hey, if it sells, good for them. They'll also be streaming these shows soon, meaning just about everything from this season is being legally streamed somewhere, which is pretty impressive.

I'm a little late on this one but Bandai announced during their Comic-Con panel that they have licensed Turn A Gundam and the Tales of the Abyss series. Never really cared for Gundam, so the announcement of Turn A wasn't very interesting to me, but I hear a lot of people have been wanting that one so it's good that it finally got licensed. Tales of the Abyss, on the other hand, I am looking forward to. I'm a fan of the Tales games, so I plan on buying this even if it does turn out to be terrible. Just have to wait for Bandai to announce a release date, then delay it a few times, and then finally pick up a copy.

Still have Bandai's Otakon panel to look forward to, though they might not have anything more to announce so soon after Comic-Con.

Video Game Preview - Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale Demo

2010-07-30T00:19:00.002-03:00

The story behind the localization of Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is an interesting one. Carpe Fulgur, the newly founded company doing the localization, was created by two people who couldn't find work at any established localization companies due to lack of credentials. So in order to show that they can produce a localization of professional quality, and add to their resume at the same time, they decided they would localize a game on their own. And so they settled on Recettear, a Japanese indie game that has never seen North American shores. A rather interesting choice for the company's debut.

As the title plainly reveals, Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is about an item shop. More specifically, it's about a girl named Recette who is forced to use her home as an item shop to pay off a loan. It isn't her loan though, its actually her father's, but he isn't around to pay it off because he decided to go off adventuring to become a hero and hasn't returned since. So it falls on Recette to pay off the massive loan her father left behind, and the easiest way to do that would be to sell items since she lives in a town frequented by adventurers. Basically, you get to play as a character that would normally be an NPC stuck behind a counter.

Assisting Recette in running the shop is a fairy named Tear, a worker contracted by the loan company to collect payments, or if payment can't be collected, seize Recette's house as collateral. She's not a typical evil loan-shark though, as her actual goal is to ensure the loan company doesn't have to seize the house and helps Recette as much as possible by teaching her everything she'll need to know to run a successful shop. Together the two buy and sell goods in an attempt to raise enough money before each deadline. It's like Persona 4, except instead of saving people from being killed by their own negative emotions inside a TV, you're selling goods to villagers at marked up prices.

If the premise doesn't seem very exciting to you, you'll be glad to hear you also get to play as hired adventurers and explore dungeons in a fairly simple dungeon crawler segment, giving you a break from the stress of managing your store to bash some monsters. This is an essential part of the game, as the easiest way to make money is to find loot scattered throughout the dungeons. Since you don't have to pay for them you earn more profit selling them, though you do have to pay a small fee to the adventurer. The downside is if the adventurer is defeated in the dungeon you can only take one item back with you, and this includes any healing items you gave to the adventurer since you have to give them supplies yourself. You really need to get a hang of exploration quickly if you want to make money, but fortunately it's very simple and not at all difficult to master.

The most entertaining part of the game is easily the dialogue. I really can't say if the translation is faithful to the original or if the script is being entirely rewritten, but either way the result is stupidly entertaining. With lines ranging from just plain silly, to references to RPGs and MMOs, there's a lot to laugh at in this game. Japanese voices had to be left in, as Carpe Fulgur is a new company and can't afford to produce a quality English dub, plus they were asked to include the Japanese audio by the developer anyway. But it doesn't matter that much, as the only actual spoken dialogue is just short clips that pop up during dialogue. I can't recall any fully spoken lines in the demo at least.

As simple as the game is, if you aren't careful you could end up in a situation where you can't earn enough money to make a loan payment. It happened to me because I kept getting killed in the dungeon, and I had to start over from the beginning. You can download the demo for yourself at the game's official website, but for a taste of some of the silly dialogue from the game check out the images below. The demo allows you to play up until you've made the first loan payment, and the save file is compatible with the full version of the game that will be released in the future.

Video Game Review - Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable

2010-07-28T15:56:00.005-03:00

Rather than do a full review of Persona 3 Portable I'll just focus on the aspects of the game that were changed for this version. Considering this is the third iteration of this game, that seems like the best choice, and I won't really be saying much about the story. If you're the least bit into JRPGs and haven't played or heard of this game, then where the hell have you been for the last three years?

Persona 3 Portable benefits from borrowing gameplay elements from Persona 4, which made several improvements to the battle system from the original Persona 3. Originally your party members were controlled by the AI. This had it's share of problems since you essentially couldn't rely on your allies to do what you wanted or needed. They could heal the wrong person, not heal at all, or waste turns casting spells they shouldn't. Truthfully the AI works fairly well most of the time, but the times it doesn't work always seemed to happen at crucial moments in my case so they stand out more. Merely seeing the spell “Tentarafoo” brings back memories of Mitsuru wasting turns casting it during boss fights. But with the addition of the Direct Command tactic you can ensure that this never happens. However, if you would prefer to let the AI control your party members that option is still there, though I've never seen a reason to. Other changes include the option to play as a female character, as well as two new difficulty settings, and the partial removal of Fusion Spells, which are now done by using an item instead of having the right Personas with you.

Unfortunately with the improvements to the battle system, Persona 3 Portable took a hit in it's presentation style. Unlike the original Persona 3 and Persona 4 where characters were shown on screen during cutscenes and you could run around town outside of the dungeon, cutscenes are now limited to showing a static background and character portraits in a manner similar to a visual novel, and town exploration is done with a point and click map. If you don't mind that style of presentation then there isn't really a problem, but it does feel somewhat lacking. Scenes that are meant to be dramatic or contain a lot of action don't come across nearly as well when all you get are descriptive text and sound effects. None of the animated cutscenes made it into this version, save for a few still shots used at certain points of the game, with one or two of those scenes being recreated using the in game-character models. This is the one area where Persona 3 Portable falls on its face, but this was likely due to the lack of space available on a UMD.

One area of Persona 3 that remains nearly identical in this version is the Social Links. They too of course use the same visual novel style as the rest of the game, but the mechanics work the same. You hang out with friends, and choose certain dialogue options when prompted to do so to become closer with the person. I can't honestly say if all of the same Social Links are available for the male protagonist's side as I decided to play as the newly added female protagonist instead since it would be different than the Persona 3 I played before. In her story they added Social Links for all the party members who did not have them before, including Junpei, Akihiko, Ken, Shinjiro, and even the dog Koromaru. Shinjiro's is special in that completing it will change a certain scene in the game, though I can't say exactly how as that would be a spoiler. Other than that the Social Link part is the same. Doing Social Links grants bonus experience when fusing new Personas, and maxing them grants access to the best Personas, so they're an important part of the game.

The Social Links for your party members don't function the same as they do in Persona 4, however. In Persona 4, increasing an ally's Social Link unlocked new abilities in battle, such as taking a mortal blow, waking up down allies, or surviving fatal attacks. These abilities were added to Persona 3 Portable, but they aren't unlocked through party members' Social Links like they are in Persona 4. Instead they're unlocked as the Social Link for the whole team goes up, which is a Social Link that goes up automatically at certain points of the game. So you can't unlock these abilities early on by doing Social Links, but on the plus side you don't have to do Social Links with an ally in order for them to be useful in battle. I assume it was done this way because most of the party members don't have a Social Link in the male protagonist's story, so it wouldn't work if they had done it the same as they did in Persona 4.

For those of you who don't know the story, it's about a group of high schoolers who awaken to a special power called “Persona”. This power allows them to combat the evil creatures known as Shadows. But this power can only be used during a time known as the Dark Hour, an hour that occurs every night at 12AM during which normal people transform into coffins. Certain people are able to stay normal during the Dark Hour, such as our cast of Persona users. During this time the nearby high school transforms into a demonic looking tower filled with Shadows known as Tartarus. With their newfound power the group decides they must climb the tower to find the source of the Dark Hour and eliminate it, as well as battle the powerful Shadows that show up during the full moon. That's about all I can say without spoiling anything. The story itself isn't really anything impressive, but what really helps it feel amazing is the cast of characters. Each one appears simple at first and could easily be described with a single sentence, but as you do the Social Links for each one you learn more about them and their reasons for acting the way they do. Every character has some hidden motivation or an event from their past that guides them in the present, and learning about them really helps you feel invested in the story.

If you've already bought and played the previous two versions of this game, then there really isn't much more for you in this one. Unless you're really interested in the changes in the female's story you can safely skip this version. For newcomers though, this is probably one of the better versions of the game to get. Other than its lack of the epilogue chapter, “The Answer” from Persona 3 FES, it is the best way to play through the story since you can control your party members. But if AI controlled allies don't bother you then I'd say go with FES, since it is essentially the complete Persona 3 story.

Score:

Manga Review - Shakugan no Shana Vol. 1

2010-07-24T19:20:00.003-03:00

Yuji Sakai is beginning what he thinks will be another boring year of school. But everything changes when the world around him stops, the surrounding people are engulfed in blue flames, and a freakish doll-like creature begins sucking them up! Before Yuji suffers the same fate, a young redheaded girl with a sword appears and saves him. Yuji is drawn into the struggle between these creatures from another world: the Crimson Denizens and the girl Shana, called the Fame Haze. He too has a crucial role to play in the conflict, despite the fact that he's dead.

Shakugan no Shana starts off in a similar vein to Bleach, with the main character suddenly being thrust into the middle of a fight against super natural beings that feed off of humans. Except where Ichigo himself starts fighting said monsters, Yuji instead stands in the background and watches Shana fight monsters. That's probably for the best considering he seems to have no strength or power of his own, but considering he's supposed to be the main character, or at least one of them, you would expect him to be more involved in these fights than he is. He seems more like a plot device than a character since the only purpose he serves is to be a target for the monsters, who are after him because he houses some sort of treasure inside himself. He does manage to make himself useful from time to time though, such as when he lets Shana use some of his “power of existence,” which is a kind of energy that can be used to do just about anything, to heal some of his classmates that had been injured in a fight even though using it could cause him to disappear. The only real personality trait he seems to have is that he's brimming with compassion, a stark contrast to fellow lead character Shana.

Shana frequently shows disregard for the safety of humans whenever she fights Crimson Denizens, being completely willing to fight one in a packed classroom, and then willing to sacrifice one of the students, using her power of existence to fix the room and heal everyone. She always refers to Yuji as a “thing” or an “it” instead of a person because he's just a “torch,” a vessel that takes the place of a human devoured by a Crimson Denizen until it disappears and the person is erased from existence, and gets angry whenever he feels sorry for people who have been replaced by torches. Given how cold she is towards him, and how often she says she's only protecting him to prevent the Denizens from getting him, it seems obvious that at some point in the future the two are going to fall in love. By the end of the volume they're living together and Yuji even accidentally sees Shana naked, and is punished by her. You can easily see where this relationship is headed.

As for the actual content of the volume, well there isn't very much to say, because not very much happens. It sets up the world, introduces the characters and eventually the villain, and other than that it consists almost entirely of Yuji and Shana talking about where she came from, why the Denizens attack humans, what happens to humans who get devoured by them, and those sorts of things. There's a lot of exposition, as well as a lot of ellipses since it seems like a lot of dialogue had to be stretched to fill multiple speech bubbles. There isn't much plot advancement until the villain shows up late in the volume, and even then all he does is tell them that he'll fight them some other time then takes the minion Shana had just beaten and leaves. They don't even establish much of a motive for him besides wanting to capture Yuji because of the treasure he houses, and what that treasure is supposed to be isn't explained in this volume either. The volume does manage to avoid fanservice, up until the last few pages when we get a few panels of naked Shana, and a full page and a half spread as well, but with nothing actually shown of course. That's all the fanservice though, unless you count Shana eating melon bread while making a cute face fanservice, which it probably is, just a different kind.

Shakugan no Shana is really just mediocre and a bit predictable. It isn't great, it isn't horrible, it just is. Having said that, I really can't see any reason to read this volume. There were only two fight scenes, which I found to be strange and hard to follow as opposed to entertaining, so there isn't much if you want action. There isn't very much fanservice either so if that's what you're looking for you won't find it here. The only reason I even bought it was because I was buying some other things and wanted to try another series. This was the first thing I saw in the store that had the first volume there and wasn't covered in shiny pretty-boys. It just doesn't get off to a strong start, which leaves me hesitant to read any more of it.

Score:

Anime Review - Slayers Season One

2010-07-17T15:52:00.009-03:00

Lina Inverse, a spunky sorceress with a penchant for destruction, is joined by dashingly dim swordsman Gourry, driven young Amelia, and stoic Zeldgadis on a journey spanning the realms. In lands where darkness reigns, they will be light. In lands where doom threatens peace, they shall be saviours. Yes, when evil arises, Lina and her ragtag crew rise to action for the forces of good – and if fame, fortune and food should fall their way, even better. They're heroes. They're Rogues. They're just looking to make a buck. They're The Slayers.

*Note: This boxset has seasons one to three in it, but I'm only reviewing the first one.

Slayers is what I imagine a lot of Dungeons & Dragons sessions end up like. They start out normal enough, with a group of people going on an adventure and battling monsters. But then the players get bored and start screwing around, not caring about whatever lame campaign the Dungeon Master wants to lead them through. In this case the viewer is the Dungeon Master forced to watch as our bored players, which in this case would be the characters of Slayers, mess around for a few hours and absolutely refuse to take things seriously, even when the world is on the brink of destruction. Except in this case you can't just kill the characters off when you've gotten sick of them, instead you'll have to settle for ejecting the DVD.

Much like a D&D session, Slayers feels like an uninspired generic fantasy story that any teenager could come up with. It's a basic “group of evil guys wants to summon a demon to destroy the world” story that's fairly common in this genre across all mediums for the first half, and then “crazed guy wants to take over the world” for the second half. Though to Slayers credit it at least has the sense to not take itself seriously and mixes a large dose of humour into the formula. Not that this helps it at all, because much like the story, the humour is rather uninspired. There's jokes about Lina being flat chested, jokes about her enormous appetite(which is supposed to be funny because she's a girl), and even one episode in which she can't use her spells because she's on her period. It's the sort of thing you can enjoy, but not for very long.

That's the biggest problem with Slayers, it lasts too long and overstays its welcome. When I say that, I'm not referring to the entire series spanning up to Evolution-R, I just mean this first season. That's saying something considering it's is only 26 episodes. It feels like the writers just didn't have that many ideas when starting the series, which may just be a problem with the source material they were adapting from. They rely on the same gags and events in the second half that they did for the first. Lina eats a lot of food, accidentally destroys whole towns when trying to help someone, and gets chased around by townspeople. It extends beyond that though, the antagonist for the second half is essentially the same as the antagonist for the first half. I mention this because this person dies at the end of the first half, so him showing up again is rather annoying.(It's also worth mentioning that this person appears on the cover for the Evolution-R DVD set, so he's still around 4 seasons later) It just feels like Slayers should have been 10 episodes, and would be a more tolerable series if it had been.

Even for its age, the animation and art in Slayers isn't very good, sometimes being downright awful. Characters are frequently off-model between shots, and weapons and other objects are often disproportional. At any given moment the hilt or blade of a sword can go from being normal size to suddenly larger than it would ever need to be. Shortcuts are taken in animating action scenes, they constantly reuse spell animations and most sword fights consist of the same few movements repeated over and over. Mouth flaps consist of simple opening and closing movements that don't really sync up well with the voices in either language. The character designs consist of generic fantasy wardrobes, which means everyone important wears a cape or pauldrons, or a cape and pauldrons. The whole production just looks cheap and poorly done, like no one really cared about it at all.

The dub for Slayers isn't very impressive either. Nearly every character outside of the heroes is acted terribly. They rarely show emotion and most have very bland voices. Even the heroes themselves never reach levels higher than mediocre, and Zelgadis is bland and emotionless until Crispin Freeman takes over the role in the second half. Even Crispin Freeman doesn't do a great job in this one. He's easily the best actor in the series, but he doesn't give as good a performance as he's capable of. I've already mentioned that the lip flaps are frequently out of sync with the voices which can be very grating. The dub does rewrite a few jokes here and there, but there aren't any major changes, and you wouldn't even notice the changes unless you had the subtitles on while watching the dub. What few attempts the series makes at being dramatic are completely ruined when nearly every line the villains speak is done in a bored, monotone voice.

I'm sure you can probably guess what the extras in this set are. But for those that can't, the extras include pretty much just the usual things. Textless opening and closing animations, and a bevy of trailers. One thing that does stand out though is the inclusion of clips of the dubs from various other languages. It include Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, and Italian. They list English and Japanese along with those other languages, but those aren't really extras since their on the discs anyway. It's kind of interesting to hear what the characters sound like in other languages, but it does seem bit strange to put those on the disc. That's all there is in the line of extras outside of the norm though.

Slayers isn't actually that bad. It may not be a deep or plot heavy series, but it does manage to be silly entertainment at times. The problem is it just drags on when they're still doing all the same gags at the end of the series that they were at the beginning, and has poor production values even for its age. I recommend watching the first ten episodes, up until they defeat the Dark Lord Shabranigdo, and then pretending like that's all the Slayers that was ever made. Don't even try getting into the light novels since there are over 50 of those, and I can't imagine they're much better than this.

Score:

The Packaging

Summer 2010 Preview: Asobi ni Ikuyo

2010-07-16T00:32:00.003-03:00

Asobi ni Ikuyo

Score: Boobs/5

Review: The creators of Asobi ni Ikuyo tried to pull off something pretty sneaky at the start of this episode. When it begins you would be led to believe that the series will be about a girl in some sort of bio-suit thing fighting bad guys, as seen below:

But that's a lie. That isn't what this show is about at all. What it's really about is...

That seems to be all this show is really good for, especially if you happen to be into cat-girls. There was probably a plot in there somewhere, but be honest now, do you even care? I sure as hell don't.

So here's something neat

2010-07-12T19:05:00.000-03:00

My review for Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Part 1 got featured over at foryouranime.com

Here's a link to the review, just in case you want to read it again but with about a third of it cut out.

Summer 2010 Preview: The Legend of the Legendary Heroes

2010-07-09T15:17:00.002-03:00

The Legend of the Legendary Heroes

Score: 1/5

Review: While searching the ruins of Nelpha for relics, Ryner and Ferris are pursued by Lieutenant Milk of the Taboo-Breaker Pursuit Squadron. The trouble compounds when one of the relics is inadvertently activated.

This show is pretty much just Slayers, except that the lead two characters are gender-swapped. The mage this time around is a young man named Ryner, and the blonde haired swordsman this time is a woman named Ferris. We've even got an over-enthusiastic little girl showing up before the episode is over. Like Slayers the show is just a generic fantasy/comedy, with plenty of magic and swordfights strewn about, and gags that will surely get old after about ten episodes. So yeah, just like Slayers, just perhaps a bit lighter on the comedy.

If you somehow aren't sick of Slayers yet then I don't see a reason why you wouldn't like Legend of the Legendary Heroes. If you haven't seen Slayers and want to give the fantasy/comedy thing a try then you might as well go with this series, because it not being well over a decade old means it has better production values than Slayers, which isn't much of an accomplishment really. I think my biggest problem with the show is that it actually tries to take itself seriously, and with a title like The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, it really shouldn't.

That's about all I can say. The whole thing is a pretty generic affair, and isn't all that plot heavy. I didn't even bother reading half of what was being said and I didn't feel lost at all. It doesn't seem like it's worth the time to watch this series, I couldn't be bothered to watch the second episode and Funimation put them both up at the same time.

The Legend of the Legendary Heroes is available streaming through Funimation.

Summer 2010 Preview: Strike Witches 2

2010-07-08T21:37:00.000-03:00

Strike Witches 2

Score: 3/5

Review: I'm not really sure why I watched this series either. I haven't seen the first Strike Witches beyond the first two episodes, so I don't entirely understand what's going on in this series. Not that it really matters since the only people who would bother watching this series would be the fans of the first one. Fans of the first one obviously don't need me to tell them to watch this, and probably don't really care about my opinion of it either. It isn't all that bad though. A bit fanservicey... okay extremely fanservicey but it didn't really bother me as much as it normally does, because when there's as much of it as there is in this my mind just kind of shuts down and I become numb to it. The show at least has good animation and a decent story, and the only real problem with it would be the excessive underage fanservice, but there are easily worse things you could be watching.

If you're a fan of catgirls, foxgirls, panties, or... little girls I guess, and you aren't watching Strike Witches 2 you probably should, after watching the first series of course. Anyone else can pass on this one, just like you did for the first.

For the record, the screenshot up there was chosen because I found it funny that even a stuffed doll in this series is flashing its panties.

Strike Witches 2 is available streaming through Crunchyroll.

Summer 2010 Preview: Shiki

2010-07-08T16:40:00.000-03:00

Shiki

Score: 5/5

Review: Megumi has dreams of getting away from her small, boring village, and becomes obsessed with the only two things she sees as interesting; a boy named Natsuno Yuuki who used to live in the city, and an extravagant European style house that was recently built in the area. Letting her curiosity get the better of her, she decides to visit that house after its owners move in, only to be found later almost unconscious in the woods. On top of this strange occurrence, other people in the area have been mysteriously dying.

Shiki and Occult Academy are essentially two sides of the same coin. While Occult Academy takes a decidedly humorous approach to spirits and the super-natural, Shiki approaches the subject with a much more serious tone. Also like Occult Academy, Shiki doesn't reveal too much of its plot in the first episode. Nothing much really happens as we mostly just follow Megumi around as she laments having to live in such a backwater village. But all throughout the episode we're shown hints that something strange is going on behind the scenes, such as the short scene of three dead bodies being found in a house. It manages to have an air of creepiness about it that this season's Highschool of the Dead is sorely lacking in.

The short dreamlike sequence just before the end of the episode is a great example of what the series is capable of visually, and it does an excellent job of drawing you in, showing what is most likely behind the mysteries of the village, but not explaining what you just saw. It works great to grab your attention and make you want to keep watching to fully understand what's going on. Then the episodes ends and you realize that this is a series that you definitely need to see more of. Shiki is easily one of the best offerings this season, and if this episode is anything to go by it's a must watch.

Shiki is available streaming through Funimation.

Summer 2010 Preview: Occult Academy

2010-07-06T18:50:00.000-03:00

Occult Academy

Score: 5/5

Review: I can safely say that Occult Academy will end up being the best series this season has to offer if the first episode is anything to go by. It wastes no time diving right in to the action with an evil spirit accidentally being summoned by the late principal through a tape recording, then possessing said principal's dead body and attacking the students present at the funeral mere minutes after our hero Maya shows up. With background music reminiscent of an RPG boss battle theme, Maya steps up and beats the evil spirit down with a folding chair. Needless to say the series does manage to find some humour in its super-natural happenings.

The main character Maya can be rather interesting at times. Despite having an almost encyclopedic knowledge of ghouls and ghosts, she literally shouts from the rooftops how much she hates the occult. She has her reasons for this, stemming from her childhood, and it makes her feel like a much deeper character than she really needed to be considering the nature of the show. We aren't introduced to any other characters, save for a floating naked boy at the very end who, if the scene from the very beginning of the episode is any indication, is going to be important to the plot, though we don't really know what the plot is quite yet.

The first episode of Occult Academy does an excellent job of showcasing everything this series is capable of, from comedy to action, while giving only a minor hint as to the direction the plot is going. It's a thoroughly enjoyable ride and definitely worth watching just to see where it goes.

Occult Academy is available streaming through Crunchy Roll.