Friday, July 9, 2010

Boring summer

'k, so ever since I ditched FailTen I have nothing to do at the moment. Been trying to find some MMOs in the mean time.
Tried Mabinogi, neat concept but I got too lazy to play it and the gold spammers filled the chatbox non-stop. Played Cosmic Break for a long time until I realized that after the open beta they're wiping all accounts and after that the only way to get the good bots is with real money (No money, no lolis)(I also blame my Warcraft III clan for introducing me to it and ditching it the day after, similar case with MegaTen). Installed Allods and tossed it out upon seeing the character customization, don't feel like playing as some short haired guy with a handlebar mustache. So I reinstalled Rappelz and occasionally playing it, not much really. I'm also playing Jedi Outcast III: Jedi Academy on RP servers, although the RPers there have much greater RP abilities as well as knowledge of the SW-verse for me to keep up. And since Mittens is back its her responsibility to find us a new MMO, go Mittens go~ <3

Aside from MMOs I've been catching up on some anime, although the stupid monthly transfer limit is really ticking me off with Rogers.

Xam'd: Lost Memories

I started this series a long time ago and stalled it, probably due to new series coming out at the time. So I decided to finish it and I still have no clue what happened. All the religious cult crap completely got me lost. Akiyuki was damn cool fighting a giant Xam'd TOHRU FURUYA (For those who don't understand Tohru Furuya is the voice actor for Amuro Ray of Gundam). The whole small white... creature guy... versus a gigantic black... emperor creature... thing was quite neat. You know, the whole beam spamming while small white guy runs on the limbs of the giant end boss while dodging beams and shit. Oh, and don't forget the glowing wings etc etc. Nakiami and... Yango (Hard to recall his name) adventures were pretty interesting. Although I honestly find Nakiami's character art pretty. As well as Haru's after she escaped from the military. By the time Haru reunites with Akiyuki there was a complete overhaul of fashion sense or something. He was actually wearing COOL clothes aside from baggy pants and baggy shirt etc etc. Jacket + boots = win. In summary, aside from the fights and the clothes, I was friggin lost.

Super Dimensional Fortress Macross

Yep, that's right, the original. Oh and for those who don't know, Robotech is the Americanized version of Macross where they also copy and pasted stuff from other series. So I guess you could call Robotech the dub of Macross. Anyhow, again just like Xam'd I started this series a while ago, was on episode 2 or something. The graphics are, as you can guess, pretty shitty. But I've watched enough older Universal Century that I can handle something like this.

I mean if I can handle watching this, I can handle watching something that came out a few years later right? My god Gundam did you steal ZZ's beam saber or something? That's a friggin huge beam saber.
But apparently the compilation movie "Do You Remember Love?" apparently has much better graphics that rivals the animation quality of even today. As well as the famous Macross song, which to my surprise is apparently not in the original series. Guess I'll go watch that after I finish this series.

As of this post I am currently on episode 19, which is after the death of several major characters for whom I shall not name due to... pineapple salad... T_T (Inside joke for Macross fandom concerning the death of a character)(Although for anyone who has watched Macross Frontier, rewatch the episode where Ozma almost dies, look for a pineapple cake). It is basically a story about racism... yes racism. Racism between humans and giant aliens modified for warfare. That and transforming planes, singing, and love triangles. The cultural difference between humans and Zentradi/Meltlandi. Even the fact that these giants separate their gender into two different races gives us a hint. So let's go into the Zentradi culture shall we? 

They're giants... and when they speak they echo. They were originally genetically modified for warfare, and now all they know about is combat. Due to that and the separation from female, they have no clue what love or mating is. This leads to hilarities such as the episode where Hikaru and gang are captured by a Zentradi ship and sent to the main fleet. The leader of the Zentradi fleet orders them to show them how human make babies. Which was what he intended but the script made him say something more generic, that way they didn't actually have to make fuck right in front of a bunch of giants sitting at a round table. So yeah Hikaru and Misa kissed which freaked out all the Zentradis. Protoculture indeed. Frontier uses the term Deculture and I have no clue why, but they have the same affect. Because of this the Zentradi fear the "hidden powers" that humans might have that could completely wipe them out, although the Zentradi have more than a ridiculous amount of power to completely pwn the humans, both the Macross and Earth in a second. So, so far they're trying to obstruct the Macross and fight them without exactly pwning them. Except you have a rebellious Zentradi character like Quamzin who just goes "Fuck it I'm kicking their ass and all, even though I'm going to be ordered to retreat every friggin time". So yeah I'm completely off-topic on describing Macross a- HEY DID YOU KNOW THAT WHEN MACROSS FOLDED IT FOLDED THE ENTIRE AREA AROUND IT, SUCH AS AIR, OCEAN, AND THE CITY BELOW IT?! So yeah, there's a city inside the Macross with civilians on it. Oh yeah, folding is basically teleportation of sorts which was a technology developed by the Zentradi.... Right I forgot to explain that the Macross was once a random Zentradi ship that crash landed on Earth and the humans renovated it for their own use. They probably don't even fully know the technology it had. See? I'm completely off-topic.
HOH SHI-

Also for anyone who watched Macross Frontier, most of the songs that Ranka sing are actually songs from this original Macross series. Such as "Ai Oboete Imasuka? (Do you remember love?)" and "Watashi no kare wa pairotto (My boyfriend is a pilot). Not to mention where Ranka first worked, Chinese restaurant, remember? Well Lynn Minmay worked at her uncle's restaurant which was... yep you guessed it, a Chinese restaurant. Seriously, after watching Frontier and then watching this, I have noticed that there are many things in Frontier that are mirrors of the original series. 

First off, Ozma Lee, what is his squad's name? Skull Squadron. What is his Messiah Valkyrie's colour? Yellow. So let's see, Roy Fokker leads the Skull Squadron and pilots a yellow VF-1 Valkyrie (Oh and the pineapples). Same deal with Hikaru Ichijo and Alto Saotome, both being main characters and pilotting red valkyries. Don't forget they both have love triangles, although I am quite surprised by Hikaru's love triangle. He is rope war'd between Lynn Minmay, the singer in the original Macross, and Misa Hayase, the far older sub-captain of the Macross of sorts. Oh right, the love triangle actually is concluded with quite surprising results as of where I'm at in the series (Frankly I'm not even at the part where the Misa comes in yet but hell yes Wikipedia). So we have Michel, hello Michel. Blue valkyrie? Check. Glasses? Check. Meltlandi chick? (The female Zentradi race which Klan Klan is, if no one has a clue) Check. Oh speaking of which, by the time of Frontier I'm pretty sure the Zentradi/Meltlandi and humans are at peace with each other. Then we have Maximillian Jenius. The hidden ace pilot of Skull Squadron/Platoon pilotting a BLUE valkyrie. By hidden ace I mean he's Hikaru's wing man and can probably whoop his ass in a match or something. Glasses? Yep. The attractive guy? Yep. Meltlandi chick? Probably the first inter relationship between the two... yep. Captain Global and Captain Wilder etc etc.

All in all Macross is quite the interesting franchise just like Gundam is, although Gundam did start it all. I'd continue watching, but friggin monthly limit. After I finish this series I'm definitely going to watch the other Macross series. 


I want this as my new ringtone. Been listening to the Unicorn theme for too long.

Rebuild of Evangelion

Well technically I watched the second movie "You Can (Not) Advance" during this time period. I don't even remember what I wanted to talk about it. So if anyone is clueless as to what this is, they're newer theatrical remakes of the original Evangelion series. Same director, but this time he's directing with his current perspective of life, which means it's a lot lighter than the original Evangelion. Anno was emo or something when he originally created Evangelion.

I am extremely impressed with Shinji in these movies. He's no longer the spineless wimp of the original series, he's actually quite a likable guy now. He is definately much more open to other characters, especially to Rei. Due to this Rei has developed quite a crush on Shinji, which is I'm assuming the main pairing for Rebuild. We also have Asuka, who is now renamed as Asuka Shikinami Langley. In addition to her rename it seems she's gotten a character overhaul as she's now a typical tsundere. But unfortunately it seems like she's inherited Shinji Syndrome in place of Shinji. I'm not sure about most people but I actually dig this new Asuka, seeing as I am a tsundere fan and all. So we have some changes such as Asuka being the pilot for Eva 03, well you can guess how that turned out. As well as the introduction of a new character named Mari Makinami Illustrous (voiced by Maaya Sakamoto), the pilot of Eva 05 which went kablooey at the start of the second movie (Instead of mass produced Eva there are actual designs for each of the Evas now, well so far there are designs for Eva 05 - Eva 08). She's the one who steals Eva 02 and fights Zeruel in place of Asuka. Bloodthirsty, blind without glasses, weird smelling fetish, balloon chest character. Frankly I kind of like her, but kind of hate her because she just screams FANSERVICE.

So back to Shinji. I'm not sure what to say about him but this movie made him GAR, that's right, Shinji. Is. GAR. If you watched the original series you're probably thinking, "BUT THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! THAT MORON WAS A FUCKING SPINELESS USELESS PIECE OF SHIT." I know, I know. But this movie made it possible, somehow, he, is, GAR, now. What really made him GAR was his fight with Zeruel. Instead of banging the Eva controls when he ran out of power like a whining baby. All he did was sit there, with the screen dark, and his eyes glowed friggin red while saying "Give back Ayanami!" And instead of awakening the Eva in a berserk state, it awakened it in some much more godly form. So in place of Eva omnomnom S2 Engine you had Unit 01 projecting a Rock Buster AT Field Arm (Mega Buster... Megaman's arm cannon?), shooting laser beams out of its eyes Angel style, and halo. All this while completely wrecking Zeruel, which is much much MUCH stronger compared to the TV series Zeruel. Keep in mind that Zeruel in the original was already quite powerful. The one thing that ticked me the most about the Bardiel fight and this fight was the music. That's right the music. God dammit why did you have to play CHILDREN'S SONGS during these scenes? Bardiel fight, he was ripping out the thing's friggin limbs and organs and tossing them across the town while you played a song out of kindergarten? The children's song used for the... not exactly Zeruel fight was not as bad compared to the Bardiel fight. But it was kinda awkward listening to that while Shinji was busy saving Rei and destroying the world at the same time ala Third Impact. There was one Youtube comment I read for the song that plays during the fight portion of the Zeruel thing. It was something along the lines of, no wonder Shinji was a loser in the original series, once he stopped being one Third Impact happened. I lol'd because it's true.

In short, go watch Rebuild of Evangelion if you want better graphics, less emo, and more epic. Really, I think the fact that Shinji is GAR in this warrants the need to watch it.

Stop Shinji! You'll become too GAR to return to human form again!

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

I never watched the first Fullmetal Alchemist series and this is the first time I ever touched FMA material. Umm..........

... go watch it, it's good.

RAINBOW: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin

This was a series from last season that I completely forgot about, I'm ashamed at myself for not picking this up earlier. But at the same time not really because I get to watch more episodes at once, but stupid fansubs are slow. The basic premise is post-WWII in Japan. We have 6 boys thrown in jail and we have 1 elder... badass who brings them together as a family/band of tightly knit friends. We also have two of the most disgustingly horrifyingly cruel despicable VILLAINS. If you pick up this series you'll grow to hate these two characters as much as I do.

It truly is a dark series not for the faint of heart, it even has a disclaimer at the start of every episode which details that it requires the explicit scenes in order to convey the plot, and I agree. This isn't a show about bishounen boys in a jail. There's sex but god help you if you actually find those scenes enjoyable. Not exactly sex but there's scenes of rape, disgusting rape, probably would want to throw up after seeing it. In the midst of this dark setting you have the two villains trying to kill off the elder character, Sakuragi, who is nicknamed "Bro" by the other boys, while making life as miserable as possible for the other 6. It's a story of blood, sweat, tears, and friendship in the harshest of places.

 Look at how badass Sakuragi is up there. Real man.

Currently still airing and I believe there's going to be 26 episodes or something, currently 14 have aired. As of recent events a tragedy has occured, which I shouldn't spoil at all, but I spoiled it for myself anyways (Can't help it, slow subs). I strongly suggest watching this, but it's a complete contrast to anime you'd find now.

Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

Tsundere girl, badass cool guy, 'nuff said.

P.S. Mittens is my Misaki-chan~ <3

 Dear Mittens, this is you~ <3

Kimi ni Todoke

Romance series. Girl who has no friends and is avoided or the entire school is scared of her. And the popular guy of the school who just so happens to be infatuated with said girl because of something she did. Another series I watched before and stalled, slowly picking it up again. I guess it's one of those girly anime but it's quite an emotional one, even for me (Although it still can't make me cry, not even any of the KEY stuff or ef did. But I guess for those I was probably crying inside or something). Watch if you want high school romance drama or something with a side of friendship being the main plot of it.


New Series

With the summer season there's the summer season anime. The stuff I'm following currently are:

Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi

It's not exactly good but not exactly bad either. There's an older Taiga clone... and that's probably the only reason I'm watching it. Love her uniform though. Only saw the first episode but Ookami is a tsundere so I'll probably keep watching it.

Amagami SS

Another anime adapted from a visual novel, and it's probably a pretty damn good one. The characters are quite interesting. Each heroine of the visual novel gets an arc in this anime series, not sure how it'll work out (Higurashi style mayhaps?). So far the heroines shown are all quite interesting. There's the first girl who is currently a senior in high school, there's class-rep, tsundere kouhai (I'm assuming), another kouhai, childhood friend, and that buddy-buddy girl who acts like a guy. The main character looks completely average, especially his hairstyle, it just screams "random high school guy". He has a trauma due to a past incident where he got a date during Christmas a year ago and he got stood up. Quite the average guy, and now he has to go through all these heroines, excluding his sister who calls him "Nii-nii" and has quite an obvious bro-complex.

 For the first arc we have Haruka Morishima, the senior girl. The star of the school and target of many confessions as well as the giver of many rejections. After the first episode I can definitely see why. Not only is she pretty but she's quite carefree and friendly. I mean what kind of a girl randomly joins a group of guys who are hopping over each other? She has quite the air of attractiveness, and she's an anime character (No I don't wank to anime characters, I just like them) (No I don't believe 2D > 3D, but Gundams > 3D, better if they're 3D Gundams. 8D) (Well Gundams, and a bunch of other mechs, could definetely go for a super robot, or a Valkyrie, or an Aestivalis) (~But more than me he's head over heels for his Gundam~). As of episode 2 I'm not sure what to make of their relationship, as of episode 1 she rejected him but they're still buddy-buddy with each other. Even though she is still dropping hints that she has the hots for him. Somehow I'm getting the feeling that she's just treating him like a pet of sorts.

Any how, this is the series of the season that interests me the most. As bland as the main character appears, he's actually quite an interesting one compared to most (Oh and Mittens you can't say that Kira Jesus Yamato is the coolest main character... because he's not, and I fucking hate his guts. <3).

 

I'm also waiting for Black ★ Rock Shooter which I think is an OAV/OVA. Also going to pick up Seitokai Yakuindomo, Highschool of the Dead, Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin, Nurarihyon no Mago, Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu, and Shiki soon. I seriously bet you most of them are just going to be yay bewbs, yay pantsu, yay fighting, yay I'm losing IQ~ Except Shiki, that one seems interesting. Oh right, and I'm really looking forward to Sengoku Basara 2, the first one was just hot-blooded manly epic. 'Till then I'm going to wait until the time to PUT MAH GUNS ON! Really, if you haven't seen Sengoku Basara, get to it.

 P.S. Mittens still needs to find us a new MMO, blog her new updates, as well as design the blog. You've got a lot of stuff to do wittle Mittens~ <3 

By the way, you just read through a really really loooooong rant. 

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